Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem

It was a bit of Electric Mayhem on Tuesday night at Biddy’s – both in the sense of a backbeat-pounding, skin-rocking craziness of an Animal drum solo, and also the unfortunate-timeliness of an AC malfunction (and the conveniently-indisposed status of numerous PDX electricians).

A few cold beers did the trick, though, and the PubQuiz crowd was off and running with a bit of Jim Henson-themed questions.

Now, I’m not one for horror movies particularly. There are a few I like a lot (original Halloween, the campy low-budget Evil Dead, and even the first Scream movie), but a slasher-flick aficionado I am not. That said, one flick that I thoroughly enjoyed, and occasionally still enjoy to this day, but that never got much credit or acclaim, was the film “Cube“.

Mysteriously locked inside a giant cube structure, strangers awake to find themselves trapped and struggling for survival as they attempt to understand their inexplicable whereabouts and avoid the deadly traps laden throughout. It’s a simple film, novel, and uses the various characters’ attributes in interesting ways. Sure, there’s a bit of gore here and there, but it’s a slasher flick – what’d'ya expect?

And though that little horror movie rant might seem apropos of nothing, I’m getting there…

So, Jim Henson, that lovable, quirky, twisted and magical puppeteer – he’s done some other pretty amazing things, too, not the least of which was a 1969 made-for-TV movie called ‘The Cube” that went on to inspire the creation of the similarly-titled ’90s horror flick.

Through the glory of technology (read: Google), it’s easy and free to watch, so if you’ve got some extra time, I suggest giving it a viewing:

After 40 years it might not hold up as well as, say, Sesame Street, or some other Henson projects, but it’s a solid flick that deserves a bit of recognition. (Plus, this is merely a PubQuiz blog – if providing you with links to free movies online is a good bit of value-added entertainment, I don’t know what is!)

Stutterly Umpt

Anyway, Green and White Army dominated the night’s questions. Truly some Muppet-heads if there ever were any, they were all over the Henson questions like… like… well, like Miss Piggy on Kermit.

When they got to the Final Challenge Round they had built a sizable lead and it didn’t look like anyone could catch them. Schadenfruede was lurking in 2nd, and the two teams tied for third, Stutterly Umpt and The Squirrels
were lagging seriously behind. The GREEN and White Army had the category choice, and they opted to forgo the “(It Ain’t Easy) Bein’ Green” choice for “The Rainbow Connection”, and it cost them.

Stutterly Umpt went all in an nailed it, though, with a final score of 420, narrowly edging the Squirrels, who bet all but 10 points to leave themselves a cushion and ended up in 2nd with 400.