Confluence - The Mela Quiz QMs: Utkarsh and Divyanshu Hosted on 6th June, 2020 as a part of the 7-day event Quiz de Mela. This was the first in a series of 7 quizzes.

2. CONFLUENCE
The MELA Quiz

3. GENERAL RULES
• Video is to be kept ON at all times throughout the
quiz.
• All questions in the quiz are on pounce only.
• Pounce is to be done through a Zoom private
message ONLY to the Pounce Bot assigned to you.
• Googling is strictly prohibited.

4. ROUND ONE
+10/-0

5. 1.
• Elvis Presley might have had a successful career, but he
admits that his manager Tom Parker was a big reason
behind his success.
• After Presley’s first movie ‘Love me Tender’ which was
a hit, Tom Parker signed a deal with a Beverly Hills
movie merchandiser, thus turning Elvis into a brand.
Over 50 different Elvis-themed products were created.
• But he made an ingenious move to deal with Presley’s
haters as well, getting them to help him earn more.
• How?

7. ‘I Hate Elvis’ Buttons and Badges

8. 2.
• In a new interview with both Junichi
Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori, they finally lay the
rumours to rest that Gumshoos (and it’s pre-evolved
form Yungoos) from Pokémon Sun and Moon is not
based on X, who is perceived by many as evil.
• Gumshoos is the evolved form of Yungoos, both are
inspired by the Javan Mongoose found in Indonesia.
• Image of Yungoos on the next slide.

11. Orange Man

12. 3.
• The concept is usually attributed to the philosopher, critic
and dramatist Denis Diderot. The term itself was used
by Molière.
• It is part of the suspension of disbelief between a work of
fiction and an audience, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as
though they were observing real events
• It is common in pantomime and children's theatre.
• Later it become common in Cartoons. Shows like Dora the
Explorer, Mickey Mouse, etc. use this trope regularly.
• It has started making more and more appearances in recent
commercial movies.

14. Breaking the Fourth Wall

15. • The Scream is a famous painting made by Edvard Munch, and
is currently kept at the Munch Museum at Oslo, Norway.
• The quality of paint that Munch used to make the painting is
not very good. The sample of cadmium yellow paint he chose
was impure and thus, it flakes off when exposed to moisture.
• Normally, the painting would be fine as it is kept at a relatively
low humidity, but as of recent years, it has started to fade.
• There is a very mundane reason for this, and it happens all
the time.
4.

17. Human Breath

18. 5.
• Corsola is a water/rock type Pokémon that served as
the coral of the Pokémon world.
• However, in Pokémon Sword and Shield, the version of
Corsola is a bit more depressing. Along with its name
being changed to the Galarian Corsola, changes have
been made to its Pokémon type.
• What is Corsola's new type? Why did Pokémon Sword
and Shield make these changes?

21. • Ghost type.
• To raise awareness for climate change.
Corsolas were wiped out by sudden climate
change.

22. 6.
• This duo’s sister is given the credit for this name. The
legend says that once she saw X written on a vacuum
cleaner (or a sewing machine, depends on who's telling the
story), and the duo adopted it.
• This duo is associated with a particular colour, because of
one of their best songs, which features in the iconic
opening scene of an iconic movie released in the 2000s.
• What’s the name of the duo? Which song, and which
movie?

24. AC/DC

25. 7.
• X is an American teen drama TV series, which aired for four
seasons from 2003 to 2007. The name of this show is an
abbreviation of the location in California in which it is set. It
deals with the life of Ryan Atwood, a troubled but gifted
young man adopted by a wealthy family.
• Somewhere around the same time, Alexander O'Connor's
teacher gave him a nickname because she was a huge fan
of the show. Alex loved the name and even made it his
stage name when he became a recording artist.
• What show, and how do we know Alex O'Connor better?

27. Rex Orange CountyThe O.C.

28. 8.
• Given below is a summary of the short story ‘The Birthmark’
written by Nathaniel Hawthorn.
• Aylmer is a brilliant and recognized philosopher and scientist who
drops his focus from his career and experiments to marry the
beautiful Georgiana (who is physically perfect except for a small red
birthmark in the shape of a hand on her cheek). He becomes
obsessed with removing the birthmark and tries to discover a
potion to remove the same, and eventually finds one and gives it to
his wife. However, as the birthmark fades, Georgiana dies.
• This story, particularly Aylmer’s lament after his wife dies, inspired X
to make one of the best works of his life, Y.
• Who’s X and what’s Y?

30. Chris Martin The Scientist

31. ROUND TWO
+10/-5

32. 9.
• In the movie Jojo Rabbit, the blind admiration of the
brainwashed Germans towards Hitler is shown through
archived photos, footage and a poster of Hitler in a ten year
old boy’s bedroom.
• In a thought provoking sequence, the director Taika Waititi
draws parallels between X and Hitler.
• The connection they try to make is rather obvious- between
Nazis literally worshipping Hitler, and Y, which was a
phenomenon associated with X.
• Tell me what is X, and thus Y.

34. The Beatles Beatlemania

35. 10.
• In 2016, the company X announced a licensing scheme called Y World,
which they said would let other video-makers use Y and assets such as
their graphics and music.
• But the plan was negatively received because many people, even famous
ones like Elles Degeneres, already made similar content, and used Y
regularly.
• A lot of channels thought that X was being greedy and trying to take a cut
off their pay.
• X, during the backlash, lost more than 170,000 subscribers in a couple of
days.
• Critics of the X expressed concern that they may use the trademarks to
stifle competition. Even BBC commented on the issue.

37. X- Fine Brothers Entertainment
Y- React

38. 11.
• This book was written when its author was under the influence of
medically influenced cocaine (and later developed an affection for
it).
• Coincidentally, the main character, like the author, tries to ‘cure’
himself using a certain drug. However, he gets into trouble because
of the influence of the drug and eventually commits suicide.
• The author’s wife criticized the original version of the book because
it failed to depict the moral dilemma of the protagonist. Therefore,
the author destroyed the original manuscript.
• Give me the name of the book/character.

41. • A farm just outside Moscow started using X on cows to
increase the quality and quantity of milk production.
• Studies have shown that cows’ environmental conditions can
impact the milk produced.
• The results are unclear so far. But the first test conducted
revealed that it did decrease anxiety and improved the mood
of the herd.
• People started comparing this to the movie Y as the cows are
kept happy, and oblivious to reality.
12.

43. X- VR Headsets
Y- The Matrix

44. 13.
• The genius of this piece is its representation of a
picture of adult situations within childlike settings. It
tells the story of Cry Baby feeling like she’s nothing
more than a friend to someone who seems to care very
little about her, even though they get together quite
often.
• This makes the protagonist of the piece call herself a X,
because she believes that is all she is to her ‘friend’.
• What’s X?

46. • Play Date.
• “I guess I’m just a play date to you.”

47. 14.
• The reason for picking X here instead of his contemporaries is
primarily because X here is used as a symbol for his political
presence rather than his exceptional skills in his own field.
• X is arguably the most important figure of the surrealist movement
in the early 20th century; although the movement is typically
associated with France, X was Spanish, and spent a significant
portion of his life living in Spain. X’s surrealist work has made him a
symbol for revolution, which was the primary reason for choosing
him here.
• Also, X’s iconic facial features made him an easy choice.
• Who’s X, and what choice is being talked about?

49. • Salvador Dali.
• Using Dali masks in
Money Heist.

50. 15.
• This book deals with the story of a lower middle class
chawl, where the protagonist (who shares his name
with the author) is shown as the only mannered person
in a place filled with drunkards, wife beaters and chain
smokers.
• In the adapted version, these extreme bad habits of
the characters are ignored and replaced with less
frowned upon ones.
• What book?

52. Duniya Ne Undha Chashma

53. 16.
• Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village
of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is one of
the National Trust's most visited properties, with over
466,000 visitors in 2018, and has even been called
England’s largest visitor attraction in the past.
• The manor has featured in multiple films and television
shows, prominent ones among these being Sherlock
Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Never Say Never Again and
Victor Frankenstein.
• What family occupied the manor in 2001?

56. The Raichands

57. SCORES

58. ROUND THREE
+20/-10

59. • This word is derived from a Japanese word that means Great
Lord or Prince.
• It was adopted by the English language in 1861. It was used to
refer to Abraham Lincoln in the diary of his secretary. During
that time, it meant an ‘important or dominant person’.
• However, post-WW1, the word was used to referred to people
who were wealthy and skilled experts in a certain field of work.
• Easiest way to guess the word, is that it would have a similar
pronunciation to this portmanteau:
(1st word in the name of a martial art) + (Informal Japanese
honorific for a younger male)
17.

61. Tai + Kun = TYCOON

62. 18.
• In this Collegehumor parody of X, Y stomps and kills a
certain character, to the shock of the rest of the
characters.
• Y is thus condemned in society and is eventually tried
in court.
• At the end, Y is charged for murder and is ironically
sentenced to death through the electric chair, while the
rest of the characters celebrate.
• Give me X and Y.

65. 19.
• The phrase ____________ may have been borrowed from a certain
French phrase with the same meaning.
• This state occurs when memory strength is not enough to recall an
item, but is strong enough to trigger the state. That is, the person
has direct access to the target word's presence in memory, even
though it cannot be immediately recalled.
• There is a certain subreddit based on this phrase which helps
people find specific media (usually movies and songs) through their
rough descriptions. There are also other subreddits which use a
part of this phrase in their titles, that are based on games and other
stuff.

67. Tip Of My Tongue

68. 20.
• X is an animated character created for the YouTube channel
_________ and the livestream Y.
• On March 19th, 2018 ________ uploaded the animation to the
stream Y. On February 22, 2020, YouTube deleted the stream for
unknown reasons. The video was reinstated that day and a new
stream was started.
• A twitter user tweeted, “By taking the account down – however
briefly – YouTube may have inadvertently created the longest video
on the platform. That is a 13,165 hour, 23 minute, 44 second long
stream VOD.”
• X is seen not only on Youtube, but a lot on Instagram as well.
• Who is X and what is the video Y?

70. Study Girl/Lo-Fi Girl

71. 21.
• The Brown Bar is a series of sketches by Lilly Singh, which shows
how Americans are mostly ignorant of brown culture. The show’s
cast features an ensemble of famous brown actors.
• In one of the episodes, a guy asks for advice from the receptionist
and says that his girlfriend’s family won’t accept him because he’s
from Florida but her family’s from X, a place located at the banks of
the River Jordan.
• The name X is speculated to be derived by amalgamation of the
names of an Indian and an Iraqi city.
• What place?

74. Agrabah

75. 22.
• The month of July in Orlando is shopping season, mostly
because one of the largest flea markets in the state, the X
Market, opens up for customers. This market is called so
because of its location, near the alleys and lanes and the
fact that it was a hangout for teens.
• On April 20 1993, a group comprising of five members
was named after this market. The group went on to
achieve superstardom, just the way they wanted.
• What was the name of the market/the group?

77. Backstreet Boys

78. 23.
• The following slide shows a panel from a
Harley Quinn comic. When down on her
knees, Harley asks the heavens for help from
her spirit animal, who she believes is a king
beaver.
• Instead of a king beaver, which other king
comes to give her moral support?

81. Shah Rukh Khan

82. 24.
• A rather surprising Easter egg recurring in
several Pixar movies are the subtle references
to X.
• Take a look at the following images where the
Easter eggs are present.
• What is X?

86. The Shining

87. SCORES