Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Hard Pop Culture trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Most pop culture quizzes ask who played Barbie. This one asks which 2011 comedy Barbie knocked off the all-time box-office list, what Stranger Things was called before it was Stranger Things, and which retailer actually made the blue-and-black dress that broke the internet in 2015. These 59 hard pop culture trivia questions are written for people who read the credits, follow the charts and remember the memes. The set spans film, television, music, gaming, social media and awards-season drama from roughly 2009 to 2025: Oscar gaffes and Emmy records, Hot 100 milestones, viral cats and dogs, Fortnite concerts, Twitch records and streaming-era hits from Squid Game to Shōgun. Every question is multiple choice with four options and a short explanation that adds one more thing worth knowing. Every answer is checked against a cited source before it goes live, so when the room argues about who really read out the wrong Best Picture, you can settle it. If you want a gentler warm-up, our main pop culture quiz is the place to start; this page is the hard mode.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Barbie (2023) took the live-action comedy worldwide gross record from which 2011 film?
The Hangover Part II
It also took the domestic record from Home Alone, which had held it since 1990.
Q 02Which 2023 film was the first shot partly on IMAX black-and-white film, a stock Kodak created for it?
Oppenheimer
Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema alternated colour and black-and-white to separate subjective and objective points of view.
Q 03Under which collective name do Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once, work?
Daniels
The pair had previously made Swiss Army Man and handled the film's visual effects in-house.
Q 04Before Parasite, which 1955 film was the last to win both the Palme d'Or and Best Picture?
Marty
Only The Lost Weekend, Marty and Parasite (and later Anora) have taken both prizes.
Q 05Which 2022 sequel became Tom Cruise's highest-grossing film, passing $800 million within a month?
Top Gun: Maverick
Paramount kept it in theatres for an extended run at Cruise's insistence instead of the usual 45-day streaming window.
Q 06Where did Avatar: The Way of Water rank among the highest-grossing films ever after its first theatrical run?
Third
Its $2.32 billion put it behind only the original Avatar and Avengers: Endgame.
Q 07Which was the first superhero film ever nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?
Black Panther
It also brought Marvel Studios its first Academy Award wins, for costume design, production design and score.
Q 08Which 2024 release became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time?
Deadpool & Wolverine
Within three days it had already passed Pretty Woman as Disney's biggest R-rated release.
Q 09Which Pixar sequel passed The Lion King as the highest-grossing animated film in September 2024?
Inside Out 2
It was later overtaken by China's Ne Zha 2 just nine months after release.
Q 10Which presenter read out La La Land as Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars before the correction to Moonlight?
Faye Dunaway
Beatty had hesitated over the wrong envelope, so Dunaway read the card. Moonlight was the actual winner.
Q 11The Duffer Brothers first developed Stranger Things under what working title, named for a Long Island town?
Montauk
The setting moved to fictional Hawkins, Indiana, when the brothers decided to film in Georgia.
Q 12Exterior shots of King's Landing in Game of Thrones were largely filmed in which walled coastal city?
Dubrovnik
Season one used Malta; production shifted to Croatia from season two onward.
Q 13Sudeikis first played Ted Lasso in 2013 promos for which network's Premier League coverage?
NBC Sports
The ads ran seven years before the Apple TV+ series premiered.
Q 21Which 1972 song held the record for longest Hot 100 number one until 'All Too Well (10 Minute Version)'?
American Pie
Guinness World Records recognised the feat; the original 2012 album cut ran 5:28.
Q 22'Old Town Road' broke the 16-week Hot 100 record shared by 'One Sweet Day' and which 2017 hit?
Despacito
The Billy Ray Cyrus remix was released specifically to keep the song at number one long enough to break the tie.
Q 23Beyoncé finally won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2025 with which record?
Cowboy Carter
The same night she became the first Black artist to win Best Country Album.
Q 14HBO's Euphoria, starring Zendaya, is adapted from a 2012 miniseries made in which country?
Israel
HBO's head of drama pitched the American version as 'Kids meets Trainspotting'.
Q 15Jenna Ortega's viral dance in Wednesday is set to 'Goo Goo Muck', a 1981 song by which band?
The Cramps
Ortega choreographed it herself, borrowing from Siouxsie Sioux, Bob Fosse and 1980s goth-club footage.
Q 16The Queen's Gambit is based on a 1983 novel by which author, who also wrote The Hustler?
Walter Tevis
Chess coach Bruce Pandolfini had consulted on the novel decades before advising the series.
Q 17Which 2024 show set an Emmy record by winning 18 awards for a single season?
Shōgun
It was also the first Japanese-language series to win Outstanding Drama Series.
Q 18Which comedy first swept all seven major comedy awards at a single Primetime Emmys, in 2020?
Schitt's Creek
Toronto lit the CN Tower gold to celebrate; Dan Levy alone took home writing, directing and series awards.
Q 19What is the Upper West Side apartment building in Only Murders in the Building called?
The Arconia
The show's exteriors use the real Belnord on West 86th Street.
Q 20The second season of The White Lotus was filmed at a Four Seasons resort in which region?
Sicily
Season one was set in Hawaii and season three in Thailand.
Q 24Which Kendrick Lamar album won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music?
DAMN.
The Pulitzer board called it 'a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity'.
Q 25What was the first BTS song recorded entirely in English?
Dynamite
It was released in August 2020 and debuted at number one on the Hot 100.
Q 26Which group became the first Asian act ever to headline the Coachella festival, in 2023?
Blackpink
Their Born Pink tour was also the highest-grossing tour ever by a female group.
Q 27Who was the first non-English-language artist to top Spotify's year-end most-streamed list, in 2020?
Bad Bunny
He went on to be Spotify's most-streamed artist of the year a record four times.
Q 28Which artist persuaded Spotify to remove the default shuffle button from album pages in 2021?
Adele
The change coincided with the release of her album 30.
Q 29Billie Eilish, the first Oscar winner born in the 21st century, won for the theme of which film?
No Time to Die
She was 17 when she recorded it, the youngest artist ever to sing a Bond theme.
Q 30Which rapper's five virtual Fortnite concerts in April 2020 drew more than 27 million participants?
Travis Scott
The shows used visuals from his Astroworld tour and shifted Fortnite-branded Cactus Jack merchandise.