Bar snacks and Oscars slaps – take the Thursday quiz

Chris Rock during the Oscars. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

The news cycle goes around so fast these days I couldn’t tell whether including that slap in the quiz would generate a groan of “Not more of this!” or a warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia for something that happened as long as four whole days ago. Anyway, here are 15 general knowledge and vaguely topical questions for your perusal. You will encounter Kate Bush and Ron from Sparks and plenty of references to Doctor Who this week. Let us know how you got in the comments – it is just for fun, there are no prizes.

The Thursday quiz, No 49

1. 

   THE SLAP THAT WAS HEARD AROUND THE WORLD: We start at the Oscars. Which film did Will Smith win his best actor gong for, just after he'd clocked Chris Rock with one?

   1. Spies in Disguise

   2. Gemini Man

   3. Bad Boys for Life

   4. King Richard

2. 

   DOO-WEE-OOOOOOH: Which TV executive who tried their best to get Doctor Who exterminated from television in the 1980s has been announced as the UK government’s preferred candidate to oversee the media regulator, Ofcom?

   1. Former controller of BBC1, Alan Yentob

   2. Former controller of BBC1, Jonathan Powell

   3. Former controller of BBC1, Michael Grade

   4. Former controller of the Daleks, Davros

3. 

   BON VOYAGE: That is a 1974 song by Sparks where 'trouble is about to brew on us'. But that's not important right now. Dagny Carlsson of Sweden has died. At the age of 109, she was described as the world's oldest what?

   1. Nordic skier

   2. Professional chef

   3. Pokémon fan

   4. Blogger

4. 

   ON THIS DAY: 31 March is the anniversary of one of the largest 'poll tax riots' in the UK – this one in London – over the introduction of the community charge by the Conservative government of the day. But which year did the riot take place?

   1. 1989

   2. 1990

   3. 1991

   4. 1992

5. 

   COUNTRIES IN DISGUISE: The country of Eswatini was formerly known as what in the English language?

   1. Lesotho

   2. Swaziland

   3. Rhodesia

   4. Turmezistan

6. 

   OFF WITH THEIR HEADS: Prince William and his wife, Kate, endured a less-than-unanimously-popular tour of the Caribbean. Which of these countries did they NOT visit?

   1. Barbados

   2. Belize

   3. Jamaica

   4. Bahamas

7. 

   FIBONACCI NUMBERS: First described in Indian mathematics, and forming a sequence where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, F₆ is eight. But 'Number Eight' was a character portrayed by Grace Park in which science fiction TV series?

   1. Star Trek: Voyager

   2. Battlestar Galactica

   3. Stargate SG-1

   4. The X-Files

8. 

   AYES TO THE RIGHT: The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress. How many senators are there?

   1. 50

   2. 60

   3. 100

   4. About 800 – the same as the number of people able to sit in the House of Lords in the UK

9. 

   ENSEMBLE CAST: Which British kids' TV show stars Cleo Demetriou, Ameerah Falzon-Ojo and Sophia Dall'aglio?

   1. The Sarah Jane Adventures

   2. M. I. High

   3. Class Dismissed

   4. So Awkward

10. 

    WHY THE LONG FACE?: Despite them not having any, in the UK a horse's height is traditionally measured in 'hands'. How many inches are there to a hand?

    1. Three

    2. Four

    3. Five

    4. Six

11. 

    IT USED TO BE ALL FIELDS ROUND HERE: The 1946 New Towns Act in the UK set in train the development of a series of towns and cities. But which was the first to be designated?

    1. Stevenage

    2. Basildon

    3. Runcorn

    4. Milton Keynes

12. 

    ROAD SIGNS AROUND THE WORLD: A brand new regular feature with a name inspired by Super Furry Animals. This road sign from Italy means what?

    1. Military artillery range nearby

    2. No handcarts

    3. Slow – historic battlefield site

    4. Caution – rare Pokémon Unown in the area

13. 

    ALLONS Y: Wikivoyage lists 23 locations visited by the fictional Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. No 9 is Kolkata, India. But it is the capital of which Indian state?

    1. Rajasthan

    2. Uttar Pradesh

    3. Punjab

    4. West Bengal

14. 

    THESE DAYS IF YOU SAY YOU ARE ENGLISH YOU WILL BE ARRESTED AND PUT IN PRISON: A pub in Devon has been accused of partaking in 'woke cancel culture' after putting what delicious sounding item on its menu?

    1. Vegan scones with vegan jam and vegan cream

    2. Goat-milk-free G'Oats' Cheese made with oats

    3. Ploughperson's lunch

    4. Anti-colonial Sanders chicken

15. 

    MUSIC: Who had a hit in 2005 with Wake Me Up When September Ends?

    1. Weezer

    2. Green Day

    3. Blink 182

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:D - The biographical movie follows the life of Richard Williams, father to Venus and Serena Williams, who after being singled out by Jane Campion at the Baftas, endured another award ceremony evening to remember, 2:C - The 79-year-old Conservative peer has held senior executive positions at the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and has frequently gone on record about how much he really, really hated Doctor Who in the 1980s, 3:D - The Swedish centenarian had thousands of social media followers and regularly appeared on television. On her blog, Carlsson described herself as “a tough aunt, who likes most things”, had a sense of humour and was “a little straightforward”. She was born on 8 May 1912 – the same year that the ocean liner Titanic was sunk by an iceberg. You can tell by his face that Ron from Sparks thinks you should have known that, 4:B - The London poll tax riot saw an estimated 200,000 people take to the streets in opposition to the flat taxation of people rather than the previous system of 'rates', which funded local councils based on the value of property. The poll tax was first introduced in Scotland in 1989 by Margaret Thatcher, but by 1993 the Conservative government of John Major had abandoned the plan in favour of council tax, which was once again linked to property value, 5:B - It was Swaziland. The land-locked southern African state is bordered by South Africa and Mozambique. Despite being one of the smallest countries in southern Africa it has an incredibly diverse climate and topography. The name change was made official in 2018, 6:A - They did not visit Barbados because while it remains in the Commonwealth, Barbados declared itself to be a republic last year, and replaced Queen Elizabeth II as head of state with President Sandra Mason. They didn't go to Aruba, Bermuda, Key Largo or Montego either, 7:B - She was a humanoid cylon in the 2000s reboot/reimagining of the Battlestar Galactica TV show that originally aired in 1978 and apparently only lasted for 24 episodes even though as a kid the quiz master seems to remember it being on loads, 8:C - There are two senators for each of the 50 states of the US, leaving the residents of poor old District of Columbia itself without any voting rights in the upper chamber, 9:D - It is So Awkward, which began in May 2015 and initially followed the adventures of Lily, Jas and Martha as they tried to navigate secondary school, 10:B - According to Horse & Hound magazine, the measure was apparently standardised at four inches to the hand by Henry VIII in 1541 because people kept getting it confused with another measurement called 'the English palm' which was three inches. Just use centimetres to measure horses, you weirdos, and never, ever, ever complain about the use of obscure measurements in the comments again or these types of questions will continue, 11:A - It was Stevenage, in 1946, closely followed by Crawley, Harlow and Hemel Hempstead among others the following year. Basildon was designated in 1949, Runcorn in 1963 and the much-maligned Milton Keynes in 1967, 12:B - It is no handcarts, an incredible, niche request. You'll probably need to Google what Unown looks like to get the Pokémon joke, 13:D - It is West Bengal, one of India's most populous states, which borders Bangladesh in the east and Nepal and Bhutan in the north, 14:C - The Tors pub in the Devon village of Belstone came to attention after a picture of the menu was posted on Twitter. They made the gender-neutral change as a lighthearted joke a couple of years ago, but it has only now caused a storm. Criticised on social media as hypocrites because they also have 'Mama’s chocolate mousse' on the menu, the owner explained it was called this because it was his mum’s recipe. The traditional English ploughman's lunch is most usually credited with being invented by the marketing body the Cheese Bureau in the 1950s, 15:B - We'd love to hear Kate do a version of that

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

• If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and you wouldn’t want to get nominated for an Oscar for “most pointless email”, would you?