Tom Scott Plus
Popular and prolific YouTube star Tom Scott has been all over the globe, teaching viewers about all sorts of amazing places, and he recently celebrated his retirement with an elaborate helicopter stunt. His success is even more remarkable given his common name and how hard he can be to look up online, given the staggering number of Tom Scotts in the world. Which one of these seven would-be Tom Scotts is the real one is something you might not know.
Kristin Scott Thomas
publication date: Saturday, January 20, 2024
category: 
Movies
clue: A patient Englishman and a whispering horseman are two of the many on-screen loves of this actress in her long career.
explanation: Scott Thomas's films include The English Patient and The Horse Whisperer. more…
intended difficulty: easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Chris Lemler, Richard Slominsky, and Erik Bates
Thomas A. Scott
publication date: Friday, January 19, 2024
category: 
Business
clue: If you've ever owned the second railroad in Monopoly, then you have something in common with this Abraham Lincoln war adviser and reviled "robber baron" of industry.
explanation: Scott served as the Assistant Secretary of War during the Lincoln administration. His work expanding the U.S. railroad network led him into a career in that industry, including leading the Pennsylvania Railroad company from 1874-1880, during which time his union-busting made him a notorious figure. more…
intended difficulty: medium
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Chris Lemler, Richard Slominsky, and Erik Bates
Tim Scott
publication date: Thursday, January 18, 2024
category: 
Government
clue: This southern senator won't be the Republican nominee for president in 2024.
explanation: Scott, senator from South Carolina, suspended his presidential campaign in November 2023. more…
intended difficulty: very easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Chris Lemler, Richard Slominsky, and Erik Bates
trivia: This goo inspired the "Tom Scott Plus" theme. When Scott Hardie looked up YouTuber Tom Scott online, he found a large number of like-named people in the results, including animator TomSka and politician Tim Scott. The number of variations on the common name so amused him that he couldn't resist making a silly theme out of them for the goo game.
TomSka
publication date: Wednesday, January 17, 2024
category: 
Cartoons
clue: He took over Edd Gould's world, made a "movie" about four consecutive keys on a keyboard, and made another web series so hyper that it's named after two words of comic book onomatopoeia.
explanation: Thomas Ridgewell, known by his online handle TomSka, is a British animator known for the "asdfmovie" and "Crash Zoom" series. He performed the voice of Tom in the "Eddsworld" series and took it over after the death of founder Edd Gould. more…
intended difficulty: medium
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Chris Lemler, Richard Slominsky, and Erik Bates
Tom Everett Scott
publication date: Tuesday, January 16, 2024
category: Movies
clue: You might have seen him in Paris playing a werewolf, in South Los Angeles playing a detective, in La-La Land playing a husband, in Pennsylvania playing a drummer, or on campus playing an (almost) dead man.
explanation: Scott starred in An American Werewolf in Paris, Southland, La La Land, That Thing You Do!, and Dead Man on Campus. more…
intended difficulty: very easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Chris Lemler, Richard Slominsky, and Erik Bates
Tom Scott
publication date: Monday, January 15, 2024
category: 
Music
clue: Here's the express form of his long resume: He played on "Billie Jean," "Saving All My Love for You," and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" He was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live and co-founded the Blues Brothers Band. He wrote the theme songs for Family Ties and Starsky and Hutch. He was the musical sideman to Pat Sajak and Chevy Chase in their late-night talk shows.
explanation: Scott fronted the jazz group L.A. Express. more…
intended difficulty: very easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Richard Slominsky, and Erik Bates
Tom Scott
publication date: Sunday, January 14, 2024
category: 
Internet
clue: After gaining early fame for teaching Britons about the zombie apocalypse and how to talk like a pirate, he went on to teach YouTube viewers about the basics of language, geography, and science, despite technical difficulties along the way.
explanation: Scott first came to public attention for his refusal to obey a government order to take down his zombie-awareness site parodizing real government websites and for his role in popularizing International Talk Like a Pirate Day. He went on to found a popular YouTube channel with recurring topics like "The Basics" and "Language Files," and performed with a comedy troupe called the Technical Difficulties. more…
intended difficulty: very easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, Richard Slominsky, and Erik Bates
