El Chavo del Ocho
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50 free El Chavo Del Ocho trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
El Chavo del Ocho is one of the most-watched comedies ever made in Spanish. Roberto Gómez Bolaños, known as Chespirito, wrote it and played its hero, an orphan boy in a poor Mexican tenement, while grown-up actors played every child around him. Reruns have kept it on screens across the Americas for half a century. This quiz covers the whole vecindad: El Chavo and his hiding place, Quico and his doting mother, Don Ramón and his unpaid debts, La Chilindrina, Profesor Jirafales, Señor Barriga and Doña Clotilde. It also goes behind the scenes, to the cast, the departures that changed the show, the animated revival and the tributes paid by famous fans. The questions range from easy to hard, so the quiz suits anyone who grew up with the show as well as fans who know every episode. Each answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 'Ocho' in El Chavo del Ocho first referred not to an apartment number but to what?
A TV channel
A TV channel gave the show its number: the sketches began on Mexico's Channel 8, and only later did Chespirito explain that the boy lived in apartment 8.
Q 02On El Chavo del Ocho, what does El Chavo climb into and call his secret hideout, though he does not live there?
A barrel
A barrel by the entrance is only his hiding place: he actually has a home in apartment 8, where a kind neighbour took him in when he arrived at the age of four.
Q 03El Chavo is always hungry on El Chavo del Ocho; which filling goes in the sandwich he craves above all?
Ham
Ham fills the torta he dreams of, a sandwich on a crusty Mexican roll; the craving became so famous that licensed El Chavo ham tortas were later sold in shops.
Q 04According to Quico on El Chavo del Ocho, which sea creature ate his father, who died at sea?
A shark
A shark, Quico insists, and the loss explains the family's airs: Doña Florinda was a wealthy officer's wife before widowhood brought her down to the vecindad.
Q 05When a fright leaves El Chavo frozen stiff with 'la garrotera' on El Chavo del Ocho, what cures him?
A splash of water
A splash of water, thrown cold, unlocks him; a 2013 funk song named after the frozen pose went viral, with the group dancing dressed as El Chavo.
Q 06El Chavo del Ocho's theme, 'The Elephant Never Forgets', is an electronic take on a Turkish March by which composer?
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven's Turkish March, his Op. 113, was rearranged by Jean-Jacques Perrey in 1970; Mozart's piano piece with the same nickname is a different tune.
Q 07In an October 2025 Saturday Night Live sketch recreating El Chavo del Ocho, which music star played Quico?
Bad Bunny
Bad Bunny played Quico opposite Marcello Hernández as El Chavo, with Jon Hamm as Profesor Jirafales and Kenan Thompson as Señor Barriga.
Q 08Chespirito, stage name of El Chavo del Ocho's creator, is a Spanish diminutive of which writer's name?
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, said the Spanish way, gives 'Chespir'; the '-ito' ending made it 'Little Shakespeare', a nod to the prolific scriptwriter's short stature.
Q 09The children of El Chavo del Ocho are sure that Doña Clotilde, their neighbor in apartment 71, is secretly what?
A witch
A witch is what they call her, though El Chavo once reasoned she could not be one, or she would have used magic to make herself young and beautiful.
Q 10Which soccer superstar went to a 2012 costume party dressed as Quico from El Chavo del Ocho?
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi wore Quico's outfit to the party, and he was not the first footballer to pay tribute: in 2004 Sebastián González celebrated a goal in El Chavo's cap.
Q 11Which outfit does Quico almost always wear on El Chavo del Ocho, topped with a rainbow beanie?
A sailor suit
A sailor suit honours the father Quico lost young, a naval officer who died at sea, and he pairs it with bright yellow socks pulled up to his knees.
Q 12Señor Barriga, usually greeted by an accidental blow from El Chavo, visits the vecindad of El Chavo del Ocho to do what?
Collect the rent
Collect the rent, which Don Ramón never has: he is famously 14 months behind and bolts for cover the moment Señor Barriga walks into the vecindad.
Q 13Whenever Quico runs home crying on El Chavo del Ocho, what does Doña Florinda do to Don Ramón, guilty or not?
Slaps his face
Q 21Under which title is El Chavo del Ocho shown in Brazil, where network SBT has aired a Portuguese dub for decades?
Chaves
Chaves, also a common Portuguese surname, became the boy's name in the dub SBT first aired in 1984; a 2003 campaign persuaded the network to put the show back on air.
Q 22Which bumbling superhero did Chespirito also create and play, in a series launched alongside El Chavo del Ocho?
Chapulín Colorado
Chapulín Colorado, a good-hearted but naive hero, came first, in 1970, and both he and El Chavo moved from sketches to weekly half-hour series in 1973.
Q 23Which network, born of a merger weeks before El Chavo del Ocho became a weekly series in 1973, produced it?
Televisa
Slaps his face, and hard enough to spin him in a full circle; he became her scapegoat, slapped even for trouble that broke out when he was nowhere near.
Q 14Doña Florinda of El Chavo del Ocho is almost never seen, even at work, without what in her hair?
Curlers
Curlers stay in her hair at her job and even on a beach holiday; only a few early episodes show Doña Florinda without them.
Q 15On El Chavo del Ocho, the children mock tall Profesor Jirafales with a nickname that compares him to which food?
A sausage
A sausage: the children call him Maestro Longaniza, after a notably long kind; his surname is a height joke too, built on 'jirafa', the Spanish word for giraffe.
Q 16Rivals Doña Florinda and Don Ramón briefly become business partners on El Chavo del Ocho selling which fried pastry?
Churros
Churros brought the two enemies together for one venture; Doña Florinda, known among the neighbours for her cooking, later opens her own restaurant.
Q 17Profesor Jirafales always arrives to court Doña Florinda on El Chavo del Ocho carrying which gift?
A bunch of flowers
A bunch of flowers comes with every visit, yet in almost 20 years of courtship neither he nor Doña Florinda ever suggested taking the romance any further.
Q 18Jaimito the mailman on El Chavo del Ocho always walks beside which vehicle, having lied that he could ride it?
A bicycle
A bicycle was a job requirement at the post office, so Jaimito fibbed and now pushes it everywhere, afraid he will be sacked if anyone finds out.
Q 19Which beach resort hosts El Chavo del Ocho's famous three-episode holiday saga, filmed on location with the cast?
Acapulco
Acapulco doubled as a real holiday for the cast, and Señor Barriga takes El Chavo along in place of his own son, who is away camping with the Boy Scouts.
Q 20El Chavo's trademark headwear on El Chavo del Ocho is a green checked cap with which unusual feature?
Ear flaps
Ear flaps hang from the cap, part of a look completed by a striped T-shirt and orange braces with both straps slung over one shoulder.
Televisa was created on January 8, 1973, when rivals Telesistema Mexicano and Televisión Independiente de México merged. By 2012, El Chavo reruns had earned it an estimated $1.7 billion.
Q 24Which actor played Quico on El Chavo del Ocho until 1978, when he left to build a show around the character?
Carlos Villagrán
Carlos Villagrán, a former newspaper photographer, was born in 1944, which made him five years older than Florinda Meza, who played Quico's mother.
Q 25The actor cast as Quico on El Chavo del Ocho won the part by doing what at a co-star's party?
Inflating his cheeks
Inflating his cheeks was just a party trick until it reached Chespirito through Rubén Aguirre, the future Profesor Jirafales; the puffed-up look became Quico's trademark.
Q 26Édgar Vivar played two roles on El Chavo del Ocho: Señor Barriga and which classmate, the character's own child?
Ñoño
Ñoño let Édgar Vivar play father and son on one show; before comedy took over his life, Vivar had qualified as a medical doctor.
Q 27Ramón Valdés, Don Ramón on El Chavo del Ocho, entered films through which comedian, a relative and Golden Age star?
Tin-Tan
Tin-Tan, born Germán Valdés, got his sibling a part in the 1949 film Tender Pumpkins, the first of more than 50 film appearances before television made Ramón famous.
Q 28Godínez, the daydreaming classmate on El Chavo del Ocho, was played by which relative of creator Chespirito?
His brother
His brother Horacio Gómez Bolaños had never considered acting: he was hired to oversee the show's marketing, then spent years dodging the teacher's questions on screen.
Q 29Why did María Antonieta de las Nieves, La Chilindrina, leave El Chavo del Ocho at the end of its first season?
Her pregnancy
Her pregnancy kept her away until 1975; the scripts said La Chilindrina was staying with aunts in Celaya, and Don Ramón's goddaughter Malicha briefly took her place.
Q 30After Quico's actor quit El Chavo del Ocho, Doña Florinda said her son had gone to live with whom?
His rich godmother
His rich godmother took him in, Doña Florinda explained, because Quico could no longer stand the neighbours; after that nobody in the vecindad mentioned him again.