70 free Tommy Boy trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
61 free Tommy Boy trivia questions with answers. Tommy Boy opened to shrugs from critics in March 1995 and then became one of the most-quoted comedies of its decade on VHS. This quiz covers the whole thing: the plot of Callahan Auto and its 500,000-unit gamble, the cast around Chris Farley and David Spade, and the making-of stories the director has told for the 25th and 30th anniversaries, from how many cars were wrecked to what really doubled for the deer. It is written for people who can recite the dinner-scene lines but may not know why one co-star never got a credit, who cried at the first screening, or which animated duo was modelled on Tommy and Richard. Easy questions cover the studio, the town and the catchphrases; the hard end gets into the working title, the dedication and the temp score. Every answer was checked against a primary page: the film's Wikipedia entry and infobox, cast biographies, the AFI Catalog, and long-form interviews with director Peter Segal.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which studio released Tommy Boy in theaters in 1995?
Paramount Pictures
The same studio later pitched Spade a sequel, which he turned down because he felt a follow-up without Farley could never work.
Q 02On what date did Tommy Boy open in US theaters?
March 31, 1995
It opened at number one that weekend, though its real fame came later on home video.
Q 03Who directed Tommy Boy?
Peter Segal
It was only his second feature, and he went on to make Anger Management, 50 First Dates and Get Smart.
Q 04Which Saturday Night Live creator produced Tommy Boy?
Lorne Michaels
He originally pitched the story to the studio as a tale of two stepbrothers before it was overhauled into a road movie.
Q 05The credited screenwriters, Bonnie and Terry Turner, went on to create which pair of sitcoms?
3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show
The husband-and-wife team were SNL writers who left the film mid-production after selling another show.
Q 06Tommy returns home after college to which Ohio city?
Sandusky
The city's Chamber of Commerce later planned a 30th-anniversary festival, even though not a single frame was shot there.
Q 07Tommy's hometown is a real place whose tourism is led by which amusement park?
Cedar Point
Locals told the director there were two things nearby that put them on the map: that park and Tommy Boy.
Q 08Callahan Auto's survival hinges on a new division making what product?
Brake pads
The bank reneges on its loan for the new division after Big Tom dies, which forces Tommy onto the road.
Q 09How many units of the new product must Tommy sell to prove the division is viable?
500,000
He puts up his few inherited shares and his house as collateral to buy the time to do it.
Q 10What classic car does Richard drive on the sales trip, and gradually watch fall apart?
1967 Plymouth GTX
Four cars were used in production, and one had to be donated to the deer wrangler for weeks so a wild deer would learn to climb onto it.
Q 11Who plays Ray Zalinsky, the self-described 'auto parts king'?
Dan Aykroyd
The role is one of the few well-received films he made in a rough 1990s stretch that included Coneheads and Exit to Eden.
Q 12Zalinsky Auto Parts, the rival that wants to swallow Callahan Auto, is based in which city?
Chicago
Tommy and Richard have to sneak onto a plane to get there for a last-ditch meeting.
Q 13Zalinsky's TV commercial slogan says he makes car parts for whom?
The American working man
Tommy throws the slogan back at him on live television to force the purchase order.
Q 21According to the director, why did the actor playing Paul go uncredited?
It was his own choice
The director speculated the actor may have thought the movie would tank and wanted distance from it.
Q 22A deleted sequence had Paul trying to sabotage what while smoking a Cuban cigar?
A water tower
The scene was shot on a freezing night in Canada, which is why the prop master had real Cubans on hand.
Q 23Under what working title was Tommy Boy shot?
Rocky Road
The director and Fred Wolf threw out most of the original script and began shooting with only 66 pages in hand.
Q 14Who plays Big Tom Callahan, Tommy's larger-than-life father?
Brian Dennehy
Farley told the director on the drive to recruit him for dinner that 'everyone expects us to fail'.
Q 15Who plays Beverly, the scheming new stepmother who is really a con artist?
Bo Derek
It earned her the film's only major awards attention, a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress.
Q 16The actors playing Big Tom and Beverly had earlier both appeared in which 1979 Blake Edwards film?
10
He tended bar in the Mexican resort scenes while she famously ran down the beach in cornrows.
Q 17Beverly's Worst Supporting Actress Razzie nomination lost to which star, for Four Rooms?
Madonna
Four Rooms was the anthology film with segments by Tarantino, Rodriguez, Rockwell and Anders.
Q 18Which actress plays Michelle Brock, Tommy's old classmate and eventual love interest?
Julie Warner
Farley genuinely poked himself in the eye during their earlier boat scene on the lake.
Q 19The actress who plays Michelle had her breakout opposite Michael J. Fox in which 1991 film?
Doc Hollywood
She followed it with Mr. Saturday Night opposite Billy Crystal before landing Tommy Boy.
Q 20Which actor plays Paul, Beverly's supposed son, without ever receiving an onscreen credit?
Rob Lowe
Thirty years later he posted a joke open letter to the studio's CEO demanding a credit above the title.
Q 24When first announced in March 1994, Farley's pay-or-play deal was for a script with what title?
Billy the Third
The story was reworked from a stepbrother comedy into a road movie, and only 66 pages existed when filming began.
Q 25Although set in Ohio, where was the film primarily shot?
Toronto
The director returned to the same city 24 years later to shoot My Spy and found twelve crew members who had worked on Tommy Boy.
Q 26What was Tommy Boy's total US box office gross?
$32.7 million
Its follow-up Black Sheep landed almost exactly the same figure a year later.
Q 27Roughly how much did Tommy Boy earn on its opening weekend, enough to finish first?
$8 million
The director says its reputation only really took off a decade later, when it ranked among the studio's all-time top home-video sellers.
Q 28How many stars out of four did Roger Ebert give the film?
One star
He compared it to 'an explosion down at the screenplay factory' and it sits on his 'Most Hated' list.
Q 29What grade did opening-weekend audiences give the film in CinemaScore polling?
A−
Critics were far cooler: it holds a Rotten Tomatoes consensus that it 'feels like a familiar sketch stretched thin'.
Q 30The 2005 two-disc DVD was branded as which edition, after one of Tommy's exclamations?
Holy Schnike
The film first hit VHS and LaserDisc in October 1995 and grew into a cult hit on tape.