February 26, 2000

6:25 PM

Oh my lord. The Guess the Dictator/Sit-com character site works by asking a series of questions about a person you have to think of. I selected an obscure sit-com character, Chris Elliot from Fox's ill-fated "Get a Life" series. If you would have asked me to bet money on it before proceeding, I would have gladly put $20 on the site not figuring it out. After about 15 questions, it guessed right. This is scary stuff. [via rebeccablood]
posted by mathowie (15 comments total)

that's an old favorite website of mine. smalltime also hosts my old very favorite time-wasting website, the anonymous message server.
posted by palegirl at 7:32 PM on February 26, 2000

After 20 questions it got me....Mr. Burns from The Simpsons :-)
posted by tomcosgrave at 7:58 PM on February 26, 2000

Are you Mr. Drummond from Diff'rent Strokes

Yes!!
posted by Mick at 8:08 PM on February 26, 2000

heh, my second try was Arnold "Whacchotalkinbout Willis?" Drummond, and it took 19 questions to get it.
posted by mathowie at 8:10 PM on February 26, 2000

Hmm... looks like you should have all been using evil dictators instead.

I tried it seven times and beat it five:

It knew Napoleon (but the name is spelled wrong) and Henry VIII. It did not know Alexander the Great (guessed Menelaus), Gustavus Adolphus (guessed Ivan the Terrible), Tojo (guessed Hirohito, which was close), Shaka (guessed Ivan the Terrible again) or Idi Amin (guessed Duncan McCleod???).

(Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden started the Thirty Years War in 1615. Tojo was the dictator of Japan at the time of Pearl Harbor. Shaka was the founder of the Zulu nation.)

posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:18 PM on February 26, 2000

It took 37 questions, but it beat me. Alfalfa from The Little Rascals. Remarkable.
posted by sixfoot6 at 10:38 PM on February 26, 2000

I stumped it with Putty, from Seinfeld. Or is it Puddy?
posted by luke at 11:51 PM on February 26, 2000

It's Puddy. Did you try Newman?
posted by mathowie at 11:58 PM on February 26, 2000

It would have got Newman when it asked whether I was a mailman, around question 15.
posted by luke at 12:33 AM on February 27, 2000

I tried Major Bellows from 'I Dream of Jeannie' and it thought I was Bob Newhart. Which, y'know, I wasn't.

This is actually a variation of a simple database that shipped with one of the old Apple machines. It had this quizlet that would guess what animal you were. My friend Willie spent his USC tuition money on an Apple and my friend Brian and I spent a weekend screwing up teh database. We would be things like "carpet fragment" or "Belgium" so when it asked "Do you have a pouch?" and we answered, "No!" and it would say, "Are you an Octopus?" and we'd say, "No, I'm Wayne Newton on Acid!" it would ask for a question to help it differentiate an octopus from Wayne Newton on Acid, and we would enter "Do you consider chocolate a form of currency?"

We got increasingly obscure and surreal. "I'm mucus!" "What yeas or no question could I ask to tell the difference between Thurston Howell's beef jerky and mucus?" "Do you remember that thing we used to do to the poodle and how it would vomit all over the linoleum?" "Thank you!"

Needless to say, Willie was pissed. Still, that was one wacky game. I've always wanted to transform it to the Web. Just another empty dream...
posted by honkzilla at 1:40 AM on February 27, 2000

I tried it; I was answering for Tootie from "The Facts of Life," and it came up with Radar from "M*A*S*H." Close...
posted by jason at 2:20 AM on February 27, 2000

It took thirty questions to get Kelly Bundy from Married with Children. I think I may have answered wrong a couple of times (not being a huge Kelly Bundy expert)... I really wonder about my "no" answer to "Has a dim-witted guy living in a van ever had a crush on you?"

Jason, I wanted to do a Facts of Life character, Jo actually, but couldn't remember enough about the show to try... my hat's off to you!
posted by Sapphireblue at 9:41 AM on February 27, 2000

It didn't get Tabitha from "Bewitched" - though Salem from "Sabrina" is awfully close. I had a moment of crisis, though: I didn't know whether witches count as human or not. I voted no. (Wiccans are human. But witches? The whole damn point of the show is that Sam and her family are different than Darren and the other "mortals".)

I tried to be Eddie from The Courtship of Eddie's Father, but I couldn't remember details (do I live in New York? Minnesota?). I almost switched midway to Pat Suzuki on that show, but what the hell was her name?
posted by bjennings at 11:19 AM on February 28, 2000

Fantastic! I beat it in twenty questions with Monroe Ficus from "Too Close For Comfort." Anyone remember that show? I'm surprised at myself. It's the kind of trash that would make me ignore my mom calling me for dinnertime, back in 1986.
posted by legibility at 4:50 PM on February 28, 2000

It guessed I was Andie MacPhee from "Dawson's Creek" when in actuality I was Special Agent Dale Cooper from "Twin Peaks." Not too close at all...
posted by Awol at 4:02 PM on March 1, 2000