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Introducing Ask Torontoist
On Sunday night, Team Bloggers kicked some cab driver and celebrity impersonator ass on CBC's Test the Nation: Trivia. The evening ended with the cleanest sweep in quiz show history: bloggers had the best team score with an average of 50; team captain Samantha Bee had the highest score of all the Canadian celebs; teammate Rick Spence had the top in-studio score of 57.
Of course, we never doubted that the bloggers would emerge victorious. If you give a bunch of computer geeks categories like "Technobabble," how can they lose? Our cocky attitude may not have earned us many friends on the flight crew and chefs teams, but it certainly added to the camaraderie on stage. To put it frankly (and in the words of Christopher Bird), "I am fairly sure Team Bloggers will never, ever be invited back on Test The Nation, not only because we were so brutally dominant...but because we were, as a group, wholly and utterly unrespectful of television as a medium." Most of the taping was spent making smarmy comments about the questions, cheering wildly for Samantha Bee ("Bee! Bee! Bee!") and shouting insults at our competitors—a few shots were even taken at poor Debbie Travis, who looked bewildered.
Besides the big trophy, the greatest reward of the entire night was getting to know the other bloggers. You can read more about their Test the Nation experiences: Dan Arnold; Andy Nulman; Ryan Porter; Jon Arnold; Eden Spodek; John Martz; Rebecca Bolwitt; Rannie Turingan; Graeme Stewart; Alexa Clark; Jules Carlysle; Lainey Liu; The Tea Makers.
See Torontoist's photos from Test the Nation inside.
This is what television looks like in real life.
Once seated, The Bloggers began to scope out the CBC's high-tech gear. Imagine our disdain when we discovered that the high-tech gear was still running Windows 98!
Speaking of high-tech gear, this little baby being modelled by John Martz was how we buzzed in our predominantly correct answers. It looks like it was stolen from the set of America's Funniest Home Videos.
Rannie Turingen (shown consuming his buzzer) has an excellent photo set of Team Bloggers based on the seating chart.
Check out this P.A.'s Test the Nation shirt, which cheekily says "Ask me how I scored." Sadly, the shirt didn't come along with our swag bag—we got a travel mug and pen instead. Without free t-shirts, how will the nerds clothe themselves?
The crowd went wild when Rick Spence was crowned the champion. As soon as he was finished with the trophy, all the other bloggers scrambled to have their picture taken with it.
Graeme Stewart triumphantly raises the trophy above his head, its magnificent light glinting off his well-oiled cranium.
The boys from BlogTO—Adam Schwabe, Graeme Stewart, and Ryan Couldrey—take a victory photo. Check out their awesome backstage video to see a clip of Tupac and Borat dancing together. It's hypnotic!
Torontoist competitors Karen Whaley, David Topping, Patrick Metzger, and Christopher Bird pose for the obligatory photo. Karen and David both had a score of 52, and Patrick and Christopher were just a point below top score with 56. High fives!
And finally, a special thanks to teammate Alexa Clark, who gave all the bloggers their own copy of Cheap Eats Toronto, so we may nourish our under-exercised bodies on our meagre writers' wages.
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Has anyone forwarded the information to Jon Stewart? He'd be tickled to know just how bright Samantha can be.
The Flight Crew does deserve a shout out. They showed great sportsmanship when they came over to congratulate us.
That's true, lex! The flight crew was the only team that came to join the backpackers and the bloggers for drinks after the game. And they came in their snowbird jumpsuits and everything!
Just a note to say it was great meeting all of you from Torontoist. I hadn't been to Toronto in 10 years, and you all destroyed any negative images I may have had of the place from my ignorant perspective in Montreal (oops). You were all so cool and so much fun, especially during the show. Thanks for making the experience a riot!
HA! you think you won't be back? your rowdiness was the BEST PART!!!!
Who's kidding who...bloggers was the best team yet, you just needed more competition! no one shamelessly self promotes than 36 bloggers in one place, and the photos from the show?? awesome. i wish i'd have been ON the show instead of in the control room!
You should've all named yourselves the Explosively Talenteds.
Dude, that's trademarked. You now owe me a quarter.