Internet Memes & Viral Moments Quiz

1. What is 'Rickrolling'?

1. A prank where someone is unexpectedly redirected to Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' video
2. A type of bread roll popular on social media food blogs
3. A viral dance challenge involving rolling on the floor
4. An online gaming technique

2. The 'Distracted Boyfriend' meme features a photograph of a man looking at another woman while his girlfriend looks on horrified. Where is this man from?

1. Italy
2. Spain
3. United Kingdom
4. United States

3. The Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 raised over $115 million for which charity/cause?

1. ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Lou Gehrig's disease) research
2. Alzheimer's research
3. Cancer Research
4. World Hunger Relief

4. The 'What Colour is the Dress?' debate went viral in February 2015. What were the two main camps?

1. Pink and white vs. black and grey
2. Red and green vs. blue and purple
3. White and gold vs. black and blue
4. Yellow and brown vs. blue and silver

5. The 'Harlem Shake' viral trend (2013) involved what format?

1. A celebrity dance challenge where stars copied a professional dancer's moves
2. A dance competition show format
3. A group flash mob dance in a famous location
4. One person dancing alone in a crowded, oblivious crowd, then everyone suddenly dancing wildly

6. Grumpy Cat became one of the internet's most famous animals. What was her real name?

1. Grumpina
2. Miss Frowny
3. Sourpuss
4. Tardar Sauce

7. The 'Gangnam Style' video famously broke YouTube. What happened?

1. Google's servers overheated from the video's bandwidth demands
2. So many simultaneous views crashed YouTube's servers
3. The video was temporarily removed for copyright reasons, creating panic
4. YouTube's view counter wasn't large enough — they had to update their code to handle numbers above 2.1 billion

8. The 'Charlie Bit My Finger' video was one of YouTube's first viral hits. It was eventually sold as what?

1. A physical DVD box set
2. A TV commercial for a baby food brand
3. An NFT for nearly $800,000
4. The basis for a feature film

9. What is a 'deepfake'?

1. A deep-cover internet troll using multiple fake personas
2. A fake product review campaign
3. A very convincing internet hoax article
4. AI-generated synthetic media where a person's face or voice is convincingly replaced with another person's

10. The 'Tide Pod Challenge' in early 2018 was alarming because teenagers were doing what?

1. Dissolving Tide Pods in public water fountains
2. Eating Tide laundry detergent pods on camera
3. Throwing Tide Pods at passing cars
4. Using Tide Pods to dye their hair

11. The 'OK Boomer' phrase became a viral meme in 2019. What does it mean and who popularised it?

1. A dismissive response by younger generations to older people's out-of-touch attitudes — popularised by a New Zealand politician's response in Parliament
2. A financial term for a booming economic period
3. A greeting used exclusively at Baby Boomer conventions
4. A slang term for a successful businessperson from the Baby Boomer generation

12. Area 51 became a viral meme in September 2019. What was the original plan?

1. A conspiracy theory conference at the base's entrance
2. A Facebook event to 'storm' the Nevada military base to 'see the aliens', which attracted 2 million RSVPs
3. A petition to make Area 51 a national park
4. Protesters planned a mass march on the Pentagon

13. The 'Bottle Cap Challenge' (2019) involved what feat?

1. Balancing a bottle cap on your nose
2. Flipping a bottle to land cap-down perfectly
3. Stacking as many bottle caps as possible in 60 seconds
4. Unscrewing a bottle cap with a spinning roundhouse kick without knocking over the bottle

14. What was the 'Dress Like a Woman' internet moment associated with the Trump White House in 2017?

1. A leaked dress code memo from the Oval Office
2. A viral photo of female White House staff wearing identical dresses
3. A White House fashion show that trended on Twitter
4. Reports that Trump told female staff to dress more femininely, followed by women posting photos of themselves in professional attire with the hashtag #DressLikeAWoman

15. The 'Skip Leg Day' meme jokes about people who exercise their upper body but not their legs. What is the visual shorthand for this?

1. A person running away from the gym
2. A protein shake bottle with no lid
3. A very large torso with tiny legs
4. Massive arms holding tiny dumbbells

16. What was the original meaning of the 'Side Eye Chloe' meme that went viral in 2022?

1. A celebrity reaction to winning an award unexpectedly
2. A stock photo of a suspicious cat
3. A toddler reacting to tasting broccoli for the first time
4. A video of a young girl giving a completely deadpan side-eye to the camera while her sister reacts excitedly to a surprise

17. What is the 'NPC' meme that went viral on TikTok in 2023?

1. A meme about people following instructions without thinking
2. A trend of playing video games on TikTok live
3. Non-playable characters from video games used as reaction memes
4. TikTok creators livestreaming and acting like video game NPCs — moving robotically and repeating scripted phrases in response to virtual 'gifts' from viewers

18. The 'Bernie Mittens' meme originated at which event in January 2021?

1. A Bernie Sanders campaign rally
2. Joe Biden's presidential inauguration
3. The Grammy Awards
4. The Super Bowl

19. What was the 'Zoom Boom' cultural phenomenon during the COVID-19 pandemic?

1. A fitness trend involving jumping exercises during lockdown
2. An increase in explosive property prices during lockdown
3. The explosive adoption of Zoom video conferencing, along with associated memes about pets, children, and 'unmute yourself'
4. The rapid growth in popularity of the film Boom in 2020

20. What is 'main character syndrome' and how did it become a TikTok trend?

1. A clinical diagnosis for narcissistic personality disorder
2. A trend of recreating movie scenes in public
3. A video game concept applied to real-life social situations
4. The feeling of being the protagonist of your own life story — on TikTok, videos of people living 'main character' moments with cinematic music