50 Funny Trivia Questions

1. Which popular pet lacks a working taste receptor for sweetness?

2. How do dolphins nap while still remembering to come up for air?

3. Which big river animal can't actually swim, and instead walks or bounces along the bottom?

4. Which super-slow animal can end up with green algae growing in its fur?

5. Before it was shortened in 1949, what did the famous hillside sign above Los Angeles spell out?

6. In 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, for import taxes, the tomato counts as what?

7. Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first Moon landing than to the building of which monument?

8. Which famous structure does a popular myth wrongly claim you can see from the Moon with your bare eyes?

9. Which country has more ancient pyramids than Egypt?

10. The name 'Pluto' for the faraway world was suggested in 1930 by whom?

11. Which town in Quebec, Canada, has two exclamation marks in its official name?

12. Which U.S. president was honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame?

13. A sugar-cube-sized piece of what would weigh about as much as a mountain on Earth?

14. Roughly how much water can a single fluffy cumulus cloud hold?

15. The name 'dandelion' comes from French words meaning what?

16. A rhinoceros horn is made of the same material as what?

17. Which mosquitoes bite people and animals for blood?

18. Researchers in Seattle found that which birds can recognize a human face for years?

19. Which animals make giggle-like squeaks when scientists tickle them?

20. A giant panda's handy 'thumb' is actually what?

21. Which sea animal is one of the elephant's closest living relatives?

22. Under a microscope, what color are a polar bear's guard hairs?

23. On a beach in the Bahamas, which animals famously swim out to greet visiting boats?

24. Japanese growers put some watermelons in cube-shaped boxes. What shape are those melons grown to have?

25. Which naturally occurring radioactive isotope of potassium is found in bananas and many other foods?

26. Botanically speaking, the tall banana plant is actually what?

27. The mango belongs to the same plant family as which snack nut?

28. What is the Italian word for just one strand of spaghetti?

29. Tiny 'water bears' survived a 2007 trip exposed to open space. What are these animals called?

30. After U.S. parcel post began in 1913, a few families were caught mailing what?

31. The word 'laser' started out as what?

32. What famous Viking look is a myth with no evidence from the Viking Age?

33. Leonardo da Vinci filled his notebooks using what unusual style of writing?

34. Measured by volume, the largest pyramid ever built is in which country?

35. At its 'triple point', water can be what?

36. Roughly how often is New York's Empire State Building struck by lightning?

37. In 1967, the town of St. Paul in Alberta, Canada, built a landing pad for what?

38. Scientists think it may rain what, sideways, on the faraway planet HD 189733b?

39. Because Earth bulges at the equator, which mountain's peak is farthest from Earth's center?

40. William Herschel wanted to name the planet he found in 1781 after which king?

41. Pluto is only about half as wide as which country?

42. Neptune's biggest moon, Triton, is unusual because it does what?

43. The rock at the very top of Mount Everest first formed where?

44. The word 'trivia' comes from a Latin word for a place where how many roads meet?

45. The word 'astronaut' comes from Greek words meaning what?

46. The word 'jeans' traces back to which Italian city?

47. The word 'jumbo' became popular thanks to a famous what?

48. In the word 'nightmare', what did 'mare' originally mean?

49. The name 'daisy' comes from Old English words meaning what?

50. Brazil nuts grow packed together inside what?