Tommy Boy Trivia
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55 free Tommy Boy trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 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 55 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which studio, also behind the Wayne's World films, released Tommy Boy in theaters in 1995?
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures released Tommy Boy, which opened at number one in theaters but found its lasting following later, as a cult favorite on home video.
Q 02Which MTV Movie Award did Chris Farley and David Spade win in 1996 for Tommy Boy?
Best On-Screen Duo
Best On-Screen Duo went to Farley and Spade at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards; the same night Farley lost Best Comedic Performance to Jim Carrey.
Q 03Who directed Tommy Boy?
Peter Segal
Peter Segal directed Tommy Boy and the same year formed his own production company under a familiar name: Callahan Filmworks.
Q 04Who produced Tommy Boy?
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels produced Tommy Boy, for which Farley accepted a pay-or-play offer for his first leading role before the film even had a director.
Q 05Tommy Boy's writers, Bonnie and Terry Turner, later created which two sitcoms?
3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show
3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show both followed the Turners' 1994 move from New York to Los Angeles, after seven seasons writing for Saturday Night Live.
Q 06Tommy returns home after college to which Ohio city?
Sandusky
Sandusky, Ohio, is home to Callahan Auto and its 300 workers, and the film makes plain that if the factory goes under, the whole town goes with it.
Q 07Tommy's hometown is a real place whose tourism is led by which amusement park?
Cedar Point
Cedar Point, open since 1870 on a Lake Erie peninsula, anchors the real town's tourism; the film instead shows a factory town whose tire and muffler plants have already closed.
Q 08Callahan Auto's survival hinges on a new division making what product?
Brake pads
Brake pads are the lifeline: Callahan Auto's new division needs a loan the bank refuses once Big Tom dies, so Tommy hits the road to sell them himself.
Q 09How many units of the new product must Tommy sell to prove the division is viable?
500,000
500,000, or half a million, is the bank's target; Tommy finally hits it in one stroke when Zalinsky signs a purchase order on live television.
Q 10What classic car does Richard drive on the sales trip, and gradually watch fall apart?
1967 Plymouth GTX
Richard's 1967 Plymouth GTX, fitted with a 440 Magnum engine, ends the trip a wreck: roof shredded, a door torn loose and the hood blown off on the highway.
Q 11Who plays Ray Zalinsky, the self-described 'auto parts king'?
Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd plays Ray Zalinsky, who wants Callahan Auto only for its brand name and plans to shut the factory, which would ruin Tommy's hometown.
Q 12Zalinsky Auto Parts, the rival that wants to swallow Callahan Auto, is based in which city?
Chicago
Zalinsky's headquarters are in Chicago, where Tommy and Richard head for a last-ditch plea that he call off the takeover.
Q 13Zalinsky's TV commercial slogan says he makes car parts for whom?
The American working man
Zalinsky's ads promise car parts 'for the American working man, because that's who I am'; Tommy throws the line back at him on live television to force the purchase order.
Q 21What does Tommy spill into the dashboard of Richard's prized car?
M&M's
M&M's: when Richard fumes about melted chocolate inside the dash, Tommy assures him they will be fine because they have a thin candy shell.
Q 22Pulled over with a car that reeks of beer, what do Tommy and Richard pretend is attacking them?
A swarm of bees
A swarm of bees, or so they scream: Tommy calls it a little trick his dad taught him, and the officers back off because both are allergic.
Q 23Although set in Ohio, where was Tommy Boy primarily shot?
Toronto
Toronto stood in for Ohio, which meant Farley and Spade, still in the Saturday Night Live cast, had to fly to New York and back around each week's show.
Q 14Who plays Big Tom Callahan, Tommy's larger-than-life father?
Brian Dennehy
Brian Dennehy plays Big Tom Callahan, whose sudden death at his own wedding reception makes the bank back out of its loan and sends Tommy out on the road.
Q 15In Tommy Boy, who plays Beverly, the scheming new stepmother who is really a con artist?
Bo Derek
Bo Derek plays Beverly, a role that earned her a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress; the character turns out to have a criminal record under another name, Beverly Burns.
Q 16The actors playing Big Tom and Beverly had earlier both appeared in which Blake Edwards film?
10
In 10, the future Big Tom tended bar in the Mexican resort scenes while the future Beverly became a star running down the beach in cornrows.
Q 17Which rural pastime does Tommy take his new stepbrother Paul out to try for the first time?
Cow tipping
Cow tipping is Tommy's idea of brotherly bonding, and it ends with the pair down in the muck and Paul hosing Tommy clean.
Q 18Which Doc Hollywood actress plays Michelle Brock, Tommy's old classmate and eventual love interest?
Julie Warner
Julie Warner plays Michelle Brock, who uncovers the proof that Beverly and Paul are con artists and rushes it to Tommy outside Zalinsky's boardroom.
Q 19When Tommy says lots of people go to college for seven years, what does Richard say they're called?
Doctors
Doctors, Richard deadpans, having already noted that Tommy graduated in 'just a shade under a decade'.
Q 20Which actor plays Paul, Beverly's supposed son, without ever receiving an onscreen credit?
Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe plays Paul without a screen credit; his slick 'stepbrother' sabotages Callahan Auto's shipping computer to wreck the sales Tommy has made.
Q 24Big Tom says he could inspect a T-bone steak himself but would rather take whose word for it?
The butcher's
The butcher's word is Big Tom's folksy way of asking a buyer to trust him; Tommy later mangles the line so badly in a sales call that the customer is left at a loss for words.
Q 25Richard says Big Tom could sell what to a woman in white gloves?
A ketchup popsicle
A ketchup popsicle, Richard snaps, adding that he learned everything he knows from Big Tom, who looked out for him when he had no father of his own.
Q 26Which critic panned Tommy Boy as 'an explosion down at the screenplay factory'?
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert wrote that no one in the film was funny and that it had no memorable lines, and he later put it on his list of most hated movies.
Q 27Which of Tommy's lines is the last one spoken in Tommy Boy?
That's gonna leave a mark
'That's gonna leave a mark' ends the film: out on the lake in his sailboat, Tommy asks his late father for a little wind, shouts his thanks, then yelps the line one last time.
Q 28The 2005 two-disc DVD of Tommy Boy was branded as which edition?
Holy Schnike
Holy Schnike, Tommy's stock cry of amazement, named the 2005 two-disc DVD, which added a commentary by the director and a set of deleted and extended scenes.
Q 29Tommy Boy was its director's second feature; what was his first?
Naked Gun 33 1/3
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) gave the director an established star in Leslie Nielsen; Tommy Boy then handed him Chris Farley in his first leading role.
Q 30Which SNL writer did an uncredited rewrite of Tommy Boy and then scripted the follow-up Black Sheep?
Fred Wolf
Fred Wolf, a Saturday Night Live writer, never got screen credit for his Tommy Boy rewrite, yet he later teamed with David Spade again to write Joe Dirt.