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University Challenged.


Watching both University Challenge teams stare into the middle-distance as they struggled to identify an audio clip of Manic Street Preachers last night amused me.

No idea.

The screen-grab above captures the precise moment a gap in their vast knowledge became apparent. Well, nearly apparent. Durham Lloyd eventually got it right, but not before a deathly silent twenty-second void had passed. For a third of a minute, eight higher-educated faces displayed the complete range and scope of negative emotions. Kübler-Ross’ Five Stages of Grief crossed their collective visage: from denial, to anger, to bargaining, to depression and then acceptance. If Lloyd hadn’t had a sudden burst of inspiration, I would have fist-pumped the air.

My unpleasantness is completely down to jealousy. I see myself as a reasonably intelligent individual; until I switch to BBC2 at 8:00pm on a Monday night, that is. At this point, thirty-three years of obsession for trivia goes out the window. I revert to four-year-old me on my first day at school; I can identify my parents on sight and that’s about it.

I don’t even like the Manic Street Preachers. If anything, I resent the fact I recognised them so quickly. That part of my brain should be set aside for something more valuable, like remembering my Apple ID. I just wanted a moment’s victory; a brief instance of one-upmanship over a group of students younger and cleverer than me. At least I could identify Brand New Day by Sting. Durham couldn’t.

Still no idea.
But is this really something to celebrate?
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