What's the game they're playing?

dunno if you ever got an answer...but I just figured that the bartender was good at trivia and made a gambling game out of it for his own benefit mostly. Anybody got any other ideas ? I certainly liked the movie !!

I think he was just supposed to know a lot of stuff and the customers were just trying to find something he didn't know the answer to so they could get a free drink. Since they couldn't stump him, they had to keep paying for their drinks.

Your hair's already such a disaster that the Red Cross wouldn't give it coffee!

Yeah, it's not really a game... Just more like "I'll give you $5 if you can answer this really off-the-wall trivia question, if you can't, you give me a free drink."

I bartend and I love this scene because the bartender is immediately thinking "What can I do to make my money for the night?" when Cropa announces that drinks are on the house. Usually when customers get stuff for free they don't tip on that part of the bill.

Also the fact that he has a headlamp. I take a full toolkit to work and immediately tracked down a headband for my Mini Maglite. When power went out this summer where I work, our genius boss produced glowsticks on lanyards for all the employees to wear so they could find each other in the dark.

It's amazing how people think you can continue normally with no power. Without the exhaust fans, the temperature shoots up to over a hundred, the air gets stagnant and steamy, cooks will pass out. Fryers and soup-warmers don't work. And the customers just sit there, getting drunker and drunker and yelling, "HEY! WHERE"S OUR FOOD?"

Its not really a game. They are betting on his general knowledge. The scene of "when did the dog become man's best friend" explains this a bit. The bartender asks to see the money first before he answers which shows that drinks are technically not involved in this "game" and its just the bet between the customers and the bartender. Plus at that time... the drinks are free anyway. When the lights come back he says "back to normal, you gotta pay".

Wait a minute, folks.

This is a straight trivia challenge, $5 a pop, and it has nothing to do with drinks or tips. You want to play Stump The Bartender, you ask him a question, with your $5 bill in your hand. He answers it and takes your money. One guy asks him something and he says, "I don't see your money." When the guy holds out his $5 the bartender answers and takes the cash. When John Corbett asks him when the lights are going to come back on, the bartender drops a $5 bill on the bar and says, "We have a winner!"

My guess is that he's famous for his vast trivia prowess and people come back again and again with esoteric questions. Builds business for the bar, increases patronage, and makes him a ton of money without slowing down the service. There are lots of ways to cash in on genius, and he found the perfect one for him. (In a movie.)

Pat

P.S. By the way, it was at a bar that I was asked this one: What does this say? ....... 1:58-2:02

See if you can figure it out before you read the next paragraph.

There are no wrong answers, you just keep saying in plain English what you see before you, until you get it right. These are times. Times on a clock. It says one fifty-eight dash two oh two. You're right, but you're wrong. You can say it several ways that are all right and all wrong, so stop here and try to get it right. You'll know when you do. Suddenly you'll realize that you can say it perfectly elegantly in simple English words, and it's a joy when you discover that it says two to two to two two. Then you get asked the same question again: What does this say? ......1:58-2:02 and you puzzle it out that it says the same thing, so why ask it again, but since it's the second time you're saying it, the answer is that this is two to two to two two, too. The reason for all this explanation and verbiage surrounding these answers is simply to keep it from being too visible while you try to figure it out. I hope you did. I hope you had fun. I hope you love the English language as much as you should. As you can see it's not only elegant, it's endlessly entertaining.

Pat