Question bank
Funny trivia questions and answers
Odd, silly and surprising — but every question here has a single correct, checkable answer. Opinions and 'which is funniest' questions have no place in a scored round, so you will not find any here.
30 questions
1. Strange animals
1. What is a group of flamingos called?
Answer: A flamboyance
2. How many hearts does an octopus have?
Answer: Three
Two pump blood to the gills and one to the rest of the body.
3. Which animal's fingerprints are so similar to humans' that they can confuse forensic tests?
Answer: Koala
4. Snails have teeth. Roughly how many can a garden snail have?
Answer: Over 1,000
A snail's radula carries thousands of microscopic teeth.
5. What colour is a polar bear's skin under its fur?
Answer: Black
2. Silly science
1. Which body part never stops growing until you die, according to popular belief but not fact?
Answer: Nothing does
Ears and noses appear to grow but mainly sag with age; the popular claim is a myth.
2. How long can a sneeze travel through the air, according to studies?
Answer: Up to 8 metres
3. What is the fear of long words called?
Answer: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
4. Bananas are slightly radioactive because they contain which element?
Answer: Potassium
5. What is the scientific name for brain freeze?
Answer: Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia
3. Food oddities
1. Botanically, a tomato is which of these?
Answer: Fruit
2. Which food was found still edible in ancient Egyptian tombs?
Answer: Honey
3. Peanuts are not nuts. What are they?
Answer: Legumes
4. Carrots were most commonly which colour before orange varieties spread?
Answer: Purple
5. What makes bread rise?
Answer: Carbon dioxide from yeast
4. Words and names
1. What is the dot over a lowercase 'i' called?
Answer: Tittle
2. What do you call the plastic or metal tip at the end of a shoelace?
Answer: Aglet
3. Which word is spelled the same forwards and backwards?
Answer: Level
4. What is the collective noun for a group of crows?
Answer: A murder
5. 'Bookkeeper' is unusual in English because it contains what?
Answer: Three consecutive double letters
5. Unexpected records
1. What is the shortest war in recorded history usually said to have lasted?
Answer: About 38 minutes
The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is conventionally given as roughly 38 minutes.
2. Which country has a flag that is not rectangular or square?
Answer: Nepal
3. How many noses does a slug have?
Answer: Four
Slugs have four tentacles used for smell and sight.
4. Which musical instrument was played in space first, on a Gemini mission in 1965?
Answer: Harmonica
5. What is the longest time a chicken has been recorded surviving without a head?
Answer: Around 18 months
Mike the Headless Chicken lived about 18 months after a botched slaughter in 1945.
6. Everyday puzzlers
1. Which way does water swirl down a plughole?
Answer: It depends mostly on the basin and how water enters
2. How many holes does a standard drinking straw have?
Answer: One
Topologically a straw is a tube with one hole and two openings.
3. What is the average number of times a piece of paper can be folded in half by hand?
Answer: Seven
4. Which day of the week is named after the Norse god Thor?
Answer: Thursday
5. On a standard QWERTY keyboard, which letter is directly right of 'G'?
Answer: H