Trivial Pursuit “meta”

Once I was playing Trivial Pursuit, and the question (in the sports category) was: “What sport uses the largest ball?”

I had no idea, and neither did anyone else at the table, so it turned into a series of one-upping jokes: “Spin the Globe,” “Planet Busters,” and other things of that sort.

But then my youngest brother, as usual, came up with the untoppable answer: “I’m Thinking of a Sphere.” No way you can beat that one.

This is the same brother who nailed the “most impossible conversation” party game on the first try and has not been topped in 20 years since: Popeye and HAL.

Popeye and HAL is probably unbeatable. Many players of this game make the error of inserting at least one real person into the combination, but real people are always flexible enough to adjust and go along with strange surprises in a way that fictional characters, locked forever in their essence, are not.

And as another family member put it in her analysis (my very clever mother, no less), Popeye and HAL are perfect mirror images of one another. Popeye’s voice is difficult to interpret but his meaning is always both clear and shallow. By contrast, HAL’s voice is the most lucid and effortless imaginable, yet his meaning and intentions are largely inscrutable.

“Good morning, Popeye… I’m sorry Popeye, I can’t let you do that.”

I’m thinking of a sphere…