Pineapple Express Trivia
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49 free Pineapple Express trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Pineapple Express arrived in August 2008 as something new: a stoner comedy that turned into a full-blown action movie halfway through. Seth Rogen's process server Dale Denton and James Franco's dealer Saul Silver witness a murder, drop a roach of the rarest weed in the city, and spend the rest of the film running from a drug lord, a corrupt cop and two bickering hitmen, with Danny McBride's indestructible Red along for the ride. This quiz covers the whole thing: the plot beats, the cast (including the cameos people forget), how Judd Apatow, Rogen and Evan Goldberg got it made, why David Gordon Green was an unexpected choice to direct, the Huey Lewis theme song, the M.I.A. trailer that became a hit single, the box office battle with The Dark Knight and the sequel that only ever existed inside another movie. Every answer is checked against a reference source and each question links to where the fact came from, so nothing here is fan-wiki hearsay.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is Dale Denton's job in Pineapple Express?
Process server
Process server Dale hands out subpoenas for a living and wears disguises to make people admit who they are, which is how he ends up parked outside Ted Jones's house at the wrong moment.
Q 02Apatow produced Pineapple Express, but who directed it?
David Gordon Green
David Gordon Green was known for quiet indie dramas such as George Washington; he met Apatow and Rogen about the project on the set of Knocked Up, and it became his first studio comedy.
Q 03Which actress plays Carol Brazier, the corrupt cop who helps Ted Jones commit the murder Dale witnesses?
Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez, an Oscar nominee for Fearless, plays the crooked officer who chases Dale and Saul across the city after they make off in a patrol car.
Q 04How does Dale accidentally lead Ted Jones to him after witnessing the murder?
He tosses a rare roach
He tosses a rare roach, and Ted recognises the strain at once: only Red and his customer Saul have it, so the trail leads straight to them.
Q 05Who plays Red, the middleman dealer in Pineapple Express who keeps getting shot and refusing to die?
Danny McBride
Danny McBride had made his acting debut in the director's drama All the Real Girls; Red brought him mainstream notice, and a year later he was Kenny Powers in Eastbound & Down.
Q 06When Dale and Saul find Red bruised after a beating, what does he claim is wrong with his lip?
A cold sore
A cold sore is his cover story: Ted's henchmen have just beaten him for information about Saul, and he says he cried only because he had never had one before.
Q 07When Dale and Saul try to hide out in the woods, what goes wrong?
The car battery dies
The car battery dies because the pair fell asleep with Dale's talk radio still playing, so Dale decides they will walk back to the road and hitchhike.
Q 08In Pineapple Express, Dale's girlfriend Angie is still a student at what kind of school?
High school
High school is where Dale visits her, envying classmates he calls "strong and handsome"; her father later forces him out of the family home at gunpoint.
Q 09How do Dale and Saul raise bus fare to get out of town?
Selling weed to teenagers
Selling weed to teenagers backfires fast: a police officer arrests Dale, and Saul, thinking he is rescuing him, makes off with her patrol car.
Q 10Why does Dale break up with Angie over the phone late in Pineapple Express?
She starts talking about marriage
She starts talking about marriage moments after the two make up, and a rattled Dale ends it on the spot before setting off to rescue Saul.
Q 11Which rival outfit attacks Ted Jones's lair in the climactic shootout of Pineapple Express?
A Korean drug gang
A Korean drug gang at war with Ted storms his hideout in the finale, and one of its members sets off the bomb that kills him.
Q 12How does the henchman Matheson finally die in Pineapple Express?
Red rams him with a car
Red rams him with a car, crashing through the barn wall to make amends for backing out of the rescue; he is shot for it and still walks away.
Q 13Red is making a birthday cake for which dead pet when Dale and Saul first visit?
His cat
His cat died three months earlier, but Red says it is tradition to get up extra early on its birthday and make its favourite dessert.
Q 21James Franco's Saul Silver earned a nomination for which award?
A Golden Globe
A Golden Globe nomination for best comedy actor capped what Entertainment Weekly called a huge stretch for an actor best known as Peter Parker's playboy pal.
Q 22Which magazine gave James Franco its 'Stoner of the Year' award for Pineapple Express?
High Times
High Times gave its Stony Award winners bong-shaped trophies, and Franco turned up at the 2008 ceremony in Malibu to collect his in person.
Q 23Seth Rogen and James Franco first worked together on which short-lived 1999 TV series?
Freaks and Geeks
Freaks and Geeks was cancelled by NBC before all 18 of its episodes had aired, yet it launched both men: Rogen played Ken Miller and Franco played Daniel Desario.
Q 14Judd Apatow said Pineapple Express grew from Brad Pitt's stoner character Floyd in which crime film?
True Romance
True Romance (1993) gave Pitt a glassy-eyed walk-on as a roommate; Apatow thought it would be funny to follow that character out of his apartment and watch bad guys chase him.
Q 15Why did Seth Rogen say Sony gave Pineapple Express only $25 million?
It was a weed movie
It was a weed movie, in Rogen's words: $40 million "would've been nice", but "because it's a weed movie, you get $25 million". It still grossed about $100 million worldwide.
Q 16Which role was Seth Rogen originally going to play before Judd Apatow suggested a swap?
Saul, the dealer
Saul, the dealer, was Rogen's part until Apatow proposed the swap; Rogen first refused because he wanted the jokes, then changed his mind after Franco's table read.
Q 17Which 1980s hitmakers recorded the theme song "Pineapple Express" for the film?
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News got the job after Rogen took Lewis to lunch in November 2007, reportedly asking for something in the vein of "The Power of Love".
Q 18Which M.I.A. song became a US top-five hit after it was used in the Pineapple Express trailer?
Paper Planes
"Paper Planes" got a huge boost from the trailer and climbed to number four on the Hot 100 that September; M.I.A. said she agreed because it was "just the trailer".
Q 19Which film kept Pineapple Express at number two on its opening weekend at the US box office in August 2008?
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight, in its fourth weekend, took $26.1 million to Pineapple Express's $23.2 million; Tropic Thunder knocked it off the top a week later.
Q 20Who wrote the Pineapple Express screenplay with Seth Rogen, his writing partner since their Vancouver childhood?
Evan Goldberg
Evan Goldberg and Rogen were writing scripts together by the age of 13; Apatow, who shares the story credit, enlisted the pair to write this stoner action film.
Q 24What does Saul hurl at a patrol car to "rescue" the arrested Dale?
Slushies
Slushies let Saul steal the cruiser with Dale still in the back, a rescue Dale never needed: the officer had believed his story and was going to help.
Q 25Who plays drug lord Ted Jones?
Gary Cole
Gary Cole, the micromanaging boss Bill Lumbergh in Office Space, plays the drug lord Dale catches shooting a rival at home with a police officer's help.
Q 26Which character actor plays Budlofsky, the henchman who refuses to kill Saul?
Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Corrigan's Budlofsky pays for his mercy when his own partner shoots him for it; Corrigan is also remembered as Uncle Eddie in the sitcom Grounded for Life.
Q 27Which future star of This Is the End plays the henchman Matheson?
Craig Robinson
Craig Robinson was The Office's warehouse boss Darryl at the time; his Matheson ends up turning his gun on his own partner in the final shootout.
Q 28Which Spinal Tap and St. Elsewhere veteran plays Angie's furious father, who throws Dale and Saul out?
Ed Begley Jr.
Ed Begley Jr.'s Robert Anderson forces the pair out at gunpoint, minutes before Ted's henchmen arrive and the family has to flee to a motel.
Q 29Which SNL cast member plays Private Miller, the army test subject in the Pineapple Express prologue?
Bill Hader
Bill Hader's Private Miller is smoking the army's secret "Item 9" in the test, and the general in charge ends it with a one-word verdict: illegal.
Q 30Which actress plays Angie Anderson, Dale's girlfriend in Pineapple Express?
Amber Heard
Amber Heard broke through to mainstream audiences in 2008 with supporting parts in this film and the martial-arts drama Never Back Down.