Best Wrong Answer time

[fflo]

Here we are again, the end of a LearnedLeague season--- and this is the first one for which I was a "searcher" for candidates for Best Wrong Answer.  After a team of us nominate a bunch, the Commish picks the final candidates.  Then sometimes I share here the ones I'm considering voting for.


A lot of my fellows liked these, but they're not in my running:

6

Throughout the 1980s, in millions of American homes one could find a handheld device on which was printed the name "Jerrold". What was this device?

MISPRINTED GERALD FORD SIGNS

12

According to a song written by Merle Travis and recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955, you load 16 tons, what do you get? (Full answer required.)

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My runners-up:

9

According to one story in Greek mythology, what sprang from the body of Medusa upon her death at the hands of Perseus, and was later captured by Bellerophon, helping him defeat the hybrid Chimera? (Proper name required.)

BILLY MAYS HERE WITH ANOTHER FANTASTIC PRODUCT

26

Products that have been featured on advertisements on Saturday Night Live include Colon Blow, The Love Toilet, Mom Jeans, and a "toy sensation" that was produced by Wacky Products Incorporated and its parent company, Global Chemical Unlimited. It contains a liquid core that, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at, and includes an unknown glowing substance that fell to Earth, presumably from outer space. What is the three-word name of this toy, which is not to be taunted?

TICKLE ME OPPENHEIMER

31

Soulful alto Alison Moyet and former Depeche Mode songwriter Vince Clarke formed what electronic music duo in the 1980s? (Either their full name, by which they were known in their native England, or their shortened name, by which they were known in the United States, is acceptable.)

TWENTY-THREE CENTIMETER NAILS

70

According to a famous quote attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras, what "is the measure of all things"?

A BANANA FOR SCALE

89

In an endless runner video game popular on Android and iOS devices since its release in 2012 (and reportedly the most-downloaded mobile game of the 2010s), the playable character, per the game's title, surfs through what environment?

UPDATED TERMS AND CONDITIONS

91

Fourth Wing and Iron Flame are titles of the best-selling "romantasy" books released in 2023. Give either the name of the series of which these are the first two installments, or the name of the books' American author.

THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE MALFUNCTION

It breaks my heart a little not to have enough votes to cast one for each of these:

72

According to a famous quote attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras, what "is the measure of all things"?

ABOUT YEA BIG

46

What did the television characters Willow Rosenberg, Samantha Stephens, and Sabrina Spellman, along with a set of sisters from San Francisco with the last name of Halliwell, have most notably in common?

THE GENE THAT MAKES CILANTRO TASTE LIKE DISHSOAP

Finally, my winners, starting with third place and proceeding to first:

44

In an annual message to Congress in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt identified four basic human rights he proclaimed as "Four Freedoms". Two were freedoms "of" (freedom of speech, freedom of worship), and two were freedoms "from"—name either of the latter two.

TGI FRIDAY'S WAITERS SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY

29

Soulful alto Alison Moyet and former Depeche Mode songwriter Vince Clarke formed what electronic music duo in the 1980s? (Either their full name, by which they were known in their native England, or their shortened name, by which they were known in the United States, is acceptable.)

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL, PLUS ALSO THE GIRL

88

In an endless runner video game popular on Android and iOS devices since its release in 2012 (and reportedly the most-downloaded mobile game of the 2010s), the playable character, per the game's title, surfs through what environment?

AN OCEAN OF PREDATORY MICROTRANSACTIONS