This pop culture trivia 2022 quiz has 80 free questions with answers about the year everyone was talking about: Will Smith at the Oscars, Elon Musk walking into Twitter with a sink, Kim Kardashian in Marilyn Monroe's dress, Kate Bush back at number one, Wednesday Addams dancing, Taylor Swift owning the whole Hot 100 top ten, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II. It covers film, TV, music, celebrity news, viral internet moments, games and the big sports moments that crossed over into everyday conversation, from Super Bowl LVI to Argentina's World Cup win. Questions run from easy (who did Will Smith slap?) to properly hard (which band recorded the song Wednesday dances to?), so it works for a party round, a year-in-review night or a solo test of your memory. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and reputable reporting, and each question shows its source, so if something surprises you, you can see exactly where it comes from.
30 of 80 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01At the 2022 Academy Awards, Will Smith walked on stage and slapped which comedian?
Chris Rock
Minutes later Smith won Best Actor for King Richard, making for one of the strangest hours in Oscar history.
Q 02For how long did the Academy ban Will Smith from its events after the slap?
10 years
Smith had already resigned his Academy membership before the ban was announced in April 2022.
Q 03Which film won Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars, the first winner distributed by a streaming platform?
CODA
The Apple TV+ film also earned Troy Kotsur an Oscar, making him the first deaf man to win an acting award.
Q 04Which film took home the most awards (six) at the 2022 Oscars?
Dune
Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic swept the technical categories, from score to visual effects.
Q 05Regina Hall and Amy Schumer co-hosted the 2022 Oscars with which other comedian?
Wanda Sykes
It was the first time the ceremony had hosts at all since 2018.
Q 06Which show won Outstanding Drama Series at the 2022 Emmys?
Succession
Ted Lasso took its second consecutive Comedy Series prize on the same night, hosted by Kenan Thompson.
Q 07At 26, Zendaya became the youngest two-time acting Emmy winner in 2022 for her role in which series?
Euphoria
She was also the first Black woman to win Lead Actress in a Drama twice.
Q 08Which program led all shows with 10 Emmy wins in 2022, including Creative Arts awards?
The White Lotus
Jennifer Coolidge won her first Emmy for playing Tanya in the Hawaii-set first season.
Q 09Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian actor to win Lead Actor in a Drama Series for which show?
Squid Game
Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk also won for directing, another first for an Asian nominee.
Q 10After an Omicron postponement, the 2022 Grammy Awards were held in which city?
Las Vegas
It was the first Grammys ceremony ever held in Las Vegas, with Trevor Noah returning as host.
Q 11Who won Album of the Year at the 2022 Grammys for We Are?
Jon Batiste
The bandleader from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert came in with eleven nominations, the most of anyone.
Q 12'Leave the Door Open' won both Record and Song of the Year at the 2022 Grammys. Who recorded it?
Silk Sonic
The retro-soul duo is Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak.
Q 13Who won Best New Artist at the 2022 Grammys?
Olivia Rodrigo
Her debut album Sour and its single 'Drivers License' had dominated the previous year.
Which team won Super Bowl LVI in February 2022?
Q 21How much in compensatory damages was Johnny Depp awarded in his 2022 case against Amber Heard?
$10 million
Heard was awarded $2 million on her counterclaim; the pair settled in December with Heard paying $1 million.
Q 22Which 1985 Kate Bush song went to number one in the UK after featuring in Stranger Things season 4?
Running Up That Hill
It reached number three on the US Hot 100, beating its original 1985 peak of number 30.
Q 23Kate Bush's revived 2022 hit was the lead single from which 1985 album?
Hounds of Love
It was her fifth studio album; the song had originally peaked at number three in the UK.
Los Angeles Rams
They won at their own SoFi Stadium, the second straight year a team lifted the trophy at home, with Cooper Kupp named MVP.
Q 15Who joined Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Mary J. Blige headlining the Super Bowl LVI halftime show?
Kendrick Lamar
50 Cent and Anderson .Paak made surprise appearances during the set.
Q 16How much did Elon Musk pay to buy Twitter, a deal that closed in October 2022?
$44 billion
He tried to back out in July, then closed on October 27 with the tweet 'the bird is freed' and fired the top executives the same day.
Q 17What did Elon Musk carry into Twitter's headquarters the day before the takeover closed?
A kitchen sink
He captioned the video 'let that sink in' and changed his bio to 'Chief Twit'.
Q 18Which engineer built Wordle for his partner and sold it to the New York Times in 2022?
Josh Wardle
The price was described only as 'low seven figures'; his partner had trimmed the word list to about 2,000 familiar words.
Q 19How many guesses does a player get in Wordle?
6
Everyone gets the same word each day, which is why the emoji-grid results took over social media.
Q 20The televised Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation trial took place in which US state?
Virginia
The judge allowed cameras in the courtroom over Heard's objections, and the livestream became a global obsession.
Q 24How old was Kate Bush when she became the oldest female artist to top the UK singles chart in 2022?
63
The 37-year gap between release and number one was also a record, as was the 44 years between her two chart-toppers.
Q 25In the Stranger Things season 4 finale, Eddie Munson plays which Metallica song to lure the demobats?
Master of Puppets
The season is set in March 1986, the year the song came out, and the finale ran two and a half hours.
Q 26What name do the Hawkins kids give the villain of Stranger Things season 4?
Vecna
The name comes from Dungeons & Dragons, like the earlier monsters.
Q 27In October 2022, who became the first artist to hold all ten spots of the Hot 100 top 10?
Taylor Swift
'Anti-Hero' led the pack at number one after Midnights set a new single-day streaming record.
Q 28Midnights, released in October 2022, was which number studio album for its creator?
Tenth
A surprise '3am Edition' with extra tracks dropped three hours after the standard release.
Q 29Whose album topped Billboard's 2022 year-end album chart, the first all-Spanish record ever to do so?
Bad Bunny
Un Verano Sin Ti spent 13 weeks at number one and became the first Spanish-language album nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys.
Q 30How many weeks did Harry Styles's 'As It Was' spend at number one on the Hot 100 in 2022?
15
That made it the longest-running US number one ever by a British act, and it was the best-selling global single of 2022.