It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
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50 free It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is the comedy that tried to fit every comedian in Hollywood into one film. A dying crook whispers about loot buried under a big W, a handful of strangers hear him, and within minutes ordinary motorists are wrecking cars, planes and each other to get there first. This quiz covers the whole chase: who was in which car, how each party got sidetracked, what was waiting at the end, and which famous faces flash past in cameos. It also digs into the making of the film, from the writers and the widescreen cameras to the stunts, the premiere and the awards night. It is written for fans who watch the film every time it airs, and for anyone who knows it mainly as the one with everybody in it. Each answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave with a few new stories either way.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which slapstick comedy team makes a wordless cameo as airport firemen in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
The Three Stooges
The Three Stooges appear for only a few seconds, standing motionless in their gear. By 1963 the line-up was Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Joe DeRita.
Q 02In It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, what does the 'big W' marking the buried cash turn out to be?
Four palm trees
Four palm trees grouped together form the W. The dying crook gave no other clue, so the treasure hunters search the state park frantically before the shape finally shows itself.
Q 03Which two-time Best Actor winner plays weary police captain Culpeper in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy was in poor health and completed the part in nine non-consecutive days. He was the first actor to win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars, for Captains Courageous and Boys Town.
Q 04What does the scolding Mrs. Marcus slip on in the final scene of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
A banana peel
A banana peel dropped earlier sends her sprawling mid-tirade. The men she was scolding burst out laughing, and even the gloomy police captain finally joins in.
Q 05Which human failing, shared by nearly every character, is the satirical target of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Greed
Greed turns helpful strangers into rivals minutes after they hear about the buried cash. The director was known for issue dramas, and this was his comic take on a vice.
Q 06Which future television detective plays a cab driver who joins the treasure hunt in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Peter Falk
Peter Falk shows up only in the last fifth of the film, as a cabbie who catches treasure fever. He already had two Oscar nominations, and Columbo was still five years away.
Q 07What does furious trucker Lennie Pike tear apart with his bare hands in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
A gas station
A gas station comes down around its two mild-mannered owners after they try to detain Pike. The one-man demolition is often called the film's most memorable set piece.
Q 08Which 2001 comedy starring Rowan Atkinson and Whoopi Goldberg was inspired by It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Rat Race
Rat Race sends six teams sprinting toward a storage locker holding a duffel bag of $2 million. The film borrowed the all-star chase idea almost 40 years after the original.
Q 09Which silent-comedy star has a late cameo as a crook in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton turns up near the end of the film for a few moments. His unsmiling deadpan in 1920s classics had earned him the nickname The Great Stone Face.
Q 10A stunt pilot flew a real plane through a billboard for which soft drink in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola was the brand on the sign, which a Beechcraft Model 18 burst through for real. The same pilot also flew the plane through an airport hangar.
Q 11How much stolen money does the dying Smiler Grogan say he buried in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
$350,000
$350,000 was the haul from a robbery fifteen years earlier. The strangers who hear the secret try to agree on shares, fail, and start a mad dash instead.
Q 12Which veteran comedian plays the dying Smiler Grogan in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante, nicknamed the Schnozzola for his prominent nose, is on screen only for the opening minutes. His character's last words set everyone else in motion.
Q 13What is the profession of Melville Crump, the husband on a second honeymoon in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
A dentist
Q 21Which director of serious dramas like The Defiant Ones directed his first comedy with It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Stanley Kramer
Stanley Kramer had built his name on issue films about racism, nuclear war and fascism. He set out to make the ultimate comedy and packed it with dozens of comedians.
Q 22Which Broadway musical star plays the loud Mrs. Marcus in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman, known for her distinctive, powerful voice, spends the film berating everyone in earshot. She has been called the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage.
Q 23Which television comedy star plays the double-crossing Otto Meyer in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Phil Silvers
A dentist by trade, Crump is travelling with his wife Monica when the pair join the hunt. They reach the town first, then get locked in a hardware store basement.
Q 14What do the trapped Crumps finally use to escape a hardware store basement in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Dynamite
Dynamite blows out the basement wall after several other escape attempts fail. The couple then hire a cab to finish the trip.
Q 15Which former child star plays Ding Bell in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney plays one of two pals who end up trying to land a plane themselves. He outlived the rest of the main cast, dying in 2014.
Q 16Where were pals Ding Bell and Benjy Benjamin headed before the treasure hunt in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Las Vegas
Las Vegas was the plan until a stranger's dying words changed the trip. The friends charter a small plane instead, and its alcoholic pilot soon knocks himself out.
Q 17Which comedy star has a seconds-long cameo running over a hat in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis drives over the police captain's hat and is gone in a flash, without screen credit. He directed, co-wrote and starred in The Nutty Professor the same year.
Q 18What relation is the overbearing Mrs. Marcus to businessman J. Russell Finch in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
His mother-in-law
His mother-in-law rides along with Finch and his wife Emmeline, bickering the whole way. After one argument too many, the two women get out and hitch their own ride.
Q 19Which English actor plays Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas first turned the part down, then changed his mind on the flight home to London. He phoned his acceptance from the airport and flew back the same day for a fitting.
Q 20The climax of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World used effects work by a veteran of which classic monster film?
King Kong
King Kong animator Willis O'Brien worked on the miniature shots of men dangling high above the street. He died in 1962, before the comedy reached cinemas.
Phil Silvers, television's Sergeant Bilko, plays a motorist who learns the secret from a stranded driver and promptly abandons him. He later loses his car in a river he tries to drive across.
Q 24Which improv comedian earned a Golden Globe nomination as trucker Lennie Pike in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Winters was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for the part. He later played Mearth, the middle-aged child hatched from an egg on Mork & Mindy.
Q 25Which 1950s television comedian plays Melville Crump in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar spends a long stretch of the film trapped below ground with his screen wife. His series Your Show of Shows went out live for 90 minutes every week in the early 1950s.
Q 26Which early television star plays businessman J. Russell Finch in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Milton Berle
Milton Berle was known to millions as Uncle Miltie, the first major American television star. Here he plays a harried husband whose lift from a British officer ends in a fistfight.
Q 27Which comedian plays Benjy Benjamin, Ding Bell's travelling pal, in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett was reunited here with his co-star from Everything's Ducky, a comedy about sailors and a talking duck. Disney audiences also know him from The Love Bug.
Q 28Which half of a famous comedy duo turned down a cameo in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World after retiring?
Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel had stopped performing after his partner Oliver Hardy died in 1957 and would not return, even for a few seconds on screen. He had received an honorary Oscar in 1961.
Q 29Where do the battered treasure hunters end up in the closing scene of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
A prison hospital
A prison hospital holds the men, heavily injured after their fall. There they grumble about the lost money and blame the police captain for everything.
Q 30Which new Hollywood cinema on Sunset Boulevard opened with the premiere of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
The Cinerama Dome
The Cinerama Dome, a concrete geodesic dome, was finished in time for the premiere on 7 November 1963. The comedy then played there for 66 weeks.