The Popular Culture Quiz conducted by Ria Chopra and Gayatri Giri.

1. pOP IT
LIKE IT’S HOT
THE POP CULTURE QUIZ OF TARANG 2019
A quiz by:
Ria chopra & gayatri giri

2. × 25 questions, one point for each, part points (0.5 per part) where
applicable
× Perfect square numbers are star questions (1, 4, 9, 16, 25)
× Don’t fight with QMs pls
Gratitude af to Shubhankar Bahl for GPing
( but -1 gratitude for making us delete a Daler
Mehndi question)
Gratitude af pt 2 to Kaustubh Chakraborty

3. According to Sebastien Gabriel, the design of X is a play on going back to the
"prehistoric ages," which was way before the existence of the ubiquitous
internet.
X was given the codename “Project Bolan,” which itself is a reference to Marc
Bolan, the late lead singer of 1970’s rock band ____.
The developers boast that the X can last for almost an eternity. Or 17 million
years to be exact.
The X is played around 270 million times globally every month on desktops
and mobiles. The most number of players come from countries like India,
Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia.
ID X, released in September 2014.

5. X - Chrome dinosaur game
(blank was T-Rex)

6. X was born nobody knows when, with an unconfirmed last name and
location. His current, legal name is said to be derived from a corruption of
the French word for bird, which came from his nickname ‘The Birdman’,
that he acquired while selling toys in France.
A fan of Matt Damon, X decided to use his name for a character in his
magnum opus, but being the personality that he is, misremembered
Damon's first name for something else and never bothered to change it,
thus immortalising it in the film's dialogues.
Who am I talking about?

9. 3.
Why is this song popular?

11. You can call me tracer
Tiktok meme

12. X was anticipated for almost a decade ever since the release of the
first. It was influenced by the artwork of the Hudson River school of
the 19th century which were known for depicting a peaceful
relationships between “man” and nature, indicating a biblical sense
of co-ownership in the Native American frontier.
Among the many similarities, X and the paintings share color
choices, an immense sense of scale and even similar locations and
timeline.

13. EXAMPLES OF
HUDSON
RIVER
PAINTINGS

16. 5. WHAT HAS BEEN BLANKED OUT?

18. LOGAN PAUL VS KSI

19. Doug Jones is chosen for certain types of roles
due to his skills as a mime and contortionist. His
2 most popular roles, in X (as a supporting
character) and Y (as a protagonist), share a
striking resemblance to each other, and as the
movies had the same director, fans theorize that
the newer, Oscar winning X was a prequel for Y.
While the cities and years are slightly different in
the movies, the Cold War era and a bureaucratic
setting play a major role in both the character’s
stories.
ID THE 2 MOVIES AND HIS ROLES

21. X- SHAPE OF WATER AND AMPHIBIAN MAN
Y- HELLBOY AND ABE SAPIEN

22. Time magazine named Steven Pruitt one of the top 25 most influential people on the
internet in 2017, alongside President Trump, J.K. Rowling and Kim Kardashian West.
Unlike many of the others on this list, Pruitt earns absolutely nothing for the reason he’s on
the list. He typically puts in a couple of hours during weekday evenings and more time on
the weekends.
"The idea of making it all free fascinates me. My mother grew up in the Soviet Union ... So I'm
very conscious of what, what it can mean to make knowledge free, to make information
free," he said.
The reason he started this great endeavour was to share with people about Peter
Francisco, a Portuguese-born Revolutionary War hero known as the “Virginia Giant” who
was also Pruitt’s great-great-great-great- great-great grandfather on his father’s side of
the family.
During the workday, Pruitt is part of the records and information governance team at U.S.
Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C. One thing his team does is help the
agency’s offices transfer records to the National Archives.
Why is he on the list?

25. This iconic movie is believed to be the only
Bollywood film with a "title suggested by"
credit. This credit went to Kirron Kher,
whose husband also featured in this
movie.
Name the movie.

28. In the very recent Simpsons episode, “The Girl on the Bus,” Lisa receives
a text from Homer. “Lisa, I can’t find my phone!” he says. To which Lisa
replies, “You’re texting on it.”
While such a faux pas might make some people want to run and hide,
what did Homer respond to this with, something that netizens and fans
of the show absolutely loved?

31. 10. Who is the writer and why
is this letter controversial

33. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

34. Similar to the 'BB Thumb' and the 'iPad Shoulder', a sharp increase in
knee injuries has been reported in 2018 that occurs due to the joints
being forced to move laterally, which is abnormal because they are only
meant for a hinge motion.
What is the reason behind this? Feel free to draw (or show) the answer.

36. FLOSSING

37. “Nothing significant happened in the 50’s anyway.”
This, said by a disillusioned 21yr old, became the inspiration behind X’s
most popular song and it was quickly picked up in schools by history
teachers as a tool to engage kids to study the subject when it was
released. X admits he has a hard time remembering all the words
when he performs the song in a concert due to the rapid-fire lyrics. The
song has inspired many fan versions of it with updated lyrics and
remains relevant as ever.
ID X and the song

39. We Didn’t Start The Fire

40. Women in Refrigerators is a website created in 1999 by a group of feminist comic
book fans that lists examples of the comic book trope whereby female
characters are injured, raped, killed, or depowered as a plot device.
They seek to analyze why these plot devices are used disproportionately on
female characters. The name of the trope comes from a storyline in Green
Lantern, in which the villain Major Force leaves the corpse of Kyle Rayner's
girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt, stuffed into a refrigerator for him to find.
This phenomenon is called fridging. One such example of fridging has become
notorious in the internet community. In 2008, artist Tim Buckley released a work
which garnered a lot of negative attention by his followers, and was
immortalized by 4chan and tumblr.
What is this depiction of a woman’s suffering that keeps resurfacing every few
years on the internet?

43. Yoshikage Kira is the main antagonist of the 4th
part of the anime and manga Jojo’s bizarre
adventures by Hirohiko Araki. The manga is
known for using pop culture references as
influences for major character designs and
psychic abilities.
Kira derives much of his design from X, including
poses and identical clothes. His psychic power
takes the form of a cat, inspired by the fact that
X was also an avid cat lover.
Coincidentally, the finale of the season, which
featured Kira's death, aired during the same time
X died, 2016.
ID X

45. DAVID BOWIE

46. In December 2018, actor Macaulay Culkin, posted on his website bunnyears.com - “My middle name is
something dumb. Larry? Orange? Honestly, I can’t even remember it,” he said. “So I asked you all to send in
some better options so I can go down to the courthouse and explain to a judge why I need to change my
middle name to something cool. You sent in hundreds of suggestions and after going through them all,
these were my favourite five.”
The top five included Shark Week, Kieran,
TheMcRibIsBack and Publicity Stunt.
_______ _____ won the poll with an
overwhelming majority. The actor claims
he will soon adopt the name legally.
FITB

48. Macaulay Culkin

49. A (supposedly) lesbian character in Metal Gear Solid:
Peace Walker, a game concerning peace, artificial
intelligence, and nuclear arsenals; her nickname, X, was
given to her by her peers because of her peculiar
infatuation with women. However, Hideo Kojima, who is a
huge movie enthusiast, might have just been looking for
an excuse to name a character X, especially in a game
with such a plot line.
ID X

51. DR. STRANGELOVE

52. 1. So cute, so sweet, (could still get it).
2. “friends forever, great dancer, good times man”
3. “I love u always, sry I dipped, HUUUUGE”
Where have you seen the above, first released in the final week of
2018?

54. Ariana Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ music video.
(Burn Book entries about her ex-bfs)

55. Homo floresiensis is an extinct species in the genus Homo, and would have stood about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) in height.
Homo floresiensis was unveiled on 28 October 2004, and was swiftly nicknamed X, after the fictional race
popularized in Y's book X. The name is appropriate given the stature of the species, but has been met with
hostility from Y’s estate.
In October 2012, a New Zealand scientist due to give a public lecture on Homo floresiensis was told by Y’s estate
that he was not allowed to use the word "X" in promoting the lecture.
In 2012, the American film studio The Asylum, which produces low-budget "mockbuster" films,planned to
release a movie entitled ‘Age of the Xs’ depicting a "peace-loving" community of H. floresiensis "enslaved by the
Java Men, a race of flesh-eating dragon-riders."The film was intended to piggyback on the success of another
film, the official movie version of Y’s X. The film was blocked from release due to a legal dispute about using the
word "X’.
The Asylum argued that the film did not violate the copyright because the film was about H. floresiensis,
"uniformly referred to as 'X' in the scientific community."The film was later released as Clash of the Empires.
Give X and Y.

57. X - Hobbit
Y - JRR Tolkein

58. 19. Whose
filmography is
this?

60. Karan Johar

61. Niue, a captivating islet nation in the middle of Pacific Ocean,
is about 2400 km from the shores of New Zealand.
Niue Currency is the most famous thing of this isle. The coins
are legal tender, but also a collector’s item, with the currency
featuring famous characters from the realm of pop culture,
including Disney characters, Star Wars, Dr Who etc.
The first of these coins appeared in 2001, and featured one of
the most widely known pop culture series of that time.
Collectors, of course, loved the coins and it became almost a
contest to have them all.
What did this first series of coins feature?

64. Connect to a very (in)famous Indian
personality-
5, 1, 3, 2, 20, 0.5, 1, 105

66. Chetan Bhagat
(numbers in the title of his
books)

67. The actor who has played the Yellow M&M since 1996 has a huge
list of accolades to his name, including an Oscar, a BAFTA and a
Golden Globe (incidentally, all for the same recent film).
His most recent accolade was the title of the King of Bacchus,
given by the Krewe of Bacchus to him during Mardi Gras 2018.
ID.
(hint: observe the M&M)

69. JK SIMMONS

70. As of 2013 — when a group of MIT researchers collected
the data — the identities of the two human beings who
had dedicated Wikipedia pages in the most languages
were not surprising: Jesus Christ (214 languages) and
Barack Obama (200).
Neither was Confucius, or Isaac Newton, or any of the
people who rounded out the top 20: Hitler, Einstein,
Aristotle, Muhammad, Marx.
While they’re all in this together, No. 3 was a surprisingly
little-known actor.
Most of us only know him for an immensely popular
franchise from our high school days, in which he played
the lead actor’s best friend. He was also the Season 17
runner-up of Dancing With the Stars. Who?
23.

72. Corbin Bleu

73. X is one of the most famous fictional brands ever created. This fictional
cigarette brand traces its origin to Alfred Hitchcock. At the end of Psycho,
Dr. Fred Richman shakes a smoke from a pack of X before explaining what
happened. This film hit theaters in the summer of 1960, making it the first
known appearance of x.
Later, X cigarettes have appeared in Friends, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The
Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, OITNB, Lost etc.
The name "X" is a play on "_____", a nickname for Marlboro cigarettes.
Give X.

76. X Srivastava (who we all know by his first name) is described in his twitter bio as a ‘Pune
(IN) based 21-year-old DJ, singer and Hindustani dance music producer’. We know him
primarily for his most famous viral track that was part of a collaboration with a very
popular group NOT from the field of music, and Udyan Sagar (famous by another name).
X talking about his song-
I was reading comments all the time; got introduced to so many things and people. The
first day we got a lot of hate in the YouTube comments section on Y's upload because it
was unexpected coming from them. It was the first time that there was music on their
channel. There were eight comments on the video saying, “What the hell is this?”
(*At last count, the song’s video has 25,907,972 views)
"It's is breezy and fun track, with a groove that is extremely danceable. The song talks
about how one feels when they see the one they love for the first time. In the music video,
every character is there to present their version of what it feels like when they first see
the one they love."
ID X.
25. *