World Series of Pop Culture, 2.0

Somewhere in the back of your head are the answers to life’s important questions — like what name Jack Black’s character adopted in “School of Rock.” We all allow our minds to fill with the random facts of life. Trivia, definitely. Trivial, no way.

I had the privilege of providing Americans with the chance to dust off their stockpile of pop culture ephemera as host of VH1’s “World Series of Pop Culture.” They even paid me to recite the lyrics to “My Humps” using my best monotone.

But the competition has been off the air since the summer of 2007, when VH1 decided its future was anchored in reality shows.

After two years, you can imagine the stockpile that has accumulated in my head. Rather than randomly quizzing fellow subway riders about 90s TV show-themed trivia, I decided to turn to the broader audience online — so today I launched “Pat’s Trivia Quiz,” a daily pop culture trivia quiz at PatsPapers.com.

I have had grand plans for about a year to create a serious online competition that would match the intensity of the televised WSoPC. But every concept I came up with was too easily ruined by Google. Unless you are face-to-face with contestants in a controlled environment like a TV studio, there’s just no way to guarantee that they’re not searching for every answer.

So for now you’ll find more emphasis on nostalgia rather than on competition when visiting the trivia page of PatsPapers.com. Small prizes will keep it interesting. But my main goal is to re-assemble the loyal “World Series of Pop Culture” audience and eventually find a new TV home for an annual championship.

And because I know you have been wondering, Jack Black’s Dewey Finn assumed the name “Ned Schneebly” to scoop his friend’s teaching gig.

A new question goes up daily at 11:30 am Eastern Time. You can also follow the questions on Twitter: @patkiernan.

TV newsman Pat Kiernan picks his favorite stories from the morning papers each weekday on NY1 News and PatsPapers.com. He’s known to VH1 fans as the host of World Series of Pop Culture.

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