Are You a Real Geek? (Or Just a Wannabe Geek Chic)

(May 24) -- Last Friday, Tony Deconinck and I were thrown into a tizzy. Why were we tizzified, you may ask? It's because some misguided moron somewhere with absolutely no geek cred decided one day to start a "Geek Pride" festival and invite all these wannabe hot topic "geeks" to it.

Actually it's more than that. As lifelong geeks who not only loved our geekdom but were ostracized and bullied for it, it kills us to see frat boys and mainstream squares cut their hair slightly funny, buy a Nintendo controller belt buckle and claim geekdom without paying any dues.

So to separate the real geeks from the geek chic, we created a Geek Quiz. We've gotten tons of feedback on it, and frankly, some of the answers we received made us shake our head in disappointment. But I have to admire the fact that the ones who got it wrong never ventured over to Wikipedia to get the right answers and pretend they knew it all along -- those are the folks with a real future in geekdom. At any rate, we've provided the answers to the quiz today.

In case you missed it, or just want to pair answers with the questions, here's the quiz once again. The answer key is below, with links out to references for those doubters among you.

The Geek Quiz:

Comics

1) Which DC character was Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" based on?

2) Incredible Hulk 181 is important for introducing which Marvel mainstay?

3) Dave Sim is known as "The Godfather of" what?

4) Which now out-of-print series did both Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman work on? (Either the U.S. or U.K. title will count as correct.)

5) The Modern Age in comics began with a crisis on how many Earths?

6) Which characters made up the Secret Avengers?

7) How many Green Lanterns have been assigned to Earth? Who was first? Who's the current one?

Television

1) What was the first "Twilight Zone" episode about?

2) How many Dr. Who doctors have there been?

3) "There are _______ lights!"

4) Who is River Tam?

5) In MythBusters, in what season and episode number, at what minute, second and frame, can you slightly see a little bit of Kari's cleavage? (Hint: there are actually five extensively researched and verified correct answers to this one.)

6) Who controls the horizontal? Who controls the vertical?

7) Darmok and Jalad at ...

Anime/Animation

1) What was the original name of the Starblazers series?

2) U2 is featured on the soundtrack to which legendary anime film? (Hint: They didn't go by U2.)

3) What were G1 Transformers known as in Japan, before Hasbro called them Transformers? (Three right answers, extra credit for knowing all three.)

4) The Robotech series was cobbled together from which anime series?

5) If someone came up to you and said the word "UrotsukidA ji," what would your reaction be?

6) What's the difference between "manga" and "anime"?

7) Name the five "cowboys" who make up the crew of the Bebop.

Computers and the Internet

1) Who is Tim Berners-Lee?

2) What is "_Why" shorthand for?

3) What service was AOL previously known as? (Bonus extra credit: What was it before that?)

4) What is the name of the website you use to disprove every forwarded e-mail you get from well-meaning relatives?

5) Tech support has logged an error code of "PEBCAK." What is the issue?

6) Who is Maddox?

7) It's Not News, It's ...

Film

1) Who shot first?

2) There are many science fiction and fantasy trilogies, but only one is "The Holy Trinity." Which one?

3) What is the air/speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

4) What novel is "Blade Runner" based on?

5) "My God, it's full of ________!"

6) You've had an awful day. Nothing's gone right, and you just realized you were deceived into spending what's left of your life on a planet that's about to be nuked and terraformed. With what little energy you have left, you scream out, "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" Who are you?

7) When you absolutely, positively have to kill every MF'er in the room, you should accept no substitute for what weapon?

Gaming

1) "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start" is also known as the ...

2) Who is the protagonist with the crowbar at Black Mesa?

3) Doom took place on what planet?

4) The Ring of Varda, Shield Rod and Joseph's Cloak are items from which game?

5) Super Mario Bros. 2 was actually just Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach superimposed into which game?

6) Down, Down-Towards, Towards + punch would unleash which attack?

7) Who is Noob Saibot?

General Geekery

1) What is 2600?

2) Who released the first MP3 player?