XPAND (Virginia) interview questions

I was contacted by a recruiter saying I would be a great fit. Two days later I interviewed with the hiring manager, which lasted 30 mins. The interview consisted of obscure language specific questions from Javascript, C#.Net, MVC. I really don't see what that has to do with being a great programmer. You know, there's a reason google exists when you need to look up something obscure. Why does one really have to know these things off the top of their head?