Movie stars, unwanted gifts and a Blue Monday myth – take the Thursday quiz

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?

Does January feel like it has already lasted 1,057 days? Indeed it does. But at least this day is a Thursday, and you know what that means – 15 topical and general knowledge questions once again await you, as do Ron from Sparks, Kate Bush, and this week’s rather obvious nod to the children’s science fiction extravaganza Doctor Who. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 38

1. DON'T STEP ON IT: Artist James Concannon is suing toy company Lego, claiming they've made a minfig which copies the unique design of one of his jackets. The minifig was included in a Lego set for which TV show?

   1. Squid Game

   2. Queer Eye

   3. RuPaul's Drag Race

   4. Buffy The Vampire Slayer

2. LANGUAGE, TIMOTHY: 'Magikkun' has become a buzzword in South Korea about a particular type of annoying behaviour on dating apps. But what does it mean?

   1. 'Mask fraud' - complaining that someone has posted their profile pic wearing a Covid face mask, designed to make them look more attractive by showing less of their face

   2. 'Magic word' – complaining that people have been spoiling the latest game of Wordle by rushing to dating apps as soon as they have solved it, and changing their profile picture to the day's solution to show off their English language skills

   3. 'Magic trick' – complaining that users are messaging them using a trick word formula shown on TV by award-winning South Korean magician Lee Eun-gyeol designed to make people appear more intelligent

   4. 'Super league' – complaining that someone has slid into their DMs to announce that they are forming a European Super League™, only to have to back down a couple of days later

3. ON THIS DAY: 20 January is the anniversary of the inauguration of many US presidents since Franklin D Roosevelt in 1937 (pictured), when the start of the presidential term was moved from March to January. Which amendment to the US constitution set out that change?

   1. 17th amendment

   2. 19th amendment

   3. 20th amendment

   4. 21st amendment

4. GCSE SCIENCE CORNER: If you've got some 18 karat gold, how much of it is actually gold in percentage terms?

   1. 18%

   2. 50%

   3. 75%

   4. 100%

5. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It is Tom Baker's birthday today. Happy birthday, Tom! He's 88, you know. But what was the name of his first episode starring as the fourth Doctor Who?

   1. Genesis of the Daleks

   2. Robot

   3. The Ark In Space

   4. The Sontaran Stratagem

6. SCANDINAVIAN DESIGN: That's a 2017 song by Sparks where they've got nothing, just a table and two chairs. But that's not important right now. 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad founded which iconic Scandinavian design institution?

   1. Nokia

   2. Flying Tiger

   3. H&M

   4. Ikea

7. WHO WAS HENRY McHENRY? Speaking of Sparks, their Leos Carax-directed musical Annette came out on Blu-Ray in the UK last week. Which former Star Wars actor played the male lead role opposite Marion Cotillard?

   1. Adam Driver

   2. John Boyega

   3. Oscar Isaac

   4. Mark Hamill

8. TURN IT UP TURN IT OFF TURN IT IN: Heating firm E.ON Next apologised after, in the middle of an energy pricing crisis, sending what to customers, telling them to turn their heating down and use these to get warm instead?

   1. E.ON Next socks

   2. E.ON Next gloves

   3. E.ON Next slippers

   4. E.ON Next condoms

9. ENSEMBLE CASTS: Which classic 1970s disaster movie featured Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Leslie Nielsen and Red Buttons among its cast?

   1. Earthquake

   2. The Towering Inferno

   3. The Poseidon Adventure

   4. Airport

10. RADIO HISTORY: In 1945 the BBC launched The BBC Light Programme as a radio station. It was eventually replaced by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. When?

    1. 1963

    2. 1965

    3. 1967

    4. 1969

11. RADIO WAVES: Born in Northern Ireland in 1943, which scientist was instrumental in the discovery of pulsars in 1967 while still a graduate student in radio astronomy?

    1. Jocelyn Bell Burnell

    2. Rosalind Franklin

    3. Nettie Stevens

    4. Kathleen King

12. WHO AM I? I was the last of the Plantagenets, and met my death in battle in Leicestershire. I was buried in 2015. Who am I?

    1. Richard II

    2. Richard III

    3. Edward V

    4. Henry IV

13. AFCON 21: The Africa Cup of Nations has started in Cameroon for twenty-four men's football teams. Which of these pairs of teams from the tournament DO NOT share a land border?

    1. Senegal & Mali

    2. Gabon & Nigeria

    3. Tunisia & Algeria

    4. Ghana & Burkina Faso

14. GAME SET AND MATCH: The Australian Open tennis tournament has been in the news a lot. But where is it played?

    1. Brisbane

    2. Sydney

    3. Canberra

    4. Melbourne

15. MUSIC: 'Blue Monday' is an incredibly annoying marketing myth about the supposedly most depressing day of the year. But who designed the iconic original 1983 12" single sleeve that looked like a floppy disc, for New Order's single Blue Monday?

    1. Stanley Donwood

    2. Neville Brody

    3. Peter Saville

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:B - It was worn by Antoni Porowski on the show. The Queer Eye set retails for £90 in the UK, and is almost certainly exactly the kind of thing the Fab 5 would order straight out of your house to sort you out with a more stylish look, 2:A - It is a blend of the English word 'mask' and the Korean word 'sagikkun', meaning fraud, and the complaint is that people are making themselves look more attractive, as with a mask on, there is less face for people to judge you on, 3:C - It was the 20th amendment, which was ratified in 1933. The 17th amendment made senators directly elected by popular vote, the 19th amendment prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on sex, and the 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment, which had enacted the prohibition of alcohol across the US, 4:C - It is 75%. 24 karat is pure gold with no other metals because a karat represents one 24th. Is this actually science? Who knows. It is definitely the kind of question that is sometimes on GCSE chemistry sample and revision papers though for some reason, 5:B - He had appeared briefly as the new Doctor at the end of Jon Pertwee's story Planet of the Spiders, but it would have been extremely mean to make that the correct answer. His first full story was Robot, which started on 28 December 1974, 6:D - Started in Sweden in 1943, the hugely wealthy and successful company is now actually technically loads of different companies in different countries for *taps nose* some reason. You can tell by his face that Ron from Sparks thinks you should have known that, 7:A - It was Adam Driver who was the Star Wars alumnus that appeared in the movie. Ron from Sparks made a couple of cameo appearances along with his brother, Sparks' singer Russell. You really should check out that movie, 8:A - E.ON Next said it was 'incredibly sorry' after sending pairs of polyester socks branded with advice to turn down heating to help reduce carbon emissions to about 30,000 households that had taken part in an energy saving campaign last year., 9:C - It was The Poseidon Adventure, which was the highest grossing film worldwide in 1973, earning over $125 million worldwide, and winning two Academy Awards in the process, 10:C - "And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1" were the opening words of the service started as a rival to pirate stations that were commandeering the ears of the youth., 11:A - It was Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who studied literally miles of printed paper output from a radio telescope, but who ultimately was overlooked when the Nobel prize for their discovery went to her superviser Anthony Hewish and Martin Ryle, 12:B - It was Richard III, who was king of England for a couple of years before ending up under a car park, the last English king to die in battle, 13:B - Both countries are on the western coast of the continent, but Equatorial Guinea and AFCON 21 host nation Cameroon are between the pair, 14:D - It is played at the imaginatively named Melbourne Park in Melbourne and was first held in 1905, 15:C - Rumoured, with much glee by Factory boss Tony Wilson himself, to be so expensive to manufacture that the band lost money with every sale, the original 1983 sleeve replicated a floppy disc that Saville had seen for the very first time while visiting the band in the studio as they recorded the track

Scores

1. 0 and above.

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

2. 4 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 he’ll bring the anagrams back if you displease him.