2022 Pop Culture Trivia
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8correct to beat the crowd
This pop culture trivia 2022 quiz has 79 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 79 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
Chris Rock was slapped after a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head; minutes later Smith won Best Actor for King Richard.
Q 02For how long did the Academy ban Will Smith from its events after the slap?
10 years
The Academy barred Smith from its events, including the Oscars, for 10 years, announced on April 8, 2022, a week after he had resigned his membership.
Q 03Which film won Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars, the first winner distributed by a streaming platform?
CODA
CODA, released by Apple TV+, won Best Picture; it also earned Troy Kotsur the Supporting Actor award, making him the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar.
Q 04Which film took home the most awards (six) at the 2022 Oscars?
Dune
Dune won six Oscars, all in craft categories: score, sound, editing, cinematography, production design and visual effects.
Q 05Regina Hall and Amy Schumer co-hosted the 2022 Oscars with which other comedian?
Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes completed the trio with Regina Hall and Amy Schumer, the first hosts the Oscars had used since Jimmy Kimmel in 2018.
Q 06Which show won Outstanding Drama Series at the 2022 Emmys?
Succession
Succession won Outstanding Drama Series for its third season at the September 2022 ceremony, hosted by Kenan Thompson; creator Jesse Armstrong also won for writing.
Q 07At 26, Zendaya became the youngest two-time acting Emmy winner in 2022 for her role in which series?
Euphoria
Zendaya won her second Lead Actress in a Drama Emmy for Euphoria's second season, becoming the first Black woman to win the category twice.
Q 08Which program led all shows with 10 Emmy wins in 2022, including Creative Arts awards?
The White Lotus
The White Lotus took 10 Emmys for its Hawaii-set first season, including Limited Series and Jennifer Coolidge's first Emmy for playing Tanya.
Q 09At the 2022 Emmys, Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian to win Lead Actor in a Drama Series, for which Korean show?
Squid Game
Squid Game's 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
Jon Batiste, then bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, won for We Are after entering with eleven nominations, the most of any artist that year.
Q 12Who recorded 'Leave the Door Open', the 2022 Grammy Record and Song of the Year?
Silk Sonic
Silk Sonic, the retro-soul duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, won Record and Song of the Year for 'Leave the Door Open' from An Evening with Silk Sonic.
Q 13Who won Best New Artist at the 2022 Grammys?
Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo won Best New Artist after her debut album Sour and its single 'Drivers License' dominated 2021; she also won Best Pop Vocal Album that night.
Q 21How much in compensatory damages was Johnny Depp awarded in his 2022 case against Amber Heard?
$10 million
The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages plus $5 million punitive, cut to Virginia's $350,000 cap; Heard won $2 million on her counterclaim and settled for $1 million in December.
Q 22Which 1985 Kate Bush song went to number one in the UK after featuring in Stranger Things season 4?
Running Up That Hill
'Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)' topped the UK chart in June 2022 and reached number three on the US Hot 100, beating its original 1985 US peak of 30.
Q 23Kate Bush's revived 2022 hit was the lead single from which 1985 album?
Hounds of Love
Q 14Which team won Super Bowl LVI in February 2022?
Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams beat the Bengals 23-20 at their own SoFi Stadium, the second straight year a team won 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
Kendrick Lamar rounded out the hip-hop lineup, performing 'm.A.A.d city' and 'Alright'; 50 Cent and Anderson .Paak made surprise appearances.
Q 16How much did Elon Musk pay to buy Twitter, a deal that closed in October 2022?
$44 billion
Musk paid about $44 billion, or $54.20 a share; after trying to back out in July he closed on October 27, tweeting 'the bird is freed' and firing the top executives.
Q 17What did Elon Musk carry into Twitter's headquarters the day before the takeover closed?
A kitchen sink
Musk walked in carrying a kitchen sink on October 26, 2022, captioning the video 'Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!' and changing 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
Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn-based software engineer, built it for his partner Palak Shah, who trimmed the word list to about 2,300 words; the Times paid a 'low seven figures' price in January 2022.
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.
Hounds of Love, Kate Bush's fifth studio album, opened with 'Running Up That Hill', which had originally peaked at number three in the UK in 1985.
Q 24How old was Kate Bush when she became the oldest female artist to top the UK singles chart in 2022?
63
Born in July 1958, Kate Bush was 63 when the song hit number one in June 2022, beating Cher's record as the oldest woman to top the UK chart; the 44-year gap since 'Wuthering Heights' was also a record.
Q 25In the Stranger Things season 4 finale, Eddie Munson plays which Metallica song to lure the demobats?
Master of Puppets
Eddie shreds 'Master of Puppets' on the trailer roof; the season is set in March 1986, the month Metallica's album of the same name came out.
Q 26What name, borrowed from Dungeons & Dragons, do the Hawkins kids give the villain of Stranger Things season 4?
Vecna
Vecna is a powerful being who resides in the Upside Down, and like the earlier monsters his name comes from Dungeons & Dragons.
Q 27In October 2022, who became the first artist to hold all ten spots of the Hot 100 top 10?
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift filled the entire top 10 with Midnights tracks, 'Anti-Hero' at number one, after the album set Spotify's single-day streaming record.
Q 28Midnights, released in October 2022, was which number studio album for its creator?
Tenth
Midnights was Taylor Swift's tenth studio album; a surprise '3am Edition' with seven 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
Bad Bunny's 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
'As It Was' spent 15 non-consecutive weeks at number one, the longest run ever by a British act, and IFPI named it the best-selling global single of 2022.