Good Job, Brain! Episode 299: ALL QUIZ BONANZA! #60
Release Date: October 22, 2025
Hosts: Karen, Chris
Special Guests: Bill and Danny (from Escape This Podcast)
Theme: All Quiz Bonanza #60 – a special all-trivia and quiz episode featuring diverse subjects, puzzle formats, collaborative games, and a celebration of trivia camaraderie with international guests.
Episode Overview
Episode 299 marks a celebratory ALL QUIZ BONANZA (their 60th!), with hosts Karen and Chris joined by Escape This Podcast’s Bill and Danny. The group traverses trivia rounds, creative puzzles, and games, highlighting offbeat facts, playful banter, and engaging “meta” moments around the show's near 300th milestone. The spirit is friendly and irreverent, with running jokes, roleplay segments, and a wide array of quiz formats.
Key Segments & Highlights
1. The Palindrome Intro and Road to 300 (00:16–04:20)
- Karen’s Palindrome Challenge: Karen opens with an attempt at a sentence comprised entirely of palindrome words, admitting quickly, “Turns out it's really hard to build a full sentence out of just palindrome words.” (00:54)
- Missing Regulars: Only Karen and Chris present, as Colin is off camping, leading to some on-air loneliness.
- Surprise Guests: Suddenly, Bill and Danny from Escape This Podcast “crash” the episode to “prevent disaster before episode 300,” parodying time-travel movie tropes and setting an offbeat, meta tone for the episode. (02:20–03:50)
"Something's got to be done about your 300th episode, Marty. We have to go back. Back to 299." — Bill, channeling Back to the Future (02:39)
2. Classic Trivial Pursuit & Question Swaps (04:20–16:15)
- The crew dives into back-and-forth rounds with American and Australian Trivial Pursuit cards, using buzzers, animal noises, and improv.
- Notable Questions:
- 1990s sitcom with Ben Savage (Boy Meets World)
- Tracy Chapman’s Grammy-winning album (Tracy Chapman)
- 1967 war movie with 12 convicts (The Dirty Dozen)
- Pockets on a billiards table (Six)
- Origin of stage hypnosis performances (Paris)
- The Australian TP card brings local flavor (e.g., bento box from Japan, Banksia men from Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Australian slang for McDonald's “Maccas”).
- Fun, self-deprecating admissions about regional knowledge gaps, and light teasing.
“Neither show made it to Australia.” — Bill, on Boy Meets World/Wonder Years (07:11)
“What are Banksia? ...They’re just like little spiky flowers. That’s a Banksia.” — Bill (14:33)
3. The “Solve My Murder” Puzzle Quiz (16:20–28:22)
- Chris runs a full-blown murder mystery quiz, set in his fictional country mansion.
- Premise: Participants must solve his “murder” by answering eight clues. Each answer is a six-letter name, and their vertical arrangement on the answer sheet reveals the murderer’s identity.
- Notable Clues & Answers:
- Joker actor — Hamill
- 1719 castaway — Crusoe
- “Math class is tough” — Barbie
- Gorgon with beheaded — Medusa
- Reporter played by Chevy Chase — Fletch
- Lady of the Lake’s victim — Merlin
- Cobra Kai’s co-founder — Kreese
- “Good Night & Good Luck” journalist — Murrow
- The reveal: reading the 3rd and 4th columns of letters spells out “murderer is butler” — and since the butler is Jeeves (from the intro), he’s the culprit.
"If you entered in all of those names, you can read down the third and fourth columns to read: murderer is butler." — Chris (27:51)
4. Biopics Lightning Round (28:24–35:08)
- Karen hosts a rapid-fire quiz on biopics whose titles DON’T use the subject’s real name.
- Contestants must name the person depicted and the actor who portrayed them.
- Notable prompts: The Greatest Showman (PT Barnum/Hugh Jackman), A Beautiful Mind (John Nash/Russell Crowe), Gorillas in the Mist (Dian Fossey/Sigourney Weaver), Man on the Moon (Andy Kaufman/Jim Carrey), Imitation Game (Alan Turing/Benedict Cumberbatch), I'm Not There (Bob Dylan, with six actors including Cate Blanchett).
"A lot of biopics out there are titled with the person's name. So all of the titles I’m giving you do not have the person's name in it." — Karen (29:44)
5. “Fish, Bird, or Berry?” Prefix Game (36:39–46:47)
- Danny hosts a quirky quiz: for a list of prefixes (e.g., “cat,” “buffalo,” “puff,” “ant,” “hag”), each participant is assigned to guess whether that prefix matches a real-world fish, bird, or berry.
- Laughter as the group grapples with odd animal and botanical names. Examples:
- Cat: catfish; catbird and catberry also exist.
- Buffalo: buffalo berry and buffalo fish.
- Puff: puffbird, but no pufffish or puffberry.
- Pineapple: only a pineapple fish exists, which looks just like one!
- Tangents include Pokémon berries and Australian flora/fauna.
“Everybody listening does need to look up the pineapple fish. Wow. Wow.” — Bill (46:57)
6. Video Games: “What Game Am I?” First-Person Quiz (47:02–59:02)
- Bill constructs vivid first-person scenarios, and the group identifies specific games:
- Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind ("I’ll have to take the Silt Strider...")
- Banjo-Kazooie (turned into a pumpkin)
- Balatro (“I collected all these floating skulls...to turn me into a pumpkin.”)
- Stardew Valley (pelican town, parsnips)
- Kingdom Hearts (Goofy and Donald's Atlantis transformations)
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance (learning to read as a side quest)
- Pac-Man (eating the ghosts after a power pellet)
- Elden Ring (tarnished, surprise dragon & mimic chest)
- Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon (skateboarding with Hunter)
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (magic interferes with train travel)
- The format blends nostalgia, humor, and affectionate ribbing about difficulty level and obscure childhood favorites.
“My boots are wet. These weird mosquitoes keep attacking me. And—Is that a dragon in the middle of the lake?” — Bill, describing Elden Ring (54:33)
7. “90s/00s Sampled Songs” Music Quiz (59:40–71:34)
- Karen quizzes the crew on modern pop songs built on sampled 1990s/2000s hits.
- For each clip, they must name: Current artist, Sampled song, Original artist.
- Notable entries:
- Bebe Rexha, sampling “Blue” by Eiffel 65
- Zendaya, sampling TLC’s “Creep”
- Kim Petras (feat. Nicki Minaj), sampling Alice DJ’s “Better Off Alone”
- Dua Lipa, sampling White Town’s “Your Woman”
- Rihanna (via DJ Khaled), sampling Santana’s “Maria Maria”
- Doechii, sampling Gotye & Kimbra’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”
- The segment closes with a mini musicology lesson: the opening chant of Enigma's "Return to Innocence" uses a sample from the Amis indigenous group of Taiwan, “Elder Drinking Song.”
“Return to Innocence uses the sample of a Taiwan indigenous song...went through some legal troubles...but everybody got their credit, everybody got their settlement, so we're all cool here!” — Karen (71:17)
Memorable Quotes
- “We've been having all these guests stop by for the road to 300...I figured 299, we'd have some really special guests.” — Chris (02:11)
- “If you entered in all of those names, you can read down the third and fourth columns to read murderer is butler.” — Chris (27:51)
- “Here's the thing. A lot of biopics out there are titled with the person's name...So all the titles I’m giving you do not have the person’s name in it.” — Karen (29:45)
- “Anytime you look at a bird, you can also see a pineapple, so you’d never make that comparison.” — Bill (46:14)
- “I need more. I need more of this.” — Karen, on Bill's “Pac-Man” story narration (54:13)
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 00:16–04:20: Opening, palindrome, surprise guests
- 04:20–16:15: Trivial Pursuit (US & Australian) rounds
- 16:20–28:22: Chris’s Mansion Murder Mystery Quiz
- 28:24–35:08: Biopics Lightning Round
- 36:39–46:47: Fish, Bird, or Berry? Prefix Game
- 47:02–59:02: Video Game First-Person “What Am I?” Quiz
- 59:40–71:34: 90s/00s Sampled Song Music Quiz
Episode Tone & Style
- Playful, nerdy, and warmly competitive.
- Rapid-fire trivia, meta jokes, improv, and collaboration.
- A celebratory, approachable love letter to the trivia community with international flair (oz-trivia and obscure game lore alike!).
Where to Find More
- Good Job, Brain! goodjobbrain.com
- Escape This Podcast and “Solve This Murder” (Bill & Danny’s projects)
- Guests also contributed to Rise of the Golden Idol video game.
Conclusion
Episode 299 delivers on the “All Quiz Bonanza” promise: innovative quizzes, classic pub trivia, inventive wordplay, and cheerful trans-Pacific camaraderie. The hosts' and guests’ chemistry shines, making the episode both a playful competition and a celebration of curiosity and shared joy in learning quirky facts. An essential listen for trivia hounds, pop culture aficionados, and anyone who loves a smart, silly, and surprising quiz show.