by Dan Katz
Answer: INTERROBHANG
Answers Used
  • AFRICA
  • BEHIND THE SCENES
  • NICKNAMES
  • NIGHTLY NEWS
  • OOPS
  • PORTRAYALS
  • ANIMANIACS
  • GO MAN GO
  • GUNNAR ESIASON
  • HOLLYWOOD
  • NONAGENARIANS
  • SENIOR BOWL

The actual pie competition occurring here is Trivial Pursuit, which was closely associated with the six colors seen here until someone decided to change brown to purple for recent editions, ruining several early drafts of this metapuzzle. Each of the Holi answers is the name of a category in some edition of Trivial Pursuit, as follows:

AnswerTP EditionCategory Color
AFRICAGlobe TrotterBrown
BEHIND THE SCENESWarner BrothersGreen
NICKNAMESAll-Star SportsBlue
NIGHTLY NEWSBaby BoomerYellow
OOPS90’sPink
PORTRAYALSSilver ScreenOrange

Each of the Pi Day answers can be associated with one of these editions:

AnswerTP Edition
ANIMANIACSWarner Brothers (show with the Warner Brothers as main characters)
GO MAN GOGlobe Trotter (movie starring the Harlem Globetrotters)
GUNNAR ESIASONBaby Boomer (Boomer Esiason’s baby)
HOLLYWOODSilver Screen (where movies are made)
NONAGENARIANS90’s (nonagenarians are in their nineties)
SENIOR BOWLAll-Star Sports (a sporting event for all-stars)

However, since the Holi Town residents are deceived by appearances, the Holi answers reflect categories of the pies' altered colors, while the judging should be based on the pies' original colors. That means each pie slice actually represents another category. For example, AFRICA is the brown category from the Globe Trotter edition, but the slice of pie that appears brown was actually green. This means that this slice actually represents the green category from Globe Trotter, EUROPE, and that the Globe Trotter pie is the green pie. Thus, the desired pies and slices for each color are:

ColorTP EditionPi Day AnswerCorrected Holi Answer
Blue (dyed pink)90'sNONAGENARIANSHANGING
Pink (dyed orange)Silver ScreenHOLLYWOODTITLES
Yellow (dyed green)Warner BrothersANIMANIACSTELEVISION
Brown (dyed yellow)Baby BoomerGUNNAR ESIASONPUBLISHING
Green (dyed brown)Globe TrotterGO MAN GOEUROPE
Orange (dyed blue)All-Star SportsSENIOR BOWLNUMBERS

Finally, each color corresponds to one of the flavors with places assigned in the judging:

ColorFlavorPlace
PinkStrawberry Cream Pie1st
YellowBanana Cream Pie2nd
BrownChocolate Cream Pie3rd
GreenPistachio Pie4th
BlueBlueberry Pie5th
OrangePumpkin Pie6th

Reading the Pi Day answers and corrected Holi answers in the pictured order and using these places as indices, we reveal the answer, INTERROBHANG (an appropriately question-based variant of bhang, a beverage consumed during Holi).

HANGING (5)
I
GUNNAR ESIASON (3)
N
TITLES (1)
T
TELEVISION (2)
E
SENIOR BOWL (6)
R
NUMBERS (6)
R
EUROPE (4)
O
PUBLISHING (3)
B
HOLLYWOOD (1)
H
GO MAN GO (4)
A
ANIMANIACS (2)
N
NONAGENARIAN (5)
G