Codes & Communication Trivia: Kids vs Parents Family Road Trip Trivia

Backseat Trivia Rumble - Episode 88 8-3-2026
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[00:00:00] All right, and welcome back to Backseat Trivia Rumble. I hope the snacks are open and the volume is up, because we've got a heavyweight battle today. In the backseat, the polyglot prodigies and the sign language scholars. In the front seat, the dial-up dinosaurs and the away message legends. Three rounds, 30 questions.

Drivers, eyes on the road. Kids, eyes on the prize. Let's get ready to rumble with the first kids round. Question one: What do you call the special alphabet made of raised dots that blind people read with their fingers? And the answer is Braille. Question two: What language uses hand shapes and movements [00:01:00] instead of spoken words?

And the answer is sign language. Question three: What do you say in Spanish to greet someone hello?

And the answer is hola. Question four: What do you call a person who transfers language from one to another?

And the answer is a translator. Question five: What is the name of the set of symbols we use to write down the English language? And the answer is the alphabet. Question six, true or false, French is the official language spoken in Mexico

And the answer is false. That question always trips people up. Turns out [00:02:00] saying oui oui in Mexico gets you a very confused waiter. Question seven: What is the name for a word that sounds the same in two different languages but means something different?

And the answer is a false cognate. Question eight. What are you writing when you write on a piece of paper and send it through the mail?

And the answer is a letter. Question nine, what language has the most native speakers of any language in the world?

And the answer is Mandarin. Question ten. What do you call a person who can speak two languages fluently?

And the answer is bilingual All right, parents, are [00:03:00] you ready for round two? Today, we're dialing back to the days before smartphones when talking to your friends took a lot more patience. Kids, let's sit back and watch those parents do their work. Question one: What device did people use in public before cell phones, often requiring a coin to make a call?

And the answer is a payphone. Question two: What was the small device clipped to your belt in the '90s that buzzed when someone wanted you to call them back? And the answer is a pager. Question three: What was the name of the popular instant messaging program that let '90s and 2000s teens chat online with a signature door opening sound?

And the answer is AOL Instant Messenger. Question four: [00:04:00] What device did you have to plug your phone line into if you wanted to connect to the internet in the '90s?

And the answer is a dial-up modem. Question five: What did you record on your home phone so people could leave you a message when you weren't there?

And the answer is an answering machine greeting. Question six. What short message did AIM users set to let friends know they were busy or gone? And the answer is an away message. I used to be an away message king back in the day, which really just means I was really good at pretending not to be home.

Question seven: What phrase became AOL's famous announcement spoken aloud every time a new email [00:05:00] landed in your inbox? And the answer is, you've got mail. Question eight, what do you call a house phone that lets you walk around the house while talking?

And the answer is a cordless phone. Question nine: What do you call the annoying tone you'd hear on the phone if the person you were calling was already talking to someone else? And the answer is a busy signal. Question 10. What service let you see who was calling before you even picked up the phone? And the answer is caller ID We've got two rounds in the books, and it's on to the rumble round.

This round is all about secret codes and hidden ways to send a message. First to shout out the answer is the winner. [00:06:00] Question one: What system of dots and dashes was used to send messages over telegraph wires? And the answer is Morse code. Question two: What do you call a message written so that only the sender and receiver can understand it?

And the answer is a secret code. Question three: What ancient Egyptian writing system used pictures instead of letters? And the answer is hieroglyphics. Question four. What do you call small pictures used in texting to show feelings like a smiley face or a heart

And the answer is emojis. Question five: What three-letter abbreviation do people type to mean laugh out loud?[00:07:00] 

And the answer is LOL. Question six. What do you call a secret name someone uses instead of their real name, often used by spies or writers?

And the answer is a code name. Question seven: What did people use way before phones to send messages by making smoke rise from a fire?

And the answer is smoke signals. Question eight. What do you call writing that is scrambled or rearranged so it's hard to understand without a special key?

And the answer is a cipher. Question nine, what secretive type of writing appears only when you hold it near heat or light?[00:08:00] 

And the answer is invisible ink. And the final question: What three-letter distress signal is universally recognized to mean help in Morse code? And the answer is SOS