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This cartoon character trivia quiz has 99 free questions with answers and runs from the silent-era Felix the Cat to Peppa Pig and Perry the Platypus, by way of the Looney Tunes gang, Hanna-Barbera's Flintstones, Jetsons and Yogi Bear, the Peanuts and Garfield strips, Disney's Donald and Goofy, the Simpsons, SpongeBob's Bikini Bottom neighbours, Scooby-Doo's Mystery Inc. and Pokémon's Pikachu. The questions cover the characters' origins, catchphrases, voices, quirks and hidden details: Tweety's real gender, Donald's middle name, Goofy's original name, why Elmer says 'wabbit', where Patrick lives and what Snoopy was modelled on. About a third are easy enough for kids; the rest will test anyone who grew up in front of Saturday-morning TV. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, mostly Wikipedia's character articles, and each question shows its citation.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which marine-science educator created SpongeBob SquarePants?
Stephen Hillenburg
Stephen Hillenburg taught marine science before animation; his inspiration was The Intertidal Zone, an educational comic he drew in the 1980s while teaching.
Q 02Which Hanna-Barbera series, running on ABC from 1960 to 1966, was the first animated sitcom in US prime time?
The Flintstones
The Flintstones was such a hit that it set off a brief fad for evening cartoons, with Top Cat and The Jetsons following it onto ABC's schedule within two years.
Q 03In the Scooby-Doo franchise, what breed is the talking dog who travels with four teenage sleuths?
Great Dane
Great Dane: designer Iwao Takamoto asked a breeder what made a prize-winner, then drew Scooby-Doo as the opposite, with bowed legs and a back that is anything but straight.
Q 04What is the name of the brightly painted van driven by the teenage sleuths in Scooby-Doo?
The Mystery Machine
The Mystery Machine suits a show built to a network brief: executive Fred Silverman wanted a cross between the old radio serial I Love a Mystery and a teen sitcom.
Q 05The Simpsons began as animated shorts around the ad breaks of which variety programme?
The Tracey Ullman Show
The Simpsons debuted as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show on 19 April 1987, after producer James L. Brooks asked cartoonist Matt Groening to pitch animated bumpers for the programme.
Q 06What is the name of The Simpsons' fictional hometown, one of the most common US place names?
Springfield
Springfield was borrowed from a real town near Matt Groening's childhood home, and he liked that the name was so common that viewers everywhere would assume it was theirs.
Q 07Which 1928 animated short is considered the official debut of Mickey Mouse?
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie was built as a fully synchronised sound cartoon after its producer saw The Jazz Singer; the earlier Mickey films Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho had failed to find a distributor.
Q 08Which Hollywood studio produced the original Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts, beginning in 1940?
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's cartoon unit released the first short, Puss Gets the Boot, in 1940; William Hanna and Joseph Barbera made the series there for nearly two decades before founding their own studio.
Q 09Which voice actor originated the voice of Bugs Bunny?
Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc first voiced the rabbit as a manic 1938 prototype and later reused its laugh for Woody Woodpecker, whose debut was written by the man who had directed that early rabbit.
Q 10Betty Boop, first drawn by animator Grim Natwick, debuted in 1930 at the cartoon studio run by which producer?
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer's studio introduced her in Dizzy Dishes, where Grim Natwick drew her as a dog; by 1932 the floppy ears had turned into her hoop earrings.
Q 11Bugs Bunny's definitive personality first appeared in which Oscar-nominated 1940 short?
A Wild Hare
A Wild Hare rebuilt the studio's rabbit: the 1938 prototype was a loud, zany heckler, while this one coolly munches a carrot as he greets the man hunting him.
Q 12Which Looney Tunes character stutters the closing line 'That's all, folks!'?
Porky Pig
Porky Pig got the stutter from his first voice actor, Joe Dougherty, who really had one; he could not control it, sessions ran for hours, and the studio replaced him in 1937.
Q 13Which Looney Tunes bird, often taken for a girl, is in fact male?
Tweety
Tweety is male, despite the long lashes: he was a pink, featherless chick in his first three cartoons until censors insisted he be given feathers.
Q 21Which producer's studio created Woody Woodpecker, released through Universal from 1940?
Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz's studio launched Woody in 1940's Knock Knock; a decade later Lantz's wife, Grace Stafford, slipped an unnamed tape into the auditions for the bird's voice, and he picked it without knowing.
Q 22Which Hanna-Barbera character debuted in 1958 as a supporting act before landing his own show?
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear outgrew his slot and got his own show in 1961; baseball's Yogi Berra sued over the name, then dropped the case after the studio insisted any resemblance was a coincidence.
Q 23Which Hanna-Barbera dog fronted the first cartoon series to win an Emmy, in 1960?
Huckleberry Hound
Q 14Wile E. Coyote mail-orders his rockets, anvils and traps from which company?
Acme
Acme is Greek for the highest point, and in the 1920s real firms took the name to sit at the front of alphabetical phone books; the cartoons use it ironically for gear that always fails.
Q 15Which Looney Tunes star appeared in three Oscar-winning shorts, outscoring Bugs Bunny's single win?
Sylvester
Sylvester's three winners came in 1947, 1955 and 1957; the first ended Tom and Jerry's run of four straight Oscars and gave Warner's cartoon studio its first.
Q 16Which Looney Tunes villain, drawn without a mouth, first menaced Bugs Bunny in 1948's Haredevil Hare?
Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian wears the helmet and skirt of Mars, the god his planet is named after; Chuck Jones thought the outfit would look funny on an ant-like creature.
Q 17Foghorn Leghorn is what kind of animal?
A rooster
A rooster, and a Leghorn at that: his surname is a real breed of chicken, named after the Italian port of Livorno, which was long known in English as Leghorn.
Q 18Which Looney Tunes star did Cartoon Network shelve in 1999 as an ethnic stereotype, then restore in 2002 after fans campaigned?
Speedy Gonzales
Speedy Gonzales, 'the fastest mouse in all Mexico', found a defender in the League of United Latin American Citizens, which called him a cultural icon as fans lobbied for his return.
Q 19Which speech quirk is Elmer Fudd famous for?
He replaces R and L with W
He replaces R and L with W, so rabbits become 'wabbits'; in a 1957 opera spoof he even sings 'Kill the wabbit' to the tune of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.
Q 20Which 1919 cartoon character became silent-era animation's first major star?
Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat debuted in 1919's Feline Follies and ruled the silent screen, but his studio was slow to embrace sound and Mickey Mouse's talkies quickly eclipsed him.
Huckleberry Hound's show took the award for children's programming; the blue hound's drawl was second-hand, since Daws Butler had already used it for a wolf in the Droopy cartoons.
Q 24Who is Fred Flintstone's daughter?
Pebbles
Pebbles was born to Fred and Wilma in a 1963 episode; soon afterwards the Rubbles found Bamm-Bamm left on their doorstep and adopted him, and in later spin-offs the two grow up and marry.
Q 25George Jetson's family lives in the Skypad Apartments in which futuristic town?
Orbit City
Orbit City stands on tall adjustable columns high above the ground; its swooping look copies Googie, the space-age style of 1950s Californian coffee shops and motels.
Q 26Hanna-Barbera's Top Cat parodied which live-action sitcom about a scheming army sergeant?
The Phil Silvers Show
The Phil Silvers Show's fast-talking Sgt. Bilko was the model for Top Cat; the cartoon flopped in prime time, lasting one season, then found its audience through years of Saturday-morning reruns.
Q 27Which Charles Schulz dog inspired Snoopy and shares his desert-dwelling brother's name?
Spike
Spike was the family dog, and he gave the teenage Schulz an early break: in 1937 Ripley's Believe It or Not! published his drawing of the pet in its newspaper feature.
Q 28Which food does Garfield love above all others?
Lasagna
Lasagna has been his favourite since birth: Jim Davis has Garfield born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant, where he ate so much that the owner had to sell him to a pet shop.
Q 29Popeye first appeared in 1929 in a comic strip called what?
Thimble Theatre
Thimble Theatre, E. C. Segar's strip, was in its tenth year when Popeye walked in on 17 January 1929; the sailor quickly took over as its star.
Q 30What is Donald Duck's middle name?
Fauntleroy
Fauntleroy is spelled out on his call-up papers in 1942's Donald Gets Drafted; it is thought to nod to Little Lord Fauntleroy, since boys' 'Fauntleroy' outfits often meant a sailor suit and hat like his.