Hey! Spring of Trivia
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Hey! Spring of Trivia (Japanese: トリビアの泉, Toribia-no izumi) is the name given by Spike TV to the show "The Fountain of Trivia," a Japanese variety show on Fuji TV.
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[edit] Concept
"Trivia" consists of a series of video segments that introduce and confirm the validity of unusual trivia. Past trivia has included exploding erasers, spiders affected by caffeine, and insects that cannot be killed. Most of the trivia on the show is sent in by viewers. A celebrity panel of five judges evaluates each video segment and votes on how interesting it is by pushing a "hey!"-button (Japanese: へぇ~ボタン; Hē-botan) every time they are astonished. ("Hey" (Japanese: へぇ; Hē) is the Japanese interjection for expressing genuine surprise, equivalent to a mix of the English interjections "For real?" and "Wow!".) The total of all "Hey"s collected during the presentation of the trivia is then used as the indicator for the degree of surprise of this trivia. For every "Hey" a piece a trivia gets, the trivia submitter receives 100 yen. For example, a trivia that receives 97 Heys, the trivia submitter will get 9700 yen. Should a trivia receive a perfect score of 100 Heys, the trivia submitter receives 100,000 yen. No trivia has ever received 100 Heys to date.
At some point in the show, there is a segment called "Seed of Trivia" (Japanese: トリビアの種; Toribia-no-tane). Japanese viewers submit hypothetical questions intended to produce answers in the form of new trivia; "Trivia" then "go[es] to great lengths to answer them." "Chairman Tamori" (played by Kazuyoshi Morita) evaluates the Seed of Trivia by pulling a lever. The Seed of Trivia's grade is shown as a flower. "Full bloom" (Japanese 満開; Mankai) is the highest of grades. Past examples of "Seed of Trivia" segments have included the fastest Japanese baseball mascots, the brand of ramen containing the greatest net noodle length per package, and which form of barbecue lions prefer most.
As of 2005, there is a new segment called "Bog of Falsiva" (Japanese: ガセビアの沼; gasebia no numa). This is where they take a trivia sent in by a viewer that turned out to be false and sunk it in a sort of bog. Additionally, they say, "If you use this trivia, you might be called," and then they always show a cute girl doing some date-like activity and saying, "Liar." (Japanese: うそつき; usotsuki)
At the end of the show, host Norito Yashima gives out "The Golden Brain" (Japanese: 金の脳; Kin-no-nō), a brain shaped trophy that has a melon bread inside that is in the shape of a brain, to the sender of the highest rated trivia. Co-host Katsumi Takahashi gives out "The Silver Brain" (Japanese: 銀の脳; Gin-no-nō)—a smaller version of The Golden Brain with the same shape but with no melon bread inside—to the sender of his favorite trivia (announced as "MFT - My Favorite Trivia"). In 2005, small color-appropriate banners were added to the awards, and in 2006, the awards began featuring a small analog clock.
[edit] History
"Trivia" has been running in Japan since early 2003, first as a low-budget program after midnight (with initially much more obscene and sexual trivia than afterwards). Its increasing cult status made Fuji TV shift the broadcast time to prime time in fall 2003.
From November 2004 to May 2005, "Trivia" had a limited run in the United States, in which a slightly edited and dubbed version broadcast on the cable network Spike TV. Unlike Spike TV's other Japanese show MXC, the English dialogue was based on the original Japanese utterances and texts. Spike TV did not renew the show's contract, but has commissioned an American remake of the series.
[edit] Notable stunts
- To answer the question whether a world record race walker would walk or run when put in a life-threatening situation, world record holder Jefferson Pérez was invited onto the show. When Pérez proceeded to walk around the track, five sword-wielding samurais suddenly broke into the stadium and went after him. Pérez ran in panic. The staff of the show later explained the situation to him, and Pérez cheerfully thanked the staff for the skit and went on to take pictures with the samurais.
- The show successfully contacted a former KGB sniper to answer the question whether a sniper could score a strike in bowling with his rifle. The masked sniper knocked down 9 pins on the first try and went on to score a spare.
