Pop Culture Trivia Questions

Sixty-two questions, one round each for film, television, music, books and fads, every fact dated and nothing current.

See all 62 with answers
Bollywood is the popular name for a film industry that makes films in which language?

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with any school, exam board, quiz show, studio, network, publisher or record label. Bank checked October 16, 2026.

All 62 questions with answers

At the movies 12

  • A 1952 adventure film set off the first craze for what in American movie theaters? Answer: 3D films. Source: Wikipedia: Bwana Devil
  • Bollywood is the popular name for a film industry that makes films in which language? Answer: Hindi. Source: Wikipedia: Hindi cinema
  • The Golden Raspberry Awards were first handed out in a living room in 1981. What are they given for? Answer: The worst films of the year. Source: Wikipedia: Golden Raspberry Awards
  • On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, what is set into the sidewalk for each person honored? Answer: A five-pointed star. Source: Wikipedia: Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • Which 1976 film about a boxer was written by its star, Sylvester Stallone, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture? Answer: Rocky. Source: Wikipedia: Rocky
  • Which 1977 film stars John Travolta as a young man from Brooklyn who spends his weekends dancing at a disco? Answer: Saturday Night Fever. Source: Wikipedia: Saturday Night Fever
  • Which 1977 space opera by George Lucas was later retitled as Episode IV of its own series? Answer: Star Wars. Source: Wikipedia: Star Wars (film)
  • Which 2013 animated film was loosely inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of 1844 about a snow queen? Answer: Frozen. Source: Wikipedia: Frozen (2013 film)
  • Which 2018 film was the first superhero film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture? Answer: Black Panther. Source: Wikipedia: Black Panther (film)
  • Which 2019 film was the first film not in English to win the Academy Award for Best Picture? Answer: Parasite. Source: Wikipedia: Parasite (2019 film)
  • Which California city is home to a comic book convention, founded in 1970, that grew to take in every kind of pop culture? Answer: San Diego. Source: Wikipedia: San Diego Comic-Con
  • The word paparazzi comes from the name of a character in which Italian film of 1960? Answer: La Dolce Vita. Source: Wikipedia: Paparazzi

On television 13

  • A 1980 advertising catchphrase asked who shot a villain called J.R. Which prime-time soap opera did it promote? Answer: Dallas. Source: Wikipedia: Who shot J.R.?
  • The final episode of which series, first shown on February 28, 1983, ran two and a half hours and was directed by its star Alan Alda? Answer: M*A*S*H. Source: Wikipedia: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen
  • Gene Roddenberry created which science fiction series, shown on NBC from 1966 to 1969? Answer: Star Trek. Source: Wikipedia: Star Trek: The Original Series
  • Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz starred in which sitcom, shown on CBS from 1951 to 1957? Answer: I Love Lucy. Source: Wikipedia: I Love Lucy
  • The phrase jumping the shark, for a show that has run out of ideas, goes back to a 1977 episode of which sitcom? Answer: Happy Days. Source: Wikipedia: Jumping the shark
  • The time machine in a BBC science fiction series first broadcast in 1963 looks from the outside like what? Answer: A British police box. Source: Wikipedia: Doctor Who
  • Which educational children's series, with Jim Henson's Muppets, premiered on November 10, 1969? Answer: Sesame Street. Source: Wikipedia: Sesame Street
  • Which late-night sketch comedy show, created by Lorne Michaels, had its premiere on NBC on October 11, 1975? Answer: Saturday Night Live. Source: Wikipedia: Saturday Night Live
  • Which reality competition, new on CBS on May 31, 2000, puts people in an isolated place where they vote one another out? Answer: Survivor. Source: Wikipedia: Survivor (American TV series)
  • Which sitcom, shown on NBC for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004, revolves around six friends who live in Manhattan? Answer: Friends. Source: Wikipedia: Friends
  • Which sitcom, shown on NBC from 1989 to 1998, has been described as a show about nothing? Answer: Seinfeld. Source: Wikipedia: Seinfeld
  • Which song by the Buggles was the first music video shown on MTV in the United States, at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981? Answer: Video Killed the Radio Star. Source: Wikipedia: Video Killed the Radio Star
  • Why are soap operas called soap operas? Answer: Soap makers sponsored the first ones. Source: Wikipedia: Soap opera

Hit records 12

  • The 45, the small record that defined the pop single in the middle of the 20th century, is named after what? Answer: Its speed in turns per minute. Source: Wikipedia: Single (music)
  • A song that the pop duo Los del Río recorded in 1993 was later remixed in Miami with English lyrics. Which country is the duo from? Answer: Spain. Source: Wikipedia: Macarena
  • The LP record takes its name from which words? Answer: Long playing. Source: Wikipedia: LP record
  • Motown, the record label that Berry Gordy founded in 1959, has a name that blends which two words? Answer: Motor and town. Source: Wikipedia: Motown
  • On December 21, 2012, the video of which song became the first on YouTube to reach a billion views? Answer: Gangnam Style. Source: Wikipedia: Gangnam Style
  • On February 9, 1964, more than 73 million viewers watched which band's first appearance on an American variety show? Answer: The Beatles. Source: Wikipedia: The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show
  • Which 1979 single by the Sugarhill Gang is credited with introducing rap music to a wide audience? Answer: Rapper's Delight. Source: Wikipedia: Rapper's Delight
  • Which brand of portable cassette player, made by Sony from 1979, became widely popular in the 1980s for private listening? Answer: Walkman. Source: Wikipedia: Walkman
  • Which group won the Eurovision Song Contest of 1974, held in Brighton, with a song by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus? Answer: ABBA. Source: Wikipedia: Eurovision Song Contest 1974
  • Which magazine about music and popular culture was founded in San Francisco in 1967? Answer: Rolling Stone. Source: Wikipedia: Rolling Stone
  • Which singer, born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1935, is referred to as the King of Rock and Roll? Answer: Elvis Presley. Source: Wikipedia: Elvis Presley
  • The Woodstock festival of August 1969 was held on a farm in Bethel, New York. About how far is that from the town of Woodstock? Answer: About 60 miles. Source: Wikipedia: Woodstock

Books and comics 12

  • The English puzzle books about a hidden character named Wally go by which title in North America? Answer: Where's Waldo? Source: Wikipedia: Where's Wally?
  • In a 1963 picture book by Maurice Sendak, a boy named Max sails to an island of which creatures? Answer: Wild Things. Source: Wikipedia: Where the Wild Things Are
  • In a 1969 picture book by Eric Carle, which very hungry creature eats its way through many foods and becomes a butterfly? Answer: A caterpillar. Source: Wikipedia: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  • In the comic strip that Bill Watterson drew from 1985 to 1995, what is Hobbes? Answer: A stuffed tiger. Source: Wikipedia: Calvin and Hobbes
  • J. K. Rowling's first novel came out in Britain in 1997. Under which title was it published in the United States the next year? Answer: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Source: Wikipedia: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
  • J. R. R. Tolkien's children's fantasy about Bilbo Baggins was published in which year? Answer: 1937. Source: Wikipedia: The Hobbit
  • The Nancy Drew mysteries, begun in 1930, are published under which collective pen name? Answer: Carolyn Keene. Source: Wikipedia: Nancy Drew
  • R. L. Stine wrote sixty-two books between 1992 and 1997 in which series of scary stories for children? Answer: Goosebumps. Source: Wikipedia: Goosebumps
  • Which comic strip by Charles M. Schulz ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000? Answer: Peanuts. Source: Wikipedia: Peanuts
  • Which English author wrote 66 detective novels and created Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple? Answer: Agatha Christie. Source: Wikipedia: Agatha Christie
  • Which superhero, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, first appeared in a comic book of August 1962? Answer: Spider-Man. Source: Wikipedia: Spider-Man
  • Which superhero, created by the writer Bill Finger and the artist Bob Kane, made his debut in a comic book on March 30, 1939? Answer: Batman. Source: Wikipedia: Batman

Fads and crazes 13

  • The 1990s game of Pogs took its name from POG, a brand of what? Answer: Fruit juice. Source: Wikipedia: Milk caps (game)
  • A flying disc got the brand name Frisbee in June 1957, after a company whose empty tins college students had tossed about. What did the company make? Answer: Pies. Source: Wikipedia: Frisbee
  • A naval engineer came up with which toy in 1943 after he watched a spring step downward off a shelf? Answer: The Slinky. Source: Wikipedia: Slinky
  • The answers inside a Magic 8 Ball are written on a floating die. How many sides has it? Answer: 20. Source: Wikipedia: Magic 8 Ball
  • The Harlem Shake videos, in which a group dances to a short excerpt of a song, went viral in February of which year? Answer: 2013. Source: Wikipedia: Harlem Shake (meme)
  • In 1975 an advertising executive sold which pet in a cardboard box with air holes and straw bedding? Answer: A rock. Source: Wikipedia: Pet Rock
  • In which drawing toy of 1960 do two white knobs move a stylus through aluminum powder to leave a line? Answer: Etch A Sketch. Source: Wikipedia: Etch A Sketch
  • The lava lamp was invented in 1963 by an entrepreneur from which country? Answer: Britain. Source: Wikipedia: Lava lamp
  • Led by a former sailor known as Shipwreck Kelly, which test of endurance was a fad of the middle and late 1920s? Answer: Flagpole sitting. Source: Wikipedia: Pole sitting
  • The troll dolls that became one of the biggest toy fads of the early 1960s were created by a woodcutter from which country? Answer: Denmark. Source: Wikipedia: Troll doll
  • Which cloth dolls with plastic heads were so wanted in 1983 that their maker shipped 3.3 million and cancelled all its advertising? Answer: Cabbage Patch Kids. Source: Wikipedia: Cabbage Patch Kids
  • Which dance, inspired by rock and roll, became a worldwide craze from 1959 to the early sixties? Answer: The twist. Source: Wikipedia: Twist (dance)
  • Which toy, named after a Hawaiian dance, became a fad in 1958 in its plastic version? Answer: The hula hoop. Source: Wikipedia: Hula hoop

How it works

Which film gave us the word paparazzi, and what was sold in 1975 in a box with air holes? These pop culture trivia questions take film, television, music, books and fads a round at a time.

Read the full guide

Random trivia questions on pop culture, or one round

Leave Start from alone for a mixed set, or pick a round. At the movies has the Razzies and the first craze for 3D. On television asks who shot J.R. and why soap operas are called that. Hit records runs from the 45 to a video with a billion views.

Easy entertainment trivia questions for a mixed table

The easy ones are spread through every round: the King of Rock and Roll, a very hungry caterpillar, an island of Wild Things and the twist. On television holds the most, six friends in Manhattan among them.

  • Let each generation at the table pick one round for another generation to answer.

Questions and answers

What are some fun entertainment trivia questions and answers?

Which sitcom has been described as a show about nothing? Which toy is named after a Hawaiian dance? What is Hobbes in the comic strip of 1985 to 1995? The answers are Seinfeld, the hula hoop and a stuffed tiger.

Is there a printable list or PDF of pop culture trivia questions and answers?

Both. All 62 questions stand with their answers under the quiz. After a set, Print lists the questions you just played, and a tick on With answer key adds each answer and its reason. Your print window can save it as a PDF.

Do these pop culture trivia questions go out of date?

They should not. Every fact carries a date, from flagpole sitting in the 1920s to the Best Picture winner of 2019, and nothing current is asked: no running sales total and no record that can still change.

How were the answers checked?

Each was read on October 16, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article linked beside it, 62 articles in all. Living people are named only with dated credits, and no lyric or line of dialogue is quoted.