As the weather gets colder and it becomes increasingly attractive to stay home snuggled under blankets, there is one activity that is definitely on the rise: Quizzing.
Say goodbye to spending a fortune on drinks at pub quizzes with the same boring general knowledge questions. Why not host a quiz night from the comfort of your own home? These rounds guarantee a good time, whether with your family, housemates, or friends.
Get the drinks and snacks in, and let us do the real work. Take inspiration from our list below and inject some spice to your quiz (plus, win kudos as being quizmaster extraordinaire among your peers).
1
Translate The Lyrics
Use Google Translate to feed lyrics back and forth between languages so many times that it becomes an entirely new song. Show players the new lyrics and let them figure out the original.
For example, these 'Islands in the Stream' lyrics:
'Baby, when I met you there was peace unknown, I set out to get you with a fine tooth comb, I was soft inside/ There was something going on.'
Becomes:
'Son, I didn't know peace when I first met you, I wanted to catch it with a brush/ Weak inside, something was wrong.'
2
Almost Famous
Out of a line up of stars and titles, get players to match up actors and the famous roles they had unsuccessful auditions for. It’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else playing the characters we know and love, so this round is both tricky and provides a new-found respect for the casting process.
3
Restaurant Menus
Screenshot the menus of well known restaurants or fast-food chains and crop out the names, getting players to guess where the menu is from.
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4
Old Wives Tales
Write down three facts; two of which are true, and one of which is an old wives tale. This round will soon make all the players into that annoying know-it-all friend who lives to debunk myths, so play at your own risk…
5
Super Zoom
This picture round is simple but surprisingly difficult. Select photos of random objects and zoom into them, asking players to guess what they are from the cropped image. To make it easier, you can group objects by themes, for example ‘chocolate bars’ or ‘household items’. Reveal the full image at the end of each question to hear players kicking themselves for not seeing the familiar item sooner.
6
The Name Game
Put your group’s celeb knowledge to the test and guess the real names of stars famously known by their stage names.
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7
Riddle Me This
Every quiz needs a riddle round – scour the internet for lesser known riddles that will get everyone’s brains working overtime. To make things more fun, ask players to group up in pairs to solve them together.
8
Anagrams
These brain teasers are a classic in crossword puzzles for a reason. Rearrange letters in a word or phrase and ask players to unjumble them. We’d suggest wedging this quieter round in between ones that require more shouting out or debating to provide a much needed breather.
9
Music Round
An oldie but a goodie, a music round is a good way to lift up the vibe in a pub quiz.
You can do a musical intro round, where you play the first 10 seconds of a song and players have to guess the artists and song title, or a 'what comes next' round where you play (or sing?) a lyric and it's up to teams to answer the next line.
As music rounds are a common part of a quiz, why don't you theme your song choices but not necessarily tell the players? If it's someone's birthday, choose songs from the year they were born, the year of major life milestones, or artists beginning with the first letter of their name.
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10
Baby Photos
This round can be done just with celebrities or friends and players, too.
Show a baby picture to the group and they have to guess who it is, (we have a great selection of celebrity baby photos here) or ask the relatives of some of your friends who are playing to supply you with one and everyone else has to match the correct player to the picture.
11
TV/Film Round
If you're a savvy Photoshop user, copy and paste pictures of your friends, family and players of the quiz onto characters from films and TV shows and get the players to guess the series or movie.
12
Guess The Recipe
This can be done with food dishes, co*cktails or baked goods. Name the key ingredients of one of the aforementioned kitchen-related topics and players have to guess what you're making.
For example, lime juice, tequila and Triple Sec would be a Margarita. Tomatoes, mincemeat and spaghetti would be a spaghetti bolognese.
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13
What Happens Next...
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Play snippets of viral videos (like this classic BBC News moment) and pause it right before the main moment happens, asking players what happens next in the viral video.
Many video conference apps like Zoom and Google Hangout let you share your screen so you can play the clip to players.
14
Name The Landmark
Using Google Earth, zoom in on a landmark so that only the view from the landmark is visible. Then ask players to guess the landmark.
For example, this picture is of the Rio de Janeiro coastline, taken from Christ The Redeemer.
15
Snap Round
It's always a good idea to liven things up a little bit with a snap round.
So, get players ready and instruct them to bring you back an item beginning with a certain letter. For example, a whisk for the letter W. The first person to come back in the room with an item wins the point.
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16
Synonyms
A fun and easy way to challenge your guests is with a synonym round so, replacing the titles of songs, books, movies and TV shows with synonyms in their place (a synonym is another word which means the same, in the same language).
For example, Dirty Dancing could be Filthy Bopping. Get it?
17
Guess The Date Of The Pic Of Your Mate
A personal touch which is a great one to play with close friends. Finding pictures of your friends - we suggest trawling their back catalogue on social media - ask the rest of the team the date and month in which the photo was taken.
Tip: This round is extra great if the photos are funny 0r memorable because of when and where they were taken. Remember to be nice, guys.
18
Logo Round
We see company logos all the time but just how many do we actually remember?
Spell out a word - it could be the hometown you all grew up in, the university you went to or a particular family member if it's their birthday - using letters from different company logos. Participants then have to guess which company or brand each letter in the word represents.
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19
Guess The Famous Voice
Similarly to the music round, play an audio clip to teammates of a famous person speaking. The easiest way to do this is to search on YouTube for a celebrity interview and play a snippet where it's just them talking.
20
The Emoji Round
In a similar vein to the synonym round, spell out popular films, TV shows, songs or books using just emojis.
For example:
👔 👔 = Suits
👨👩👦👦👨 = Family Guy
Olivia Blair
Talent Editor
Olivia Blair is Talent Editor at Hearst UK, working predominantly across Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Esquire and Harper's Bazaar. Olivia covers all things entertainment and has interviewed the likes of Margot Robbie, Emma Stone, Timothée Chalamet and Cynthia Erivo over the years.
