Badge 4: James Bond

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale (Eon)

James Bond. Secret Agent with a license to kill. One would be hard-pressed in the English speaking world to find someone who has never seen a James Bond film, or at the minimum, not be aware of the films’ existence. James Bond, or 007 to use his code name, has been played by six different actors. The character has appeared in 24 films, and most recently has been played by British actor Daniel Craig. This week’s badge had a straightforward task; name all the James Bond Films.

George Lazeby as
James Bond in On
Her Majesty's
Secret Service (Eon)

The 007 Badge

I am definitely not a James Bond connoisseur (Check out my colleague and friend's recent blog post for an expert opinion), but I do have a certain degree of knowledge on the subject simply from existing and taking in information (Also from this fun BuzzFeed quiz). Additionally, I’ve only ever seen one James Bond film (Skyfall). 

The actually quiz taking for this badge was relatively painless. I started with the recent Bond movies that I knew from the last decade or so (Spectre, Casino Royale etc.) and pretty much gave the answers from newest to oldest. With two minutes left, I was missing only one film. I knew the film had something to do with majesties and the secret service, so I played around with the wording for a little while and finally got the answer of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. (Interestingly, that was the only film where Bond was played by Australian actor George Lazenby). I heard the notification on my phone, which meant I had achieved my goal!

The name’s Badge. James Badge.

Badge 3: Saturday Night Live

The Original SNL Cast (NBC)

The badge I chose this week focused on quizzes related to Saturday Night Live (SNL). For those of you who are unaware, SNL is a sketch comedy show that has been on the air for over 40 years. The show began in 1975 with seven cast members, and has been the starting point for many famous comedians including: Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tina Fey.

Tina Fey impersonates
 Sarah Palin (NBC)

To achieve the badge, I had to get 50% or better on four different quizzes. They were:

1. Name the Celebrities Being Impersonated  in these Photos

2. Name the Longest Tenured Cast Members

3. Name the Most Common SNL Hosts

4. Name the Original SNL Cast Members

Of these four quizzes, the only quiz I found easy was the celebrity impersonation quiz (#1), as it had little to do with SNL itself, and more to do with recognizing the photos.The other three quizzes were much harder. I had to play both quiz #2 and #3 twice before I was able to get 50%. I apparently had less knowledge of Saturday Night Live than I thought I did!  Because of the trouble I was having, I went into the final quiz (#4) a bit discouraged. I will now give you a brief play-by-play of how that quiz went:

The Live From
New York Badge

1. I started off fine as I knew Chevy Chase from NBC’s Community.

2. I knew of the SNL sketch The Blues Brothers, so I next got Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. This left me one answer short of 50%.

3. I was vaguely aware of a famous female comedian who died of cancer but for the life of me I couldn’t come up with the name. I literally spent three minutes trying to come up with it. Finally I caved and yelled for help. My sister gave me the answer, Gilda Radner, immediately.

This gave me 4/7 of the answers and pushed me past the 50% threshold. This met my requirements for the badge. 

LIVE FROM NEW YORK, it's a new Sporcle Badge!

Badge 2: Super Bowl

Katy Perry performing with the Left Shark at Super Bowl XLIX (Getty Images)

This week’s post was initially going to be about a different badge, but I noticed I had an unearned Super Bowl Badge. Given that the Super Bowl was a few days ago (and what a BORING game that was), I decided to go after the Super Bowl badge this week. The badge required me to receive 50% or better on three quizzes:

1. Name the Super Bowl Winners

2. Name the Super Bowl MVPs

3. Name the Super Bowl Halftime Shows

2016 Halftime Show
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

When it comes to my knowledge of sports, football ranks somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy. That being said, I had little trouble with the Winners and MVPs quizzes. I've watched enough games and have seen enough highlights that I cleared 50% on both quizzes fairly easily.

Carol Channing 
at Super Bowl V 
(AP Photo)

The Super Bowl Halftime quiz was an entirely different animal! For the most part, I don’t watch the halftime shows. I use the time between halves for conversation and refilling my snacks. As a result, I STRUGGLED recalling any performers past the last few years. The only performer from an early Super Bowl that I knew was Carol Channing (Who interestingly was the first big name to appear at a Super Bowl, find out more here).

The Vince Lombadgi Badge

I found myself ten answers short of the 50% mark with two minutes left in the quiz, so I had to take a drastic measure. I asked my dad (Colin) for some help. My dad came through in the clutch and helped me get to the halfway point before the time expired. I ended up with 25/50 on that quiz, but that was good enough to get a new badge! 

It’s an Immaculate Badge-ception!

Badge 1: Disney Animated Movies

Me with my favourite Disney Character, Donald Duck

I wanted my first badge to be something interesting and popular to get the blog rolling. After some deliberation, I ended up choosing the “From the Vault” badge, which requires the user to get 100% on the Disney Animated Movies quiz. I felt confident going into the quiz for two reasons:

Beauty and the Beast,  
Walt Disney Animation Studios

1. Most of my childhood was spent watching Disney VHS tapes with my sister Karly.

2. I had recently read a great article on Buzzfeed that ranked all the Disney films. 

I opened the quiz and was immediately taken aback by the fact that there were 54 Disney films I needed to name.  I started easy with all the films from my wheelhouse. As a millennial, films like Aladdin, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast came to mind immediately.(Did you know that Beauty and the Beast was the first Animatedfilm nominated for Best Picture?)

Home on the Range, 
Walt Disney Animation Studios

Surprisingly, I knew all the obscure package films from the 1940s, like Make Mine Music and Fun and Fancy Free, but I struggled recalling the films from 2002-2008 (Essentially the films that came out during my teen years, when I was too “cool” to care about Disney movies). With much effort, I narrowed my remaining answers down to one and as the clock wound down, my mind locked in on the final answer (Home on the Range —arguably one of the worst films Disney ever made). I immediately heard the notification sound on my phone, signaling that I had received my email confirming my new badge.

I love the smell of Sporcle Badge in the morning! Smells like….Victory!

From the Vault Badge