Do YOU want to be a millionaire?

During my lunch break, I would watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

The show has changed since it premiered in 1998. There are two rounds; in the first round, the questions and monetary value are randomized (meaning the hardest question could be first and worth the least). You add up the amounts that you have won ($10,000+$100+$7,000=$17,100). The second round reverts back to classic Millionaire with difficulty and money increasing with each question and you don’t add the value of the question to your previous winnings. If you get the $100,000 question, you have $100,000.

If you get a question wrong in the first round you lose all of your money and only get $1,000. If you walk, you get half of your money. In the second round, if you get it wrong, you go home with $25,000. If you walk, you get your bank from round one.

There are three lifelines; two “Jump the Questions” in which you skip answering the question and give up the money behind it, and “Ask the Audience” in which the audience votes on which answer is correct.

I’m glad they got rid of the “Phone a friend”. You have 60 seconds to tell your friend the question and possible answers only for them to be silent for 15 seconds and then ask to hear it repeated, only for you to never hear from them again.

If my explanation of the rules confuses you, go here or here.

Watching the show so much, I think I can offer some tips on how to win or do the best you can. I’m such a nice guy, I won’t write it in a book and sell it to you on a late night infomercial!

1) Try to reason a question out. Look for clues in the question. Just think! Now that there is no stupid clock, you now have time to think. “It sounds French, and France is an option…”

2) When they randomize the questions, look to see where the easiest and hardest questions are. Don’t get caught up on an easy question because it is at the end. One contestant was struggling on the easiest question because she thought it was harder than it was.

3) NEVER ask the audience on a really hard question. They won’t know either. Only ask them on a pop culture question or something to do with modern movies or TV shows.

4) If you just don’t know, skip the question. If you can’t reason it out and have no idea, it is better to skip than be wrong. The only time you should ever guess is when you have less than $1,000 in your bank and no lifelines. As $1,000 is the amount you get if you are wrong, there is no risk (you can walk away with a grand if you get it wrong and have $600 in your bank!)

5) If you just don’t know, and have no lifelines, just walk. Only guess if you have $1,000 or less (because walking will give you half your earnings. You can be wrong and leave with a grand or walk and get $500. Better to guess).

The next few have less to do with the game and more about improving your knowledge.

6) Look at a map. A US map. A world map. A physical map. A political map. Know your geography! So many people just don’t know where things are.

7) Watch every episode of The Simpsons. There have been so many questions that I knew simply because The Simpsons made some random reference to it. For example: One question was “What unusual place did Mary Poppins have a Tea Party?” I have never seen the movie (somehow) or I don’t remember it. HOWEVER, I remember the Simpsons episode with Shary Bobbins¹ and how she was trying to get Lisa to stop watching TV by “having a Tea Party on the ceiling”. ‘On the ceiling’ was the correct answer. There have been countless other times where remembering random lines from the Simpsons has helped me answer the question.

8) Know your pop culture. Read every tabloid. See every movie.

9) When all else fails, just buy as many trivia books as you can and memorize them.

This should help you if you ever find yourself on the show.

¹ The title for this episode really bothers me: “Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious”. Why the f*ck do they add the direction in the script (annoyed grunt) instead of the actual phrase “D’oh!”? The point is to make a pun, and they screwed it up. This isn’t the only time they do this too, but they do favor using the actual word instead of “Annoyed Grunt”