Between contemporary politicians, musicians, actors, and athletes, I should get most (if not all) the way there. Sprinkle in a few historical figures and I'm home free. In case of emergency, I can always dip into my stash of streamers which alone could easily get me halfway to the finish line because I have permanent brain poisoning.
If you asked me this 10 years ago I could probably do it with K-Pop idols alone, but nowadays I don't think I could pull it off, at least not without some visual aids or something to jog my memory. I think they'd still get me to about the halfway mark, though.
I think I might actually try this after I've gotten some sleep and post my results--seems like fun to see how fast you can do it! I'll first try it without the more niche categories (how many of you are actually gonna know I'm not naming some random person if I say Lee Soon-kyu?) and see how far I get. I think the strategy is probably to prime your memory with groups rather than going one-by-one (e.g. for actors, think in terms of franchises or TV series; for athletes, think of specific sports or teams; for musicians think of genres, eras, or groups; for politicians, go by administrations, governing bodies, states, etc.)
One rule clarification: how strict are we on needing first and last names? For actors, politicians, and athletes it seems non-negotiable, but a lot of singers go by mononyms or stage names. Some of them seem like fair game, but others seem like cheating. Like, do you really know the Spice Girls if you can give their "Spice names" but not their real names? I think I can get all or most if the former but only one if the latter (the most famous one), and the latter seems fairer to me--I doubt I'd even recognize the others' names if I saw them, or even recognize them if I saw their photos outside of a Spice Girls context.
edit: I did it! Fun exercise--would be nice to try it again further down the line (not having been primed by reading some of the other lists) with additional restrictions.
One rule clarification: how strict are we on needing first and last names? For actors, politicians, and athletes it seems non-negotiable, but a lot of singers go by mononyms or stage names. Some of them seem like fair game, but others seem like cheating. Like, do you really know the Spice Girls if you can give their "Spice names" but not their real names? I think I can get all or most if the former but only one if the latter (the most famous one), and the latter seems fairer to me--I doubt I'd even recognize the others' names if I saw them, or even recognize them if I saw their photos outside of a Spice Girls context.
Yeah I was wondering this too. Especially since you bring up Kpop idols since like dont all of them (or maybe just the ones it bands) go by mononyms?
Like my friend did this and said "Lisa from blackpink" and i was NOT sure that should count lmao.
But on the other had I'm decently sure nearly everyone would agree just saying "Madonna" would count so why not?
Yeah, if the mononym is very strongly associated with a person it seems fair (Madonna was exactly who I was thinking about) but I wouldn't accept "Nick from the Backstreet Boys." I think the litmus test would be if you say the name amongst people that are into the genre (but NOT superfans) and still get almost universal recognition. Like, if you say Siwon, everyone knows you mean Siwon from Super Junior. But if you just say Jonghyun...I mean, it could be the Jonghyun from CN Blue, but it could also be the (late great) Jonghyun from SHINee.
I think with Kpop psuedonyms you could get away with saying "Jonghyun from SHINee" like my friend did with Lisa. Like Lisa doesnt go by anything else despite technically having a last name (i mean she calls herself LaLisa sometimes in her songs but w/e) but I do think you need the "from Blackpink" with a generic name like that.
Other things that come to mind from my niche interests. Pro wrestling, ring names are acceptable right? Some wrestlers, including women, go by mononyms in wrestling. Like just "Naomi" or just "Asuka". Or by names that are... not names like "The Undertaker" (can't think of a female example off the top, actually no there's a indy wrestler who goes by "The WOAD" as an example) lmao.
And then with my RTV example. There's two that come to mind. These are very niche and noone else will care but bare with me
I know the names of a lot of the kids from Kid Nation, but not their last names because they werent revealed even in press i'm pretty sure. I think you can find them now, but they werent part of the show so "Taylor from Kid Nation" is what she is famous (ish) by.
The Flavor of Love girls go by nickanmes chosen by Flav. The ones who went on to do Charm School had their real names (still only their first names tho) revealed but still, even the most famous one is Tiffany "New York" Pollard and people still mostly call her New York. The lesser known ones like say... Buckeey... would "Buckeey from Flavor of Love" count lmao?
Anyway like I said these are niche and noone else would care but I wanted to express out loud lmao <3 But if someone were judging this contest I do wonder if and how they'd accept these. Like if I'm pretty sure if i said just "Naomi" it wouldnt count, but what about "Naomi from WWE"? Or would I HAVE to say "Trinity Fatu" lmao (luckily in this case I actually know her real life name).