20 Questions Round 363

[Hominidae]

Game 363
HISTORY (game created by MSmart)
1 Henry Hill / cdngooner
2 Colonel Kurtz / VillageIdiot
3 Kieffer Moore / damo666
4 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Hamish
5 Anne Frank / Trigfea63
6 Dalai Lama / Hamish
7 Woody / Ginge86
8 Queen Elizabeth II / aardvarkarmy
9 Mahatma Gandhi / Octavious
10 Trish Stratus / VillageIdiot (passed to Kakkaroto)
11 Judas / VillageIdiot (passed to Jamiet99uk)
12 HG Wells / VillageIdiot
13 Pablo Escobar / Doug7878
14 Vanna White / cdngooner
15 Napoleon Bonaparte / Ferdack
16 Confucius / Doug7878
17 Olivia de Havilland / SenatorNyxen
18 Allan Calhamer / Jaguar
19 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / cdngooner
20 Johnny Rotten [Lydon] / Doug7878
21 Thomas Jefferson / cdngooner
22 Steven Sondheim / Doug7878
23 Milton Friedman / Jaguar
24 Muammar Gaddafi / damo666
25 Guy Fawkes / Jamiet99uk
26 Lois Lane / Saw725
27 Mewtwo / SenatorNyxen
28 Agatha Christie / damo666
29 Tim Berners-Lee / Hamish
30 Martina Navratilova / Szpoti
31 Robert Burns / damo666
32 Nicolae Ceausescu / Hamish
33 Audrey Hepburn / SenatorNyxen
34 Rosa Parks / Doug7878
35 Natalie Portman / SenatorNyxen
36 Weird Al Yankovic / VillageIdiot
37 Chiang Kai Shek / Ferdack
38 Leonard Bernstein / Tolstoy
39 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca / dargorygel
40 Neville Chamberlain / Hamish
41 Jafar / Jamiet99uk
42 Robert The Bruce / damo666
43 George Sanders / SenatorNyxen
44 Robert Bork / Jamiet99uk
45 Sally Ride / Doom427
46 Cloud / SenatorNyxen
47 Ellen Ripley / Szpoti
48 Ferdinand Porsche / Hamish
49 Roald Amundsen / Szpoti
50 Walter White / Jamiet99uk
51 Ferdinand Foch / Dargorygel
52 Faramir / Ferdack
53 Victor Frankenstein / VillageIdiot
54 Walt Disney / Doug7878
55 Zapp Brannigan / Sploack
56 Rick Sanchez / Doom427
57 Jeanne d'Arc / Hamish
58 Alan Turing / Doom427
59 Frank-N-Furter / JECE
60 The Waco Kid / damo666
61 Omar Khayyam / DougJoe
62 Robert Preston / VillageIdiot
63 Sue-Ellen Braverman / Szpoti
64 Gaia / damo666
65 Bette Davis / Jamiet99uk
66 Katy Perry / Szpoti
67 Nicolaus Copernicus / DougJoe
68 Ada Lovelace / Hamish
69 Sergey Bubka / Szpoti
70 Isabel la Católica / JECE
71 Blas de Lezo / VillageIdiot
72 Douglas Southall Freeman / Jamiet99uk
73 Ric Flair / VillageIdiot
74 The Grinch / Hamish
75 Kofi Annan / damo666
76 Gerry Adams / JECE
77 Sancho Panza / Hamish
78 Steve Redgrave / damo666
79 Sergei Diaghilev / Village Idiot
80 Harry Houdini / DougJoe
81 Bill & Ted / Hamish
82 Eric Carle / Balki Bartokomous
83 Kirk Cameron / Saw725
84 Chester Bennington / Chaqa
85 Roland Deschain / Balki Bartokomous
86 Edward Scissorhands / DougJoe
87 Steve Wozniak / supi13
88 Falkor / Balki Bartokomous
89 Nicki Minaj / han-shahanshah
90 Uesugi Kenshin / damo666
91 Peter Ustinov / damo666 [not guessed]
92 Indira Gandhi / han-shahanshah
93 Jiang Qing / Jamiet99uk
94 Judge Dredd / Octavious
95 (special, won by han-shahanshah):
Robert the Bruce / Jamiet99uk [lost]
Doctor Who / han-shahanshah
Secretariat / han-shahanshah
Henrietta Lacks / Kakarroto [lost]
96 Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov / JECE
97 Dead parrot / JECE [not guessed]
98 Ian Smith / Damo
99 Joseph-Ignace Guillotin / Foxcastle
100 Angela Lansbury / DougJoe
101 Pac-Man / DarthPorg36
102 Michael Collins (astronaut) / JECE
103 Juan Sebastián Elcano / Foxcastle
104 RuPaul / DougJoe
105 Otto von Bismarck / damo666
106 Judas Iscariot / [repeat, taken over by DougJoe]
106 Guybrush Threepwood / Foxcastle
107 Nikola Tesla / Hanging Rook
108 Hermann Maier / sweetandcool
109 Louis L'Amour / sweetandcool [not guessed]
110 Vladimir Kramnik / Szpoti
111 Vitruvius / sweetandcool
112 Srinivasa Ramanujan / damo666
113 Lady Margaret Beaufort / Foxcastle
114 Mel Brooks / Jamiet99uk
115 Michael Buffer / damo666
116 Anne Bronte / dargorygel
117 Jamiet99uk / damo666
118 George Martin / Jamiet99uk
119 Kate Adie / Foxcastle
120 William of Ockham / Hanging Rook
121 Prometheus / damo666
122 Canaan Banana / JECE
123 Jimena Díaz / Hanging Rook
124 Floria Tosca / han-shahanshah
125 Abram Petrovich Gannibal / Foxcastle
126 The Bride (Kill Bill) / Jamiet99uk
127 Harriet Stowe / Octavious
128 (special, won by JECE):
Samuel A. Maverick, Sr. / Octavious [lost/not guessed]
Colonel Charles Lynch / JECE
Edward Aloysius Murphy, Jr. / JECE
Sweet Fanny Adams / damo666 [lost]
129 Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck / Jamiet99uk
130 Ayrton Senna / Spartaculous
131 W. G. Grace / Hominidae
132 Mia Mottley / han-shahanshah
133 Yukio Mishima / Jamiet99uk
134 Patti Smith / DarthPorg36
135 Haymitch Abernathy / JECE
136 Emmanuel Goldstein / DougJoe
137 Voltron / Jamiet99uk
138 Valentina Tereshkova / Spartaculous
139 Mahathir Mohamad / Jamiet99uk
140 Mr. Rogers / Spartaculous
141 Harambe / Jamiet99uk
142 Chef (South Park) / DougJoe
143 Count Duckula / Spartaculous
144 Gerolamo Cardano / JECE
145 David Dixon Porter / Spartaculous
146 Aishwarya Rai Bachchan / Jamiet99uk
147 Nick Offerman / cdngooner
148 Tim Rice / damo666
149 Carl Friedrich Gauss / Spartaculous
150 Colonel Mustard / cdngooner
151 Captain Henry Morgan / Spartaculous
152 William Blake / Hanging Rook
153 Leopold V / Spartaculous
154 Katalin Karikó / Hominidae
155 Septimia Zenobia / han-shahanshah
156 Félix Eboué / Spartaculous
157 John Paul Jones and John Paul Jones / cdngooner
158 Thomas Jones (astronaut) / damo666
159 Jonathan King / Jamiet99uk
160 Ronda Rousey / Spartaculous
161 Julia Child / cdngooner
162 Alexander Butterfield / Spartaculous
163 Travis Kelce / cdngooner
164 King Julien XIII / Spartaculous
165 Tank Man / Modderpoel
166 Fairuz / Spartaculous
167 Evgeniy Pregozhin / cdngooner
168 Vincent Gigante / Jamiet99uk
169 Billie Piper / cdngooner
170 Anton Chekhov / Spartaculous
171 Donald Knuth / Hominidae
172 Dmitri Mendeleev / damo666
173 D.H. Lawrence / cdngooner
174 Harold Holt / Lucasio35
175 Simón Bolívar / Modderpoel
176 Lavrentiy Beria / Hominidae
177 Ötzi / Modderpoel
178 Gilgamesh / JECE
179 Hipólito Yrigoyen / JECE (not guessed, but ceded to Spartaculous)
180 Luke Littler / damo666
181 Ann Jones / damo666 (not guessed)
182 Anthony Trollope / Spartaculous
183 Punxsutawney Phil / DarthPorg36
184 Mark Watney (The Martian) / Spartaculous
185 Mitch Hedberg / Hominidae
186 Barack Hussein Obama / JustAGuyNamedWill
187 Jeff Probst / cdngooner
188 Amy Adams / Hominidae
189 Humpty Dumpty / cdngooner
190 Mark Sykes / Spartaculous
191 Amanda Gorman / cdngooner
192 Miles Copeland III / Hominidae
193 Michelle Kwan / Jamiet99uk
194 Hans Moleman / Hominidae
195 Jimmy Wales / Spartaculous
196 Lisa del Giocondo / Hominidae
197 Charli D'Amelio / kingofthepirates
198 Frodo Baggins / DarthPorg36
199 Steve (Minecraft) / JustAGuyNamedWill
200 Tom Brady / kingofthepirates
201 William Jennings Bryan / Aristocrat
202 James Paul McCartney / Hominidae
203 Zuo Zongtang / Spartaculous
204 (special, 3 winners, han-shahanshah became QM):
Irving Berlin / Aristocrat
Ron Burgundy / han-shahanshah
Clyde the ghost/ Hominidae
Tom Holland / han-shahanshah
Richard Kiel / Hominidae
Jack London / Wattsthematter [lost]
Paris Hilton / Aristocrat
205 Joseph Pulitzer / Spartaculous
206 Johnnie Cochran / cdngooner
207 Mitch McDeere / Hominidae
208 Elliot Page / Spartaculous
209 Colonel Sanders / Hominidae
210 Goldilocks / kingofthepirates
211 Kazuya / Wattsthematter
212 H. P. Lovecraft / Hominidae
213 Nate Silver / Aristocrat
214 Barry Lamar Bonds* / Spartaculous
215 Eleanor Rigby / kingofthepirates
216 Sun Wu Kong / Spartaculous
217 Jack Ruby / wintergreen
218 Jeanne Calment / Aristocrat
219 Clint Eastwood / wintergreen
220 Idi Amin / damo666
221 Niccolo Macchiavelli / cdngooner
222 Michael Constantine / Aristocrat
223 Jimi Hendrix / DarthPorg36
224 Brandon Sanderson / Spartaculous
225 John Bardeen / cdngooner
226 Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning / Aristocrat
227 William Tecumseh Sherman / kingofthepirates
228 Grigori Perelman / Hominidae
229 Emilio Palma / Aristocrat
230 Erwin Rommel / kingofthepirates
231 Zheng Yi Sao / Spartaculous
232 The Liz Truss lettuce / cdngooner
233 Denton True "Cy" Young / Spartaculous
234 Bede / Hominidae
235 Mitochondrial Eve / Aristocrat
236 Cecil Rhodes / damo666
237 Fred Archer / cdngooner
238 Neil Ritchie / Spartaculous
239 Chuck Norris / Hominidae
240 Vaughan Gething / Spartaculous
241 Princess Lilibet of Sussex / Hominidae
242 Clippy / Spartaculous
243 The Easter Bunny / Wattsthematter
244 Adolphe Sax / cdngooner
245 Lorne Greene / Spartaculous
246 Salvador Dalí / wintergreen
247 Rabbi Menachem Mendelsson Schneerson / cdngooner
248 Guy Simonds / Spartaculous
249 Charles Martinet / Hominidae
250 Attila the Hun / wintergreen
251 Zaphod Beeblebrox / Hominidae
252 Betsy Ross / wintergreen
253 Giuseppe Garibaldi / cdngooner
254 Dr. Faustus / Wattsthematter
255 Hildegard von Bingen / Spartaculous
256 Jacob Chansley (QAnon Shaman) / han-shahanshah
257 Scheherazade / Spartaculous
258 Scott Joplin / cdngooner
259 Jeremy Bentham / Spartaculous
260 Henry Cavill / Hominidae
261 Jess Smith (Teletubbies Sun Baby) / cdngooner
262 Jack Swigert / Hominidae
263 Pope Francis / Spartaculous
264 Geronimo / Hominidae
265 Eleanor of Aquitaine / DarthPorg36
266 Ron Swanson / Aristocrat
267 Heracles (Hercules) / Jamiet99uk
268 Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe / Hominidae
269 Princess Ozma / Spartaculous
270 Brian Butterfield / Jamiet99uk
271 Olivia Newton-John / cdngooner
272 William Stephenson / Spartaculous
273 Ernő Rubik / Hominidae
274 Margaret Wise Brown / DreamTrawler
275 Bhagat Singh / JECE
276 Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol / Spartaculous
277 Rick Astley / DarthPorg36
278 Jesus / Hominidae
279 Immanuel Kant / Wattsthematter
280 Hannibal Barca / DreamTrawler
281 GLaDOS / Spartaculous
282 Boris Johnson / Hominidae
283 Boris I of Bulgaria / Aristocrat
284 Jenna Jameson / cdngooner
285 Major Tom / Spartaculous
286 Spartacus / Aristocrat
287 Arnold Schwarzenegger / Hominidae
288 Schrödinger's Cat / DiplomacyandWarfare
289 Doctor Strange / wintergreen
290 Cao Cao / Hominidae
291 Helen Keller / Aristocrat
292 Cardinal Richelieu / JECE
293 Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares / Hanging Rook
294 Luis Trenker / Hominidae
295 John James Audubon / Spartaculous
296 Tenzing Norgay / Hominidae
297 Sojourner Truth / Aristocrat
298 Freddie Mercury / DreamTrawler
299 Lupita Nyong'o / Hominidae
300 Rebecca Black / Aristocrat
301 Don Draper / DreamTrawler
302 Prester John / Hominidae
303 Pāṇini / wintergreen
304 Madeleine McCann / Aristocrat
305 Omar Bradley / DreamTrawler
306 Toshiro Mifune / Aristocrat
307 Klemens von Metternich / DreamTrawler
308 Furiosa / cdngooner
309 Rhiannon / Hominidae
310 Fidias Panayiotou / DreamTrawler
311 Ibn Battuta / Hominidae
312 Garry Kasparov / DreamTrawler
313 Zuko / Hominidae
314 Archimedes / DreamTrawler
315 Liliʻuokalani / Hominidae
316 Opal Lee / cdngooner
317 Bon Scott / Hominidae
318 Monica Lewinsky / Spartaculous
319 John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich / Hominidae
320 Thomas the Tank Engine / Aristocrat
321 Johnnie Walker / Spartaculous
322 Godot / DreamTrawler
323 Yo-Yo Ma / Aristocrat
324 Michael Jackson / DreamTrawler
325 Hatsune Miku / Hominidae
326 Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal / DreamTrawler
327 Sequoyah / Hominidae
328 Corazon Aquino / Spartaculous
329 Raoul Wallenberg / DreamTrawler
330 Gavrilo Princip / miminena
331 Giuseppe Mazzini / wintergreen
332 Chang and Eng Bunker / MythosOfMen
333 Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova / Hominidae
334 Muntadhar al-Zaidi / DreamTrawler
335 Arundhati Roy / MythosOfMen
336 Verin Mathwin / Hominidae
337 Gerald Gardner / Spartaculous
338 Larry (cat) / Hominidae
339 Muhammad Ali Pasha / DreamTrawler
340 (special, 3 winners, DougJoe became QM)
Gilbert Baker / Spartaculous
Erika Lust / Aristocrat
Ernst vom Rath / Spartaculous
Glutonny / Aristocrat
Sid the Sloth / han-shahanshah [lost]
Greedo / DougJoe
Envy Adams / DougJoe
341 Miyamoto Musashi / DreamTrawler
342 Jean-Luc Melenchon / damo666
343 Patrick Stewart / DreamTrawler
344 Hello Kitty / Hominidae
345 Phillis Wheatley / Spartaculous
346 Caitlin Clark / Hominidae
347 Tulsi Gabbard / Spartaculous
348 Stephen Colbert (character) / DreamTrawler
349 Arpad Elo / miminena
350 Lucy (Australopithecus) / Spartaculous
351 Stephen Colbert (comedian) / DreamTrawler
352 Ip Man / damo666
353 Pádraig Mac Piarais / Spartaculous
354 Huey Long / cdngooner
355 Carl Bernstein / Spartaculous
356 (special, won by DreamTrawler)
George V / cdngooner
Harry S. Truman / DreamTrawler
U Thant / DreamTrawler
Malcolm X / DreamTrawler
Mr. T / Wattsthematter
357 Rosie the Riveter / Spartaculous
358 Augustus D. Juilliard / Hominidae
359 Shyamala Gopalan / cdngooner
360 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev / DreamTrawler
361 Imane Khelif / cdngooner
362 David Bowie / Hominidae

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD
Spartaculous: 52
Hominidae: 48
cdngooner: 32
damo666: 26
Jamiet99uk: 21
DreamTrawler: 21
Aristocrat: 19
JECE: 14
Hamish: 11
Village Idiot: 10
DougJoe: 9
han-shahanshah: 8
wintergreen: 8
DarthPorg36: 7
Szpoti: 7
kingofthepirates: 6
SenatorNyxen: 6
Doug7878: 6
Foxcastle: 6
Hanging Rook: 5

RULES
0. The purpose of this game is for the Question Master (QM) to select an entity to be guessed, and for the contestants to deduce the identity of this entity by asking a series of questions.

1. Only binary (yes/no) questions may be asked. Conditional questions are allowed, but will only be answered if the condition is met.

2. If the QM cannot determine with reasonable certainty whether the answer to a particular question is "Yes." or "No.", they will simply reply with "Pass.". Questions that are answered in this way will not count towards the twenty-question limit, but all other binary questions will count towards the limit. Re-asking passed questions verbatim is not allowed, but contestants are welcome to rephrase passed questions and ask those. The QM is permitted to use discretion to pass certain questions on principle, but must be transparent about this.

3. Before the twentieth question is answered, one free guess per contestant does not count against the total twenty questions, but additional guesses by the same contestant do.

4. After all twenty questions are answered, there are no more free guesses, and five total guesses (combined among the contestants) shall be allowed.

5. No player shall ask more than two consecutive questions, where a guess (free or unfree) counts as a question. EG: If Player A asks a question; and Player B makes a guess; Player A may go next with up to two questions. Exception: it is allowed for a single contestant to ask two consecutive questions and then make a free guess.

6. The question master may choose entities real or fictional that are not horribly obscure, so long as they are not repeats.

7. Whoever guesses correctly takes over from the previous question master; if they do not want to do it, they may choose someone else provided they are willing.

8. In the unlikely event the question master remains undefeated three times in a row they must choose someone else to be the next QM (provided they are willing).

9. If terminology in a question is undefined, the QM defines it however they think is most reasonable. Questions regarding the methodology used do not count towards the 20 questions and best come with an example figure.

10. A contestant can "scratch" their own question or guess before it is answered. Scratched questions and guesses do not count as questions or guesses for the purposes of the total count, or the three consecutive questions/guesses rule.

This individual has a rather obscure connection to the answer of the previous round. As before, an honorary bonus point goes to the person who can figure it out (who isn't the correct answerer), but it's obscure. The individual I chose, however, is not very obscure.

Go!

[damo666]

Real dead human male?

[Hominidae]

Real dead human male?

No.

[Wattsthematter]

Living human?

[Hominidae]

Living human?

No.

Interpreting this to exclude any fictional characters since it's hard to definitively classify a fictional character as "living".

[damo666]

Real dead human female

[DreamTrawler]

Born or created in Japan or an Anglophone country?

[Hominidae]

Real dead human female

No.

Born or created in Japan or an Anglophone country?

No.

[DreamTrawler]

Fictional character introduced 1950 or earlier?

[Hominidae]

Fictional character introduced 1950 or earlier?

No.

[Hominidae]

1,2,3. Not a real living human, dead male human, or dead female human
4. Born or created in neither Japan nor an Anglophone country
5. Not a fictional character introduced 1950 or earlier

A lot of "no" so far. I wonder who will get the first "yes"?

[miminena]

Is this figure a fictional character?

[DreamTrawler]

Is this figure a fictional character?

If no - real cat, dog, horse, sheep, whale, ape, or elephant?

[Hominidae]

Is this figure a fictional character?

No.

If no - real cat, dog, horse, sheep, whale, ape, or elephant?

And we have our first yes.

[DreamTrawler]

Real cat or dog?

If yes - free guess Laika

[cdngooner]

If yes - free guess Laika

If Laika, the link is that both Laika and Major Tom went on a one-way trip to space.

[Hominidae]

Real cat or dog?

If yes - free guess Laika

Yes and yes! Another win for DreamTrawler.

If yes - free guess Laika

If Laika, the link is that both Laika and Major Tom went on a one-way trip to space.

Honestly this is close enough.

What I had in mind was that Jonathan Coulton wrote a song inspired by "Space Oddity", called "Space Doggity" which was about Laika.

[Aristocrat]

I say this as someone who doesn’t post as much anymore, so take my suggestion with as much salt as necessary. But it might be worth thinking about potential rule changes to make the game more inclusive to new players or players that aren’t online as much. Activity (both in questions asked and who is QM) seems to be significantly more concentrated among the same few posters as compared to 6 or 12 months ago.

[DreamTrawler]

I say this as someone who doesn’t post as much anymore, so take my suggestion with as much salt as necessary. But it might be worth thinking about potential rule changes to make the game more inclusive to new players or players that aren’t online as much. Activity (both in questions asked and who is QM) seems to be significantly more concentrated among the same few posters as compared to 6 or 12 months ago.

Yes, I agree. The last couple games have had far fewer users in the threads. Though if you go back even a couple weeks there were more people, so I’m not sure if this is a natural lull or something else.

Does anyone have any suggestions for solutions? Some ideas I had:

- Change the 2 questions and a free guess rule back to 2 questions including a free guess. Prevents people from essentially triple asking and getting the answer.
- Remove conditional questions. I know some people have a distate for them, and they do make the game kind of flowcharty. They are useful when the QM can’t be online as much though.
- Pick easier targets - a wider range of people can guess these rather than just a few dedicated guessers.
- Pick harder targets - the threads will go longer, naturally allowing more people to interact
- Frequent winners start ceding the QM role once in a while - maybe we could appoint newer 20Q participants like miminena, MythosOfMen, or FlaviusAetius to be the QM sometimes
- Something else?

[cdngooner]

I agree with the following rule changes:

- Change the 2 questions and a free guess rule back to 2 questions including a free guess. Prevents people from essentially triple asking and getting the answer.

- Remove conditional questions. It was I who originally instituted this, and the reason was just as you say - to avoid Person A asking the final defining question, QM failing to answer for 12 hours, and Person B getting online before A to gazump him to the answer. But it has become unwieldy and should be scrapped.

- Pick easier targets. Highly agree. This is the single best thing we can do to improve the game. This used to be an interesting challenge in general knowledge. It has become an exercise in scouring Wikipedia pages, and using Google and ChatGPT to win the game.

- Maybe its just me, but I like themes. Spartaculous' multiball games, or my "guess the connection with the past subject" games.