Tokyo Midtown presents The Lifestyle MUSEUM

日高大介さん_Tokyo Midtown presents The Lifestyle MUSEUM_vol.879

·30 min·3 clips

Quiz writer Daisuke Hidaka has crafted over 100,000 questions, but how does he decide which ones make the cut?

The episode is an interview format with host Peter Barakan and guest Daisuke Hidaka, a professional quiz writer and former quiz show champion. Barakan opens with a quiz about Bob Dylan's girlfriend in a film, setting a playful tone. Hidaka is introduced with his credits on shows like Q-sama and Quiz Hexagon II. He shares his childhood fascination with quiz shows, citing America Ōdan Ultra Quiz as an inspiration. Hidaka estimates he has created over 100,000 quiz questions throughout his career. He explains that difficulty levels are tailored to the audience, not his own knowledge. The discussion covers quiz types, from knowledge-based to puzzle-solving, and differences between TV and radio quizzes. Hidaka recounts iconic quiz moments, like the moving circles in America Ōdan Ultra Quiz and the timing challenges in Time Shock. He describes a breakthrough quiz question he designed, focusing on the missing direction in the names of the American Civil War and Satsuma Rebellion. Hidaka improvises a quiz about a Japanese doll on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album cover, revealing it as a fukusuke doll. He also mentions a quiz about the musical group PPM (Peter, Paul and Mary). Hidaka discusses his quiz show participation, winning Attack 25 in 1998 and Time Shock in 2001, but losing in the final episode of Attack 25. He details the workload, from creating thousands of questions for games to spending days on a single question for TV. Hidaka emphasizes the need to invent false answers for multiple-choice questions, calling quiz writers 'liars.' He touches on the British show Weakest Link and why it didn't succeed in Japan. Hidaka identifies service spirit and balance as key skills for quiz writers, beyond knowledge. The episode includes promotions for Tokyo Midtown's strawberry event and Hidaka's manga series Quiz Road. It concludes with thanks and closing remarks.

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