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Thursday news quiz: AI mishaps, fan fury and a tiny baby hippo | Life and style

18/12/2025
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Welcome to the final Thursday news quiz of the year – a small festive tradition involving the news, a handful of jokes, and the knowledge that somewhere there are 1,057 pedants limbering up to find something to nitpick. And it is a bumper 20-question edition. Thank you for quizzing throughout the year, for your comments, corrections and good-natured quibbles, and most of all for the kind messages literally hundreds of you sent the quizmaster during the Great Thursday Quiz Hiatus of 2025™, when he was off sick. It really meant a lot. Allons-y!

  • The Thursday quiz will return in the new year and wishes you a Merry Christmas, a great festive holiday period and all the best for 2026. Sign up for First Edition to get a Thursday quiz-style quiz of the year in your inbox on Christmas Day.

The Thursday news quiz, No 228

  1. 1.The Thursday quiz was shocked and saddened at the sudden death of the director Rob Reiner. What was the name of the album that Spinal Tap were attempting to promote during their ill-fated US tour in the original movie?

    Director Rob Reiner's star

  2. 2.The chief organiser of a notoriously gruelling university entrance exam in which country has resigned after people said it was too hard?

    Exam students

  3. 3.The radio station Southern Cross Austereo has been investigating this week whether its introduction of AI-assisted news bulletins led to what …

    Radio

  4. 4.Also on the AI naughty step this week is McDonald’s, which had to pull an AI-generated advert in which country after a backlash?

    McDonald's logo

  5. 5.Which band have finally given Fatboy Slim permission to use a sample of their song in a remix of The Rockafeller Skank 25 years after it was made?

    Fatboy Slim

  6. 6.Protesters briefly interrupted the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, during a Capitol Hill hearing last week, evoking which quote from which film?

    Kristi Noem

  7. 7.The hero raccoon (not pictured, he’s a good boy) that barged into a liquor store, smashed bottles of booze and passed out drunk in a bathroom has at least two other break-ins under his belt, a local government official has revealed. In which US state?

    Raccoon

  8. 8.A DoorDasher in Indiana has been arrested under suspicion of adding what extra ingredient to deliveries?

    DoorDash app

  9. 9.Fans in India rioted after they felt shortchanged during a visit by which footballer?

    Football riot

  10. 10.Here is Karl-Heinz, with his opening lines, which almost rhymes. This week the Thursday quiz imagines the German soccer ace would like to know which Shakespeare play begins ‘Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene’?

    Karl-Heinz Rumminegge

  11. 11.Which London arts venue is to close its doors for a year for a multimillion-pound renovation?

    Painting brush

  12. 12.Which game basically swept the board at the the Game Awards 2025 in Los Angeles with nine awards?

    ZX Spectrum

  13. 13.What extremely petty thing did Sunderland do at the Tyne–Wear derby at the weekend much to the amusement of the Thursday quiz?

    Sunderland

  14. 14.It is time for on this day with Brian May! And his badger! 18 December is the anniversary of the first ever NFL playoff game. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen’s legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – which teams competed?

    Brian May and Bill the Badger

  15. 15.Which pop star has overtaken Abba, Coldplay, Michael Jackson, Elton John and Queen in the UK chart-topper list as a reissued version of her Christmas album becomes her 11th No 1?

    Christmas

  16. 16.One of these people did NOT make the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist. Which one?

    BBC Sports Personality of the Year trophy

  17. 17.Talking of the BBC (not pictured), Donald Trump (not pictured) is attempting to sue the corporation for something like one zillion dollars in which US state (not pictured)?

    Clown

  18. 18.The Duisburg zoo three-week-old baby pygmy hippo that has gone viral on the internet is about the same size as a lettuce (not pictured). What is his name?

    Liz Truss

  19. 19.This week’s guest canine is Luna, who is suitably dressed for Christmas. She wants to know in which Winter Olympics discipline 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn has made an extraordinary ­comeback from retirement?

    Luna, a guest canine for the Thursday quiz

  20. 20.And the final Guardian Thursday news quiz question of 2025 – how highly would you rate this photograph of Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz?

    Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working and are absolutely 100% positive you aren’t attempting to factcheck a joke – you can complain about it in the comments below. Why not watch Thank God It’s Not Christmas by Sparks instead?

Thank God It’s Not Christmas by Sparks

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