O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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50 free O Brother, Where Art Thou? trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the Coen brothers' sun-baked comedy about three escaped convicts crossing 1930s Mississippi in search of a fortune, with a sheriff on their heels and a hit record they have no idea is theirs. It borrows its shape from one of the oldest stories ever told and its sound from the gospel, blues and bluegrass of the rural South. This quiz covers the whole trip: the plot and its strangest detours, the characters the trio meet along the road, the cast, the real people and legends behind the story, and the soundtrack that outsold almost everything around it and sent a generation of listeners back to old-time music. A few questions go behind the camera to how the picture got its dusty, sun-bleached look. It is written for fans who can recite the script, for anyone who has just watched it for the first time, and for quiz hosts who need a ready round with answers and short explanations attached.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which ancient epic poem about a long journey home is O Brother, Where Art Thou? loosely based on?
The Odyssey
The Odyssey lends the film its hero's first name, Ulysses, the Roman form of Odysseus, yet the directors admitted neither of them had ever read the poem.
Q 02Under what band name do Everett, Pete and Delmar record a radio hit in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Soggy Bottom Boys
Soggy Bottom Boys became so popular off screen that the real singers behind the voices won the CMA Award for Single of the Year and took the film's music on tour.
Q 03Which actor plays Everett McGill, the smooth-talking escaped convict in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
George Clooney
George Clooney said yes to the part before reading a page of the script, telling the directors he liked even their least successful films.
Q 04In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, what does Delmar believe the singing washerwomen turned Pete into?
A toad
A toad found in Pete's empty clothes is all the proof Delmar needs, and he carries it along as his friend until Big Dan Teague kills it.
Q 05Which nickname belongs to the real bank robber the convicts meet in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Baby Face
Baby Face was a nickname earned by a youthful look. The real outlaw, born Lester Gillis, died in 1934, three years before the film's tale of bank raids and shot cows is set.
Q 06In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, what does Everett finally confess about the buried treasure?
He made it up
He made it up so that the men shackled to him would run too, when all he wanted was to get home before his wife married another man.
Q 07In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, what do the convicts float on after rising water stops their hanging?
A pine coffin
A pine coffin built for one of them bobs up as a raft when the water arrives, seconds after Everett, about to be hanged by Sheriff Cooley, prays for rescue.
Q 08Which old folk song becomes a surprise radio hit for the convicts in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Man of Constant Sorrow
Man of Constant Sorrow was first published in 1913 by a blind Kentucky musician, and the film's version won a Grammy nearly ninety years later.
Q 09Which brand of hair pomade will Everett not go anywhere without in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Dapper Dan
Dapper Dan tubs carrying the star's portrait, complete with a Clark Gable moustache, were handed out as a promotional gift when the film launched.
Q 10Which top Grammy did the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack win, ahead of U2 and Bob Dylan?
Album of the Year
Album of the Year went to a collection of old gospel, blues and bluegrass songs that sold about eight million copies with barely any country radio play.
Q 11Which actor plays Big Dan Teague, the one-eyed Cyclops figure of O Brother, Where Art Thou?
John Goodman
John Goodman, wearing an eyepatch, was a Coen brothers regular who had already appeared in three of their films, among them The Big Lebowski.
Q 12What are the three convicts fleeing in rural Mississippi as O Brother, Where Art Thou? begins?
A chain gang
A chain gang is where the story starts, and the three stay shackled together until Pete's cousin Wash breaks the irons off.
Q 13Which mythical creatures do the three singing washerwomen represent in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Sirens
Sirens in Homer's poem sing so sweetly that the hero has himself tied to the mast. Here they ply the convicts with drink and leave Delmar sure Pete has been bewitched.
Q 21Which 1941 Preston Sturges comedy gave O Brother, Where Art Thou? its title?
Sullivan's Travels
Sullivan's Travels follows a comedy director who longs to make a grim social drama with that very title, then decides that making people laugh is worth more.
Q 22Which O Brother, Where Art Thou? actor, a classics graduate, did the Coens say alone had read Homer's epic?
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson, who plays Delmar, studied classics at Brown University, while the directors cheerfully admitted they knew the poem only from adaptations.
Q 23Pappy O'Daniel in O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based on a real radio-host governor of which state?
Texas
Q 14Which ceremony do Pete and Delmar join, while Everett hangs back, in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
A baptism
A baptism here stands in for the Lotus Eaters of Homer's poem, whose fruit makes travellers forget home, and Everett alone stays on the bank.
Q 15Which singalong does Governor Pappy O'Daniel use as his campaign song in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
You Are My Sunshine
You Are My Sunshine really was a campaign song: Jimmie Davis, who made it famous, used it on the stump and was twice elected governor of Louisiana.
Q 16Which Oscar-winning actress plays Everett's ex-wife Penny in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter had starred in the directors' Raising Arizona thirteen years earlier, and her character stands in for Penelope, the wife who waits in Homer's poem.
Q 17What do the fleeing convicts bring crashing down on Big Dan Teague in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
A burning cross
A burning cross topples onto Big Dan after the three cut its supports while fleeing with their guitarist, whom the Klan had seized to lynch.
Q 18What does one-eyed con man Big Dan Teague claim to sell for a living in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Bibles
Bibles are only his cover: Big Dan talks Everett and Delmar into a picnic lunch, then mugs them, and later turns up in a Klansman's robe.
Q 19Which actor plays Pete in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, his fourth film for the Coen brothers?
John Turturro
John Turturro had played the lead in the directors' Barton Fink nine years earlier, and his singing here was dubbed by Nashville songwriter Harley Allen.
Q 20In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which guitarist claims he sold his soul to the devil?
Tommy Johnson
Tommy Johnson was a real Mississippi bluesman whose brother said he made that boast, a legend now more often pinned on Robert Johnson.
Texas elected W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel governor after he found fame hosting a radio show with a hillbilly band, and he later beat a future president to a Senate seat.
Q 24Which bluegrass singer supplied Everett's singing voice in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Dan Tyminski
Dan Tyminski sang the lead the film's star mimed to. The star did record a take, as his aunt was a famous singer and talent was assumed to run in the family, but it did not.
Q 25What vehicle does the blind seer ride at the start and end of O Brother, Where Art Thou?
A handcar
A handcar carries the old man who foretells that the three will find a fortune, though not the one they seek; he is the film's answer to the blind prophet Tiresias.
Q 26What does Penny tell her daughters happened to their father Everett in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Hit by a train
Hit by a train is the tale Penny spread before taking up with a new suitor, Vernon, who works for Homer Stokes and ends up trading blows with Everett.
Q 27In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, what is the name of Everett's hometown, borrowed from Homer's epic?
Ithaca
Ithaca is the island kingdom that the hero of Homer's poem spends ten years trying to reach, and the film's version is a fictional Mississippi town.
Q 28In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, what does Sheriff Cooley torch while the convicts are asleep inside?
A barn
A barn belonging to Pete's cousin Wash goes up in flames after Wash himself reports them, and it is Wash's own son who helps the three get away.
Q 29O Brother, Where Art Thou? was the first feature film to have what done entirely by digital means?
Color correction
Color correction on a computer turned the lush Mississippi summer a dusty yellow, after Joel Coen complained that the real locations were greener than Ireland.
Q 30Which award did the leading man of O Brother, Where Art Thou? win for playing Everett?
A Golden Globe
A Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy or musical went to the star, though the Oscars passed him over and nominated only the script and the photography.