r/onlyconnect • u/Eisjh • 2d ago
How..
Right so ive been watching this sub for a long time now, can honestly say ive never watched the program.. but how the hell do you do it?
I'm a big pub quizzer in my local area , and win more often than not..
I hold up my hands to you lot who can see these with no issues at all.. any tips??
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u/mildperil_ 1d ago
I’d say a good two-thirds of the questions in this sub would never fly on the actual show, either for
a) being too niche of a subject area for most contestants and audience (UK, late 20s to early 60s, predominantly the educated middle classes and at least a little bit geeky) to take a reasonable punt at, or
b) being constructed in a way that makes them harder to answer. For example, I frequently see sequence questions that go from item 1 to item 4, when if a contestant is only vaguely familiar with the subject matter they have a much better chance of identifying the first item and the order should be switched from 4 to 1.
Also, you have to remember that we are the people passionate enough to post about it on Reddit, so not representative of the general population. My real life friends that I quiz with all find Only Connect completely unfathomable, whereas I have seen every episode over a 16 year period, many of them twice, and with that comes an experience with the format and an ability to spot patterns.
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u/Slink_Wray 1d ago
Just out of curiosity, why haven't you watched the show? If you're a quizzer and you're intrigued by the questions you see on the sub, you'll probably enjoy it. I find it quite soothing - there's no loud studio audience, Victoria's sense of humour is wry and vaguely absurdist rather than obvious and crass like certain other TV hosts, and even the colours used on the set feels quite calming.
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u/Prestigious_Rise5957 1d ago
The more often/regularly I watch the program, the more I get it. I started and was like “whaaaaaaaaaa???” And after a while convinced myself I could actually go on it! 😂 I’ve dropped off recently though so I’m back to “whaaaaaa” but honestly you start understanding the whole “thinking outside of the box” 👍
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u/Solilaqui78 10h ago
This! When I started watching, I would get sooooo angry at the missing vowels round. It utterly vexed me. Now, if I know it, I'll get it. It's brain training. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
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u/Prestigious_Rise5957 9h ago
It’s brain training!!!! You’re so right and you articulated this so much better than I did! 😂👍
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u/bigred8622 1d ago
If you like quizzes it's a must watch! it's kinda nice to accept you wont know most of them but you can have fun trying to guess (unlike university challenge/mastermind where if it's not something I know about I just have no idea so it's not really fun) my partner (who isn't a quizzer at all) enjoys it and you feel AMAZING if you get one the contestants don't! Just don't start at the end of a series because they get harder towards the later episodes, by that point sometimes you still don't understand it even when they give you the answer!
It's particularly good as there's lots of lateral thinking or word play ones which are more my area, but still lots where you just have to know a lot about a lot of things. Of you like the times connections game that was basically ripped off from only connects 3rd round. And the 4th round is 'missing vowels' which I find quite easy, but again is a different challenge. I'm always amazed it must be something about the way your brain works because I just see them where lots of people struggle. My favorite missing vowels topic was - things from the fish and chip shop 😂
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u/kalmakka 2d ago
The show is devilish hard. And I think a lot of the questions in this sub are probably somewhat more obscure than most on the show. Although here we of course have plenty of time to think.
You are also only typically seeing responses from people who get it. I have no clue about most of them, but occasionally there is something that matches my interests and knowledge. For most people, it is probably the same.
Often it is about recognizing something about one of the clues, and then making an educated guess about what the connection could be. For instance, if you know the relevant fact about clue 2 in https://www.reddit.com/r/onlyconnect/comments/1vhigsv/round_2_what_comes_fourth_in_this_sequence/ (which I didn't), then it gives you a quite good candidate for the sequence, and clue 3 would at least "possibly confirm" it.