Comedy Movies Trivia
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This comedy movie trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and runs the whole history of screen comedy: silent-era Buster Keaton and Chaplin, the Marx Brothers and screwball classics, Mel Brooks and Monty Python, the SNL and National Lampoon era, and modern hits like Anchorman, Superbad, The Hangover and Bridesmaids. Expect questions on plots, casts, famous quotes, box office records and the odd production stories behind the laughs. It works for a solo brain-stretch, a movie-night showdown or a ready-made round for pub trivia hosts and teachers. Easy questions any casual fan will get sit beside expert ones that reward people who watch the extras and read the credits. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference, and each question shows its source, so you can settle arguments on the spot. Play through, then share your score.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the final line of Some Like It Hot, after Jack Lemmon's character pulls off his wig?
Well, nobody's perfect!
Osgood (Joe E. Brown) answers Daphne's wig-off confession with 'Well, nobody's perfect!', the closing line of the 1959 film Billy Wilder co-wrote, produced and directed.
Q 02In Some Like It Hot, what names do Curtis and Lemmon adopt in the all-female band?
Josephine and Daphne
Curtis becomes Josephine and Lemmon becomes Daphne; Lemmon's character was supposed to be Geraldine but blurts out Daphne, and later ends up engaged to millionaire Osgood.
Q 03Airplane! (1980) is a scene-for-scene parody of which 1957 Paramount disaster film?
Zero Hour!
Zero Hour! (1957) supplied the plot and much of the dialogue; the Zuckers and Jim Abrahams bought its remake rights and played the lines straight for laughs.
Q 04Which NBA legend plays co-pilot Roger Murdock in Airplane!?
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar finally breaks character to snap at the kid about dragging Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.
Q 05In Airplane!, what is the name of Leslie Nielsen's deadpan doctor who does not want to be called Shirley?
Dr. Rumack
Dr. Rumack ('I am serious, and don't call me Shirley') relaunched Leslie Nielsen, until then a dramatic actor, as a comic star and led to Police Squad! and The Naked Gun.
Q 06Which comedian was offered the role of Louis Tully in Ghostbusters (1984) before Rick Moranis took it?
John Candy
John Candy was offered Louis Tully but wanted to play him as a German with a pair of dogs and walked; Rick Moranis made the nebbish accountant one of the film's best-loved parts.
Q 07The Ghostbusters' firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company 8, is in which Manhattan neighborhood?
Tribeca
Hook & Ladder 8 stands at 14 North Moore Street in Tribeca; the working FDNY firehouse supplied the Ghostbusters' headquarters exterior in 1984.
Q 08Huey Lewis turned down writing the Ghostbusters theme because he was already committed to which 1985 film?
Back to the Future
Back to the Future had his commitment, so Ray Parker Jr. wrote the Ghostbusters theme instead, and Lewis later sued over its resemblance to his hit 'I Want a New Drug'.
Q 09Which town stood in for Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in Groundhog Day (1993)?
Woodstock, Illinois
Woodstock, Illinois hosted the shoot from March to June 1992; its town square played Punxsutawney's, and the town began an annual Groundhog Days celebration for fans.
Q 10Which song does Bill Murray's Phil Connors wake up to on the radio every morning in Groundhog Day?
I Got You Babe
'I Got You Babe' by Sonny & Cher plays at 6:00 a.m. with identical DJ banter, the first sign each day that Phil is trapped in February 2.
Q 11What happened to Bill Murray while filming his scenes with the groundhog in Groundhog Day?
It bit him twice
The groundhog bit him twice during the shoot, the bites going through his gloves, and Murray had to have rabies shots as a precaution.
Q 12What is the name of Ron Burgundy's beloved dog in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy?
Baxter
Baxter, Ron's dog, gets punted off a bridge by a furious biker (Jack Black) after Ron's thrown burrito hits him, sending Ron into a spiral of despair.
Q 13What was the straight-to-DVD film assembled from Anchorman's outtakes and abandoned subplots called?
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy
Q 21In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, what do the knights use instead of real horses?
Servants banging coconut shells
Servants banging coconut shells stand in for horses, a gag born of budget necessity that became one of the film's most quoted running jokes.
Q 22Which pair of rock bands helped finance Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, along with Jethro Tull and Genesis, put up money for the 1975 film, which was also the feature directing debut of Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones.
Q 23Monty Python and the Holy Grail was shot mostly in Scotland, largely around which castle?
Doune
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, cut from outtakes and a dropped bank-robbery subplot, arrived on DVD on December 28, 2004, the same year Adam McKay made his directorial debut with the original.
Q 14In The Hangover, at which Las Vegas hotel do the friends book their suite for the bachelor party?
Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace is where the four book their villa; they wake there to a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet and Stu missing a tooth, with no memory of the night.
Q 15The Hangover became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in US history, taking the record from which film?
Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) had held the R-rated comedy record for 25 years until The Hangover passed it in 2009; the film also won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.
Q 16Which Bridesmaids cast member earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress?
Melissa McCarthy
Melissa McCarthy was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2012 Oscars for playing Megan; Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo were nominated the same year for Best Original Screenplay.
Q 17In Bridesmaids, what failed business did Kristen Wiig's Annie run?
A bakery
A bakery, Cake Baby, that went out of business is Annie's backstory; Paul Feig directed and Judd Apatow produced the 2011 hit, made for about $32.5 million.
Q 18Tina Fey's screenplay for Mean Girls was based on which non-fiction parenting book by Rosalind Wiseman?
Queen Bees and Wannabes
Queen Bees and Wannabes, Rosalind Wiseman's 2002 guide to teenage cliques, gave Fey her framework; the 2004 comedy grossed over $130 million on a budget under $18 million.
Q 19Which Mean Girls role was Lindsay Lohan first set to play before moving to Cady Heron?
Regina George
Regina George was Lohan's first assignment; she moved to Cady and the queen bee part went to Rachel McAdams, whose leader of the Plastics became the film's defining performance.
Q 20Where was Mean Girls' Cady Heron homeschooled for years before transferring to an American high school?
Africa
Africa, where her zoologist parents did fieldwork, was Cady's home for most of her childhood and left her unprepared for the Plastics and the Burn Book at North Shore High.
Doune Castle, a 14th-century stronghold near Stirling, stood in for several different castles in the film and later appeared in Outlander and Game of Thrones.
Q 24Which former Beatle arranged funding for Monty Python's Life of Brian through his new company, HandMade Films?
George Harrison
George Harrison mortgaged his house to fund it through HandMade Films, reportedly because he wanted to see the movie; Eric Idle called it the most expensive cinema ticket in history.
Q 25Life of Brian reused sets from Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth in which country?
Tunisia
Tunisia's Monastir, where Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth sets stood, hosted the shoot; Brian is born in a stable next door to Jesus, briefly confusing the three wise men.
Q 26Life of Brian was marketed in Sweden as 'the film so funny it was banned in' which neighboring country?
Norway
Norway banned it for a year and Ireland for eight, so Swedish posters called it 'the film so funny it was banned in Norway', all over a film ending with a sing-along at a crucifixion.
Q 27Which comedian was Mel Brooks's original choice for Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles, but stayed on only as co-writer?
Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor co-wrote the script and was Brooks's pick for Bart, but Warner Bros. balked; Cleavon Little got the badge and Brooks fought executives over gags like the campfire beans scene.
Q 28Which actor was first cast as Blazing Saddles' Waco Kid but collapsed on set, opening the door for Gene Wilder?
Gig Young
Gig Young collapsed on set, later attributed to alcohol withdrawal, and Wilder stepped in to play the shakiest gunslinger in the West.
Q 29Which effects man built the original 1931 Universal lab props reused in Young Frankenstein?
Kenneth Strickfaden
Kenneth Strickfaden, who built the electrical gizmos for Universal's 1931 Frankenstein, had kept them in his garage; Brooks borrowed them to give his 1974 parody an authentic look.
Q 30What unusual visual choice, a rarity in the 1970s, did Mel Brooks make for Young Frankenstein in 1974?
Entirely in black and white
Entirely in black and white was the look, and with Gene Wilder's insistence on 'Fronkensteen' and Marty Feldman's 'Eye-gore' it earned Wilder and Brooks a screenplay Oscar nomination.