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The Best Quiz Round Ideas, From Funny To Challenging To Mortally Embarrassing

The 'old Facebook status' round is evil

Headshot of The Esquire EditorsBy The Esquire Editors
who wants to be a millionaire
ITV

Oh boy. Here we go again, again. The third national lockdown looks like it's going to stretch into the middle distance, and any chances of seeing our mates and families are definitively on ice. Even the tiniest crumbs of a sesh have been dashed from our hands. The closest we're likely to get is to dust off the questions we thought we'd put away for the time being and gird ourselves to host a Zoom quiz. Again.

Ten months into this whole palaver, it's getting harder and harder to keep things fresh on that front. Every readymade list of questions on the internet has been plundered a million times over by now, we all know what a group of crows is called, and we’re all being forced to get more creative with our round ideas. But going off-piste is scary, and that’s why we’re here to guide you.

We’ve already told you how to lay the best foundation for a successful quiz, but the fun lies in the questioning. Avoid fatigue by taking inspiration from the list below, and truly earn your quizmaster stripes (a totally useless skill outside of this specific circumstance).

Of course, we’re not going to patronise you like other ‘Quiz Round Ideas’ articles on the internet. Chances are you’ve already considered adding a picture or music round to proceedings. We respect you too much to waste your valuable time like that. You need something fun, inventive and, most importantly, challenging. Some of the below options may require a little bit of research, but the effort will pay off. We promise.

1

The Google Translate Lyrics Round

manchester, england   november 26  jose mourinho, manager of manchester united listens using headphones during a press conference at old trafford on november 26, 2018 in manchester, england  photo by nathan stirkgetty images
Nathan Stirk//Getty Images

Think of this as a 2021 refit of Chinese whispers. All you do is take a lyric from a song and run it back and forth through Google Translate a few times, then get your players to guess what song the garbled string of words you've got left are the lyrics to.

Let's try a simple example: "Yes, I take my horse in the street of the old town. I'm going to ride until I can no longer bear it." Yes, of course, it's 'Old Town Road' by Lil Nas X.

If you really want to jumble things take it to Korean, Japanese or Swahili: "Horsemen, tone town street. I can't stand it anymore." It's kind of like going on holiday, in the least satisfying way possible.

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2

The How Well Do You Know Your Friends Round

friends special episode, the one that could have been, part one from l r lisa kudrow, matthew perry, jennifer aniston, david schwimmer, courteney cox arquette and matt leblanc all the friends ponder what might have been if each had taken a different path in life and they imagine that a frustrated ross schwimmer stays with his wife carol jane sibbett and ignores her disinterest in him a married rachel aniston is starstruck when she meets hunky days of our lives star joey leblanc who never lost his job as dr drake ramoray phoebe lisa kudrow is a corporate stockbroker and a portly monica cox arquette frets about losing her virginity while chandler perry is a struggling writer who stoops to working as joeys lowly assistant just to make ends meet  photo by getty images
Getty Images

There's nothing more entertaining than discovering a friend's long-hidden bad opinion, and this should winkle out a few of them. Get each of your players to answer a different question about something – which of a few mutual friends you'd be happiest to go on the run with after a bank heist, for instance, or who you'd trust most to give you a lockdown haircut – and get them to record their answer in a voice note that they send over before you gather for the quiz itself. The quiz element here is incidental, but there's a very appealing theatrical element to the reveal and it should spark off some arguments.

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3

The 'Does It Float?' Round

bright yellow toy rubber duck sitting on the side of a white bath
robert reader//Getty Images

This game has been around since the 16th century, though the stakes have admittedly lessened since then. Chances are you’ve taken all of the context you need from the title, but: present your contestants with a number of different objects and ask them to guess whether they A. float, or B. do not float. It should be a simple round, but there’s some trickery you can employ to make sure it isn’t. A screwed up ball of tin foil does not float, but fashion it into a little boat and… ta-da! Apples float, potatoes do not. A pencil floats, and a comb does not. It’s hours of fun, a great round, and has the added benefit of making your contestants feel incredibly stupid.

You have two options: either test the objects beforehand (the cowardly method) or you can actually do a live demonstration through your camera. The latter will necessitate filling the bath/sink up with water and then positioning your computer on a stool or chair, near the large body of water. It really adds an element of danger to proceedings. Quick question: do laptops float?

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4

The 'Who's That Meme' Round

new statesman
New Statesman

On our timelines and in the popular imagination, the stars of viral internet memes are frozen in time. But did you know that these men, women and children age just like everyone else? It’s true! The Success Kid is now a Success Man, and Charlie is no longer biting fingers (you would have thought).

There are hundreds of articles across the internet dedicated to tracking down these former viral stars, and it makes for a challenging ‘Who’s That Meme?’ round. Just post a up-to-date picture of the person in question and ask people to guess. We recommend the New Statesman’s ‘Living the Meme’ series for photos. Check it out here

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5

The 'What Happened Next?' Round

youtubeView full post on Youtube

Raid your Twitter/YouTube likes and WhatsApp chats for viral videos and host them in your quiz, pressing pause at a pivotal moment. Then ask your participants to take a swing at what happens next in the video. Better yet, provide multiple choice options.

Piece of advice: make sure the videos aren’t too... grim. If the answer is ‘everyone perishes!’ then it’s probably a little too dark for a Wednesday night Zoom quiz tbqhwy. And stop watching those videos.

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6

The 'Wipeout' Round

bbc
BBC

Simple, but deadly. Each question has binary answers (yes/no, before/after etc) as well as the option to pass. Your contestants can pass as many questions as they like, or pick between the two multiple choice answers, but here’s the catch: if they get one wrong, they get zero for the entire round.

You’d think they would only answer on the questions they know for certain, but as Chris Tarrant knows only too well, people simply can’t resist a 50:50. Make sure the questions are familiar enough that people will be tempted to take a shot, but difficult enough that it could easily bring their kingdom crashing down. WA-WA-WA-WA-WA-WIIIIIIIPEOOOUUUUTTTTT.

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7

The 'Political Face-Swap' Round

tom nicholson as margaret thatcher
Esquire

This one is very simple and very, very funny. Use the extremely impressive face-swapping website Reflect Tech to combine a friend’s face with a politician’s, and then ask players to guess which head of state/disgraced back-bencher has been given the morph treatment.

The only difficulty of this round is judging your contestants’ historical knowledge and adjusting your questions accordingly. Winston Churchill is far too easy, but a face-swap with Bill Rodgers, the Secretary of State for Transport (1976–1979), is far too hard, so you’ve got to find a fair middle ground that provides a challenge without wandering into wonk territory.

It doesn’t need to be contained to politics, of course. You could opt for famous figures in artwork, or sportspeople, or celebrities. Anyone, really. The site very occasionally has trouble with eyes and teeth, so opt for another picture if that’s the case.

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8

The 'Mandela Effect' Round

monopoly man
Monopoly

The Mandela Effect is a strange phenomenon in which swathes of people across the world share the same false memory. It was named after the common belief that Nelson Mandela died and had a televised funeral in the Eighties, despite the fact he actually passed away in 2013. Other examples include the widely held untruth that the Monopoly Man wears a monocle, and that US comedian Sinbad starred as a genie in a Nineties movie called Shazaam. As you can imagine, these instances are ripe for quiz treatment, and you can check out a big list of examples here.

What makes this round all the more gratifying is that players will inevitably contest every answer and then be forced to issue a grovelling apology.

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9

The 'Turkish Remakes' Round

thenerdpatrolflickr
theNerdPatrol/Flickr

The Turkish film Industry (Yeşilçam) has a proud history of completely ripping off Hollywood blockbusters and spending less than a tenner in the process. From Superman to the Wizard of Oz, there’s a low-quality, frequently hilarious homage available to watch on YouTube. Play clips in your quiz and let your friends take a stab at what box office hit is having its intellectual copyright flagrantly violated.

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10

The 'Terrible Recorder Covers' Round

huty22890 017
Hulton Archive//Getty Images

Music rounds – as long as every member of your quiz party has steady WiFi and functioning speakers – are a lot of fun. Of course, you could opt for the tried-and-tested intros approach (stressful, requires you to press pause at just the right time like a schmuck), but we’ve got a better suggestion: recorder covers.

YouTube is awash with terrible and hilarious covers of classic songs played on the most maligned member of the woodwind family, the recorder, and they’re perfect fodder for ‘name that song’ rounds. Just when you think you might have it, the musician will accidentally emit a screeching note that bamboozles your brain. Start with this one and browse from there.

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11

The 'Old Social Media Status' Round

wayne rooney twitter
Twitter

Delve through your friends’ Facebook and Twitter feeds to screenshot their most embarrassing and/or mystifying statuses and ask people to guess who wrote them. They should be far enough in the past – 2007 is a good vintage – that even the perpetrator themselves will have forgotten or buried it deep in their subconscious. (Nothing that could potentially get them cancelled, though, unless it’s just too funny to pass up).

Alternatively, you could focus in on the old, ill-considered tweets of celebrities – but then you’d have to to provide some kind of clue to help out your players. Or you could give them multiple choice answers. Or not. It’s your life.

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12

The 'Boulangerie/Patisserie' Round

mrs beeton s cookery book    sweets and gateaux eclairs, assorted pastry, rice and apple gateau, gateau st honore, simnel cake, pancakes, pyramid cream, croquettes of rice new edition of the cookerybook, first published 1861 isabella mary beeton, english author, 12 march 1836 – 6 february 1865  photo by culture clubgetty images  local caption
Culture Club//Getty Images

Everyone considers themselves a master baker these days. They make one passable loaf of bread, upload it to Instagram stories and suddenly they’re an expert. Are we just bitter that we couldn’t join in because the shops ran out of sourdough starter? No. The point is, we must show them up for the phonies they truly are.

Post a picture of an obscure French bread, pastry or cake – un mille-feuille perhaps, or un bon savarin – and watch as they squirm. If you opt for multiple choice then you can make up some French pastry names, which is surprisingly fun.

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13

The 'McDonald's' Round

mcdonald's twisty pasta breakfast
McDonald's

McDonald’s regularly tests out new menu items in different countries. Some of them look good, some of them very much do not, and most of them feature an egg that has absolutely no reason being there. But the weird thing is, the cultural background of the dish doesn’t always correspond with where it’s being road-tested. That’s what makes the McDonald’s-around-the-world round so challenging.

Post a picture of a lesser-known McDonald’s dish from fryers past – Austria’s ‘McNoodles’ maybe, or Hong Kong's ‘Twisty Pasta Breakfast’ – and ask players to guess where it was sold. The more ill-conceived and doomed-looking the better, of course.

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14

The 'Was Dennis Bergkamp's Goal Against Newcastle A Fluke?' Round

We’ll let you decide the correct answer. (The answer is no).

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15

The 'Is This Trump Tweet Real?' Round

donald trump
Donald Trump/Twitter

A chance to flex your creative muscles and destroy your brain in the process. Copy and paste some of Donald Trump’s lesser-known Twitter ramblings and then come up with a few of your own, making sure to study his language and cadence (a lot of exclamation marks, frequent ALL-CAPS, riddled with typos, @-ing the wrong person). If you get that right, this round is downright impossible.

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16

The 'Prestige TV Background' Round

mad men
Mad Men

When we’re watching TV (approximately 12 hours a day at this point) it’s easy to focus on characters and plot points and ultimately ignore the décor. Not only is that a great affront to hard-working set designers across the world, but it also presents the perfect opportunity for a can’t-quite-put-my-finger-on-it quiz round.

It’s quite simple. Display a piece of scenery from a famous show and ask players to place it. You could opt for Don Draper’s conversation pit (easy), the offices of Succession’s Waystar Royco (moderately hard) or go way more niche. Check out some high-res options – from Mad Men to Breaking Bad to Buffy the Vampire Slayer – here.

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17

The 'Celebrity Tattoo' Round

french writer auguste le breton 1913   1999 researches his crime novels in the more dangerous areas of montreal, canada, circa 1955 here he peers into a tattoo parlour photo by keystone featureshulton archivegetty images
Keystone Features//Getty Images

Not only do celebrities have terrible tattoos just like you and me, but they’ve actually got a lot more of them. And get this: their bad taste was never held back by a lack of funds or the threat of being laughed at by their horrible mates. As such, they tend to keep them hidden as much as possible – which makes identifying the tattoo-haver in a Zoom quiz all the harder.

Download a celebrity image and crop into the tattoo, making sure to include anything too identifiable (their face; their name in block capitals etc) and you’re good to go. To help your contestants out, it might also be a good idea to include an anonymous quote from the celebrity explaining the reasoning behind their ink, which can often be more embarrassing than the tattoo itself.

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