96 free Funny trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
95 free funny trivia questions with answers, and every one of them is true. Australia really did lose a war to emus. A pope really was dug up and put on trial. A Colorado chicken really did live 18 months without a head, a Polish army bear really did hold the rank of corporal, and a German city really did offer a million euros to anyone who could prove it does not exist. The questions are multiple choice with four options and they range across history, sport, animals, science, food, technology, language, geography and pop culture, so no single subject dominates. Most sit at an easy-to-medium level: the fun is in the answer, not in how hard it is to get. A few are properly obscure and will split a room. Every answer was checked against an encyclopaedic or primary source and each question shows the sentence it came from once you have answered, so when someone refuses to believe that Coca-Cola once contained cocaine or that Amazon was almost called Cadabra, the receipt is right there. Use it for a pub quiz round, a party icebreaker, a work meeting warm-up or a family night when you want the funniest trivia questions rather than the hardest.
30 of 96 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In 1932 the Australian military went to war against which animal, and lost?
Emus
Soldiers with Lewis guns were sent to cull the birds in Western Australia's Wheatbelt, but the flocks scattered into small mobile groups and the operation was abandoned amid public ridicule.
Q 02The only shot fired in a 1784 Dutch-Habsburg naval standoff hit what, giving the conflict its name?
A soup kettle
The Habsburg ship Le Louis surrendered after that single shot, making it one of the least bloody wars ever fought.
Q 03The 1838 France-Mexico war is nicknamed after the profession of a Frenchman whose shop was looted. What was he?
A pastry chef
Monsieur Remontel said Mexican officers had looted his shop in Tacubaya and demanded 60,000 pesos for a business valued at under 1,000.
Q 04Legend says Liechtenstein sent 80 soldiers to the 1866 Austro-Prussian War and how many came back?
81
The tale says they returned with a new Austrian friend in tow. Liechtenstein disbanded its army entirely two years later and has been neutral ever since.
Q 05According to legend, Caligula planned to give which political office to his horse Incitatus?
Consul
Ancient sources are clear it never actually happened; historians suspect the whole thing was a joke at the Senate's expense.
Q 06In 1698 Tsar Peter I of Russia introduced a tax on what?
Beards
Those who paid carried a copper or silver token showing a nose, mouth and whiskers as proof. Catherine the Great repealed the tax in 1772.
Q 07In January 1943 the US government briefly banned the sale of what?
Sliced bread
It was a wartime conservation measure and lasted under two months; a New York housewife wrote to the Times that it was vital to the 'morale and saneness' of a household.
Q 08The astronomer Tycho Brahe lost part of his nose in a duel that started as an argument over what?
Who was the better mathematician
He wore a prosthetic nose for the rest of his life; a 2012 analysis of his exhumed remains found it was made of brass.
Q 09The first man across the line in the 1904 Olympic marathon was disqualified for doing what for part of the race?
Hitched a ride in a car
Fred Lorz dropped out with cramps after nine miles, was driven back to the stadium, waved to the crowd and nearly received the gold from Alice Roosevelt.
Q 10Trainers kept 1904 Olympic marathon winner Thomas Hicks going with brandy, raw eggs and what?
Strychnine
The rat poison was used in small doses as a stimulant; Hicks was hallucinating and near collapse when he crossed the line.
Q 11Which sport did astronaut Alan Shepard play on the Moon during Apollo 14?
Golf
He used a Wilson six-iron head attached to a sample-scoop handle and, swinging one-handed in a stiff suit, hit two balls.
Q 12Chess boxing matches alternate rounds of blitz chess and boxing. How can a bout be won?
By checkmate or knockout
A match is eleven alternating rounds starting and ending with chess, and the same chess game continues across rounds.
Q 13The World Bog Snorkelling Championship is held each August in which country?
Wales
Competitors swim two lengths of a trench cut through a peat bog near Llanwrtyd Wells using flipper power only; conventional strokes are banned.
Q 21An Olympic 'gold' medal is actually made mostly of which metal?
Silver
IOC rules require at least 92.5 percent silver plated with just 6 grams of gold, so its metal was worth around $494 in 2010.
Q 22Wombats are the only known animals to produce droppings of what shape?
Cubes
The shape stops them rolling away when stacked to mark territory; the discovery won the 2019 Ig Nobel Prize for Physics.
Q 23Sea otters have a loose pouch of skin under each foreleg. What do they keep in it?
Food and a favourite rock
They prefer the left pouch, and the rock is a tool for cracking open shellfish and clams at the surface.
Q 14Wife-carrying, which has its own world championship, began in 1992 in which country?
Finland
It began in Sonkajärvi and has spawned national finals in the UK and the US, where one contestant once carried two wives at once and finished last.
Q 15Toe wrestling was invented in 1974 by British pub drinkers who wanted what?
A sport Britain could dominate
The World Toe Wrestling Championship is still held annually in Derbyshire; the official rules ban stimulants.
Q 16At the annual Cooper's Hill event in Gloucestershire, competitors hurl themselves down a steep hill chasing what?
A wheel of cheese
The 7 to 9 pound round of Double Gloucester is sent rolling down a slope of around 50 percent, and winners have come from as far as Japan and Egypt.
Q 17Which of these was an official Olympic event at every Games from 1900 to 1920?
Tug of war
It was counted as part of the athletics programme; in 1900 a mixed Danish-Swedish team took first place.
Q 18How did Eric 'the Eel' Moussambani win his 2000 Olympic 100 m freestyle heat despite the slowest time ever?
Both rivals were disqualified for false starts
The swimmer from Equatorial Guinea had never seen a 50-metre pool before Sydney and had trained in a hotel pool between 5 and 6 am.
Q 19Why was the last 'timeless' cricket Test, Durban 1939, abandoned as a draw after nine days?
The visitors had to catch their ship home
England were 654 for 5 chasing 696 when they left Durban to catch the ship, and timeless Tests were never played again.
Q 20In a 1994 Caribbean Cup qualifier, Barbados deliberately scored against themselves late in the game. Why?
A golden goal in extra time counted double
Barbados needed to win by two; tied at 2-2 they could win by the doubled sudden-death goal, so Grenada then tried to score an own goal too while Barbados defended both ends.
Q 24Mike, a Colorado chicken, became famous in 1945 for living 18 months after what happened to him?
He was beheaded
The axe missed the jugular and left most of the brain stem, so he could still walk and perch; Fruita holds a Mike the Headless Chicken Day every May.
Q 25When the first preserved platypus reached Europe in 1799, scientists concluded that it was what?
A fake sewn together from other animals
The prevailing suspicion was that someone had stitched a duck's beak onto a beaver-like body.
Q 26How often does a three-toed sloth climb down from its tree to use the toilet?
About once a week
It digs a hole and covers it afterwards. Nobody is sure why it takes the risk, since sloths on the ground are easy prey.
Q 27What was the favourite drink of Wojtek, the bear drafted into the Polish Army in WWII?
Beer
He held the rank of corporal, had his own paybook and serial number, and helped carry ammunition crates at Monte Cassino.
Q 28From 1997 until 2017 the town of Talkeetna, Alaska had an honorary mayor named Stubbs. What was Stubbs?
A cat
The tale that he won a write-in campaign is a myth, since the town has no real mayor, but he still drew 30 to 40 tourists a day.
Q 29In Switzerland it is illegal to keep just one of which pet?
Guinea pig
The animals are considered social, so owning a single one is classed as harmful to its well-being.
Q 30The bird we call a turkey got its English name because of a mix-up with which other bird?
Guineafowl
The name first referred to guineafowl, an African bird imported to Europe via Turkey; the French instead named the American bird after India.