Grumpy Old Men Trivia
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48 free Grumpy Old Men trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
45 free Grumpy Old Men trivia questions with answers. Grumpy Old Men (1993) and Grumpier Old Men (1995) turned Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau's decades-long friendship into two of the surprise hits of the nineties. This quiz covers both films: John Gustafson and Max Goldman's ice-fishing feud in Wabasha, Minnesota, the dead fish in the truck, Ariel Truax moving in across the street, Grandpa Gustafson's breakfast advice, the IRS agent, Chuck's bait shop, and then Maria Ragetti's Italian restaurant, Catfish Hunter and the wedding that closes the sequel. There are easy questions for anyone who has seen the films at Christmas, and harder ones on how they were made: the screenwriter who was working as a secretary when he wrote it, Matthau's pneumonia, the Minnesota towns that doubled for Wabasha, the box office, the cancelled third film Grumpiest Old Men and the Eddie Murphy remake that never arrived. A final stretch covers the ten films Lemmon and Matthau made together. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the films and their stars, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What plays alongside the closing credits of Grumpy Old Men?
Outtakes and bloopers
Outtakes and bloopers roll with the credits, and a last clip shows Walter Matthau in a bathtub joking that he would have asked for another million had he known about the scene.
Q 02In which Minnesota town is Grumpy Old Men set?
Wabasha
Wabasha gives the film its setting but little of its scenery: St. Paul stood in for the neighbourhood, Faribault for downtown and Center City for the church.
Q 03In Grumpy Old Men, which subject did John Gustafson teach before he retired?
History
History: John tells Ariel he taught American history for 39 years, and jokes that he touched a pupil only once, on the head, while the boy snored through his New Deal lecture.
Q 04In Grumpy Old Men, what did Walter Matthau's Max Goldman do for a living before retiring?
Television repairman
Television repairman: Max reveals his old trade when he finds Ariel has gutted a 1954 Zenith set, and he offers to fix it for her.
Q 05Which prank do Grumpy Old Men's John and Max keep pulling?
Leaving a dead fish in the rival's vehicle
Leaving a dead fish in the rival's vehicle bookends the film: John stinks out Max's back seat early on, and Max hides one in John's wedding limousine at the end.
Q 06Who plays Ariel Truax, the free-spirited widow who moves in across the street in Grumpy Old Men?
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret plays Ariel, who picks John over Max; when the 1995 sequel opens, the two have been married for six months.
Q 07What is Ariel Truax's job in Grumpy Old Men?
English professor
English professor Ariel teaches American literature, and she introduces herself to John by admitting she took some of his mail to find out who he was.
Q 08Which veteran actor plays John's father, Grandpa Gustafson, in Grumpy Old Men?
Burgess Meredith
Burgess Meredith plays John's 94-year-old father, who tells his son to keep seeing Ariel because the first 90 years or so go by pretty fast.
Q 09Grumpy Old Men's Grandpa actor was best known for which earlier roles?
The Penguin and Rocky's trainer Mickey
The Penguin and Rocky's trainer Mickey renewed his popularity after a film career that stalled in the 1950s, when his liberal politics landed him on the Hollywood blacklist.
Q 10Who plays John's daughter Melanie in Grumpy Old Men?
Daryl Hannah
Daryl Hannah plays Melanie, who separates from her husband Mike and ends the film starting a romance with Max's son.
Q 11In Grumpy Old Men, Kevin Pollak's Jacob Goldman is running for which office?
Mayor
Mayor: Jacob wins the election partway through the film, and then manages to hold off the seizure of John's house for a while.
Q 12Which actor plays Chuck, the friend caught between John and Max in Grumpy Old Men?
Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis, who wrote and delivered the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965, plays Chuck, the pal who urges both neighbours to court Ariel.
Q 13Which agency is chasing John over a debt in Grumpy Old Men?
The IRS
The IRS sends agent Elliot Snyder to seize John's house and belongings, but Max barricades the front door and rigs the roof to dump snow on him.
Q 21Which music star's studio complex housed the interior sets for Grumpy Old Men?
Prince
Prince built Paisley Park in Chanhassen with a full sound stage beside its recording studios, which is why the film's interior sets could go up there.
Q 22What went wrong at the end of the Grumpy Old Men shoot?
Walter Matthau caught pneumonia
Walter Matthau caught pneumonia as filming wound up, after outdoor scenes shot in the subzero cold of a Minnesota winter.
Q 23Grumpy Old Men opened across US cinemas on which holiday in 1993?
Christmas Day
Christmas Day suited the story, whose turning point comes over Christmas, when Max comes to his neighbour's rescue and finally calls himself a friend.
Q 14What started John and Max's feud in Grumpy Old Men?
One married the other's high-school sweetheart
One married the other's high-school sweetheart: John wed May, the girl Max loved, though John insists she was no prize and that Max was happier with the woman he did marry.
Q 15How does jealous Max endanger John in Grumpy Old Men?
He drives the fishing shanty onto thin ice
He drives the fishing shanty onto thin ice after seeing Ariel leave John's house in the morning, and John only narrowly escapes.
Q 16What happens when John storms out of the bar in Grumpy Old Men?
He has a heart attack in the snow
He has a heart attack in the snow on the way home; Max finds him, and at the hospital the old enemy checks in by declaring himself John's friend.
Q 17What wedding gift does Max give John at the end of Grumpy Old Men?
A paid-off tax bill
A paid-off tax bill: Max tells the groom that he and his son Jacob have settled the debt, then undercuts the gesture by calling his own share just a loan.
Q 18What does Ariel make in the snow on her day out with John in Grumpy Old Men?
A snow angel
A snow angel: Ariel makes one on a bluff above town after their snowmobile ride, and tells John that angels are all around us.
Q 19Which Mystic Pizza director made Grumpy Old Men?
Donald Petrie
Donald Petrie reunited Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau for their first comedy together in twelve years, and its success led to a run of late-career pairings.
Q 20In Grumpy Old Men, what does Ariel insist on doing with the fish she catches with Max?
Letting it go
Letting it go: Max wants the record catch stuffed for his wall, but Ariel calls it a live creature full of courage and sends it back under the ice.
Q 24Roughly how much did Grumpy Old Men gross in North America?
$70 million
$70 million in North America made a hit of a comedy about two feuding retirees, and a sequel followed two years later.
Q 25What happens to Chuck partway through Grumpy Old Men?
He dies in his sleep
He dies in his sleep soon after his Thanksgiving visit to Ariel, the visit that spurred John and Max to start courting her themselves.
Q 26Ariel Truax moves to Minnesota from which state in Grumpy Old Men?
California
California: when Ariel mentions her years in Berkeley, Max mutters that this explains it, his verdict on her free-spirited ways.
Q 27In Grumpier Old Men, what does the new owner plan to turn the old bait shop into?
An Italian restaurant
An Italian restaurant is Maria Ragetti's plan, so John and Max join forces to sabotage it; by the end the place serves as both restaurant and bait shop.
Q 28What is the name of the giant fish everyone is trying to land in Grumpier Old Men?
Catfish Hunter
Catfish Hunter has dodged every angler in town for years, and the two neighbours squabble over whose wall he will end up mounted on.
Q 29Which pair of insults do John and Max trade daily in the Grumpy Old Men films?
"Moron" and "putz"
"Moron" and "putz" begin as real abuse between the feuding neighbours, but by the sequel the same two words have become a friendly morning greeting.
Q 30How is Grandpa Gustafson found dead in Grumpier Old Men?
At his fishing spot with a rod and a beer
At his fishing spot with a rod and a beer is how John finds him, having gone down to the lake to ask his father's advice about his marriage.