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A Questionably Questionable Question

October 23, 2008

games, pensive reflections

Not that I would ever condone using any variation of the “Well, that’s the $64,000 question!” idiom, but I seem to have found myself regularly engaged in dialogues with people who do. In each instance, both the nature of the question and its associated dollar amount vary greatly. Sometimes its a $64K question; other times its a $64 million question; and certain people, such as Radiohead, apparently think its a $1,000,000 question, as evidenced by their song of the same name. All of this disturbs me.

How many questions could be tied to such astronomically disproportionate dollar amounts? Who is assigning these values? Do they change with inflation, and if so, why are they always rounded so cleanly? Does anyone ever get the money for providing a correct answer to the question? Is there any kind of royalty system in place for the individual who originally posed the question? Why is the dollar amount never provided by the same person who poses the question? How will the government’s “bailout plan” affect the value of the question? So many questions, so few answers.

To satisfy my curiosity, I did a little Internets “research”, and it appears that most “historians” agree that the question derives from two semi-popular-ish TV shows from the 1950′s, The $64 Question and The $64,000 Question. In the 1970s, the concept would be revived as The $128,000 Question, which aired for two seasons before going the way of the Dodo. Ironically, the so-called “$128,000 Question” didn’t even exist–contestants who won the $64,000 prize at the end of their show would return at the season finale to compete for an additional $64,000.

So, that’s resolved.

* Oldhab Quote of the Day: “My fantasy football team did horrible today, but at least Cinco Uno had 11 points.”