Popularity vs. Questions Asked at Trashmasters 2002
Below are some 'Best Of' charts in the areas of Music, Movies and Television. I am not advocating best selling as a metric of what makes a good trash question, I am simply pointing out what the nation considers popular culture as opposed to what the trash community considers popular culture.
Film
Film data was the easiest to find, since Box Office totals are so readily available. However, the data is for films released in 2002, so Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and other Christmas 2001 releases do not appear on this list.
| Top 20 Films of 2002 (as of 8-Dec) by U.S. Box Office |
| Rank | Film | Questions |
| 1 | Spider-Man | |
| 2 | Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones | Tossup on Nate Gunray |
| 3 | Sings | |
| 4 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | |
| 5 | My Big Fat Greek Wedding | Part of a Chain Bonus |
| 6 | Austin Powers in Goldmember | |
| 7 | Men in Black 2 | |
| 8 | Ice Age | |
| 9 | Scooby-Doo | Part of a Chain Bonus |
| 10 | Lilo and Stitch | Tossup about Stitch |
| 11 | XXX | |
| 12 | Minority Report | |
| 13 | Mr. Deeds | |
| 14 | Sweet Home Alabama | |
| 15 | The Ring | Bonus Part |
| 16 | The Bourne Identity | |
| 17 | Die Another Day | |
| 18 | Santa Clause 2 | |
| 19 | The Sum of All Fears | |
| 20 | 8 Mile | |
| ... |
| 42 | The Tuxedo | Bonus Part |
| 48 | Orange County | Tossup |
| 64 | I-Spy | Bonus Part |
| 76 | Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, The | Bonus Part |
| 94 | Punch Drunk Love | Tossup and Bonus Part |
| 101 | Half Past Dead | Tossup |
| 103 | Ballistic: Ecks v. Sever | Bonus Part |
| Note: There were 2 bonuses on Lord of the Rings |
Television
Other than the weekly Top 20, Nielsen guards their ratings data like it was the formula for Coca-Cola. Usually I get an E-mail of the top 10 in the 18-49 demo, so the chart for them is a poll ranking a la NCAA polls. For cult/presumed overexposed shows not making the lists below, there were 2 Soprano-related tossups, 2 Simpsons-related bonuses, 1 Buffy-related tossup and 1 SportsNight bonus. There were five questions on shows already cancelled, the same amount on shows in the Top 20.
| Top 20 Television of 2002 (as of 8-Dec) by 2002-03 Season Nielsen Ranking |
| Rank | Film | Questions |
| 1 | CSI | Part of Bonus about televisionwithoutpity.com |
| 2 | Friends | Bonus about Ursula Buffay |
| 3 | ER | Tossup about Lucy Knight |
| 4 | Everybody Loves Raymond | |
| 5 | Will and Grace | |
| 6 | Law and Order | |
| 7 | CSI: Miami | |
| 8 | Survivor: Thailand | |
| 9 | Monday Night Football | |
| 10 | Scrubs | |
| 11 | The Bachelor | Tossup on Aaron |
| 12 | Law and Order: SVU | |
| 13 | West Wing | |
| 14 | Still Standing | |
| 15 | Good Morning Miami | |
| 16 | Fraiser | |
| 17 | Judging Amy | Bonus part |
| 18 | Without a Trace | |
| 19 | 60 Minutes | |
| 20 | JAG | |
| Top 10 Television of 2002 (as of 1-Dec) for Adults 18-49 based on Weekly Ratings |
| Rank | Film | Questions |
| 1 | Friends | Bonus about Ursula Buffay |
| 2 | ER | Tossup about Lucy Knight |
| 3 | CSI | Part of Bonus about televisionwithoutpity.com |
| 4 | Will and Grace | |
| 5 | Scrubs | |
| 6 | Survivor: Thailand | |
| 7 | Everybody Loves Raymond | |
| 8 | Monday Night Football | |
| 9 | Good Morning Miami | |
| 10 | The Bachelor | Tossup on Aaron |
Music
Unfortunately, music data seems to be the hardest to come by. Soundscan barely has a Website, Billboard doesn't keep year-to-date data and the RIAA does maintain a nice database of Gold/Platinum/Diamond status, but it isn't broken down by year. A recent CNN article had the top 5 year-end according to Soundscan, so I listed those below, except it was pretty pointless since no Trashmasters questions had any of them. For kicks, I then pulled the Top 20 page requests on allmusic.com by artist and album from March-September 2002, thinking it would help a little bit since the demographics of allmusic.com users are closer to trash players than the general public's. Weep for the future now.
| Top 5 Selling Albums of 2002 according to SoundScan |
| Rank | Album | Questions |
| 1 | Eminem Show | |
| 2 | Nellyville | |
| 3 | Let's Go | |
| 4 | Happy | |
| 5 | Drive | |
| Top 10 Page Hits for Albums from March-September 2002 on allmusic.com |
| Rank | Album | Questions |
| 1 | Eminem Show | |
| 2 | By The Way (Red Hot Chili Peppers) | |
| 3 | Maladroit (Weezer) | Bonus part on Weezer |
| 4 | Untouchables (Korn) | |
| 5 | 18 (Moby) | |
| 6 | Heathen (David Bowie) | |
| 7 | Alice (Tom Waits) | |
| 8 | Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Wilco) | Tossup |
| 9 | Veni Vidi Vicious (Hives) | |
| 10 | Rising (Bruce Springsteen) | |
| Top 10 Page Hits for Artist from March-September 2002 on allmusic.com |
| Rank | Artist | Questions |
| 1 | Eminem | |
| 2 | The Beatles | Bonus part on George Harrison |
| 3 | Korn | |
| 4 | Bob Dylan | |
| 5 | The Who | |
| 6 | Moby | |
| 7 | Rush | |
| 8 | David Bowie | |
| 9 | Nirvana | |
| 10 | Bruce Springsteen | |
Subject Breakdown | List of Answers | Last Updated: 16-Dec-2002