This week, I watched my first new episode of The 1% Club since being on the show. I have to say, it’s even more fun watching and playing along now!
First off, if you’re watching the show without the companion app, do yourself a favor and download that right away. You get to play along almost exactly like you would on the show, and the app keeps track of how you do all season. The app also has daily questions/riddles, which is a wonderful feature.
Secondly, it’s extremely fun playing the “what if” game when playing along at home. I successfully “won” the episode while playing along, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have won this episode if I was in person.
Spoilers for season 3 (season 2 with Fox) episode 2 – I made it through the 1% question, but I had to use my Skip on the 15% question, about counting how many phone chargers shown on screen didn’t have any part of any other cable covering them. Even standing up and moving closer to the TV, there were a few spots that weren’t clear to me, and I gladly used my skip.
Playing the “what if” game, I highly suspect that if this was my episode, I would have used my Skip before that point, leaving me without the lifeline when I truly needed it. Going into the show, one of my strategic plans was to use my Skip on any question that required fast counting in which I didn’t have time to double check my answer. There were many questions based around making a fast tally, and I find it likely that I would have skipped one of those, even though I got them right while sitting at home.
Episode 2 also had a moment I could see myself falling victim to – one of the very first contestants, eliminated on the 90% question, did something I could see myself doing. Quoting from memory, so this wont be perfect – “Grandpa hid a treasure in the house, and he left a clue. Where did Grandpa hide his treasure?” The screen shows a workbench with tools shaped like letters very clearly showing the word “CLOSET.”
What did the contestant write? “The house.” The prompt for the question explicitly stated that Grandpa hid his treasure in the house. This isn’t an uncommon crux for a riddle – for a clear visual clue to actually be a distraction away from the critical detail in the question’s setup. In this case, for a 90% question, it wasn’t going to require that level of trickery, but in the moment, I could see making the wrong call.
This all hearkens back to a philosophical takeaway I have with entertainment like this – enjoy it! Nothing is guaranteed, so embrace the magic of the moment and treasure it for life. I will be continuing to play along with every episode of The 1% Club, and I’m always looking for the next big opportunity to participate in something like this!
Leave a Reply