Father’s Day: time to take the dad quiz
Test your knowledge of paternal trivia with QI writer John Mitchinson
Nobody knows exactly when Father’s Day arrived in the UK. Steve Roud, our most distinguished historian of popular customs, is uncharacteristically vague on the subject, writing in The English Year that it appeared “sometime after the Second World War, not without opposition”. This suggests two things: firstly, that we probably nicked the idea wholesale from our cousins across the pond, where it had been established since 1910, and secondly, that what drove its slightly furtive introduction here was the enthusiastic endorsement of retailers.
Today’s quiz, inspired by Father’s Day, has been devised by the QI team.
1. In the UK, how do the sales of Father’s Day cards compare to sales of Mother’s Day cards?
(a) About the same
(b) A third as many
(c) Half as many
2. Father’s Day was established in France in 1949 through the marketing campaign for what product?
(a) A new model Peugeot (b) A cigarette lighter (c) Running shoes
3. Which father wrote to his son: “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching and you will be a disgrace to yourself and your family”?
(a) Randolph Churchill (b) Robert Darwin
(c) John ‘Mad Jack’ Byron
4. The actress Liv Tyler was eight when she discovered her biological father was Steve Tyleryler of Aerosmith. Who had ad she thought was her fatherther until then? (a) Mick Jagger (b) Todd Rundgren (c) Iggy Pop 5. TV talk show host Jeremy Kyle’s father worked as:
(a) a sewage engineer
(b) the Queen Mother’s personal secretary
(c) Chair of Stonewall,all, the LGBT charity 6. Who has no father? (a) Female bees (b) Male ants (c) Queen termites 7. What was John Cleese’s father’s name?
(a) Reginald Cheese (b) John Cleats (c) Barney Butter 8. Peter Benchley, who wrote Jaws, asked his father to suggest a title. Did he go for?
(a) Get Out of the Water (b) The Biggest Fish
(c) What’s That Noshin’ on Ma Leg?
9. To avenge the sinking of his father’s fleet, the Roman emperor Caligula: (a) refused to eat fish
(b) sacrificed his daughter (c) attacked the sea itself
10. Which father helps incubate its young and feeds them with milk? (a) Pigeon (b) Platypus (c) Python 11. When he enlisted, what did JRR Tolkien’s son put as his father’s occupation? (a) Professor (b) Hobbit (c) Wizard 12. The male antechinus (a mouse) never gets to see his children because:
(a) he is born blind
(b) he mates once then disappears
(c) he dies after mating
To order 1,234 QI Facts to
Leave You Speechless by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson & James Harkin (Faber & Faber) for £4.99 plus p&p, call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk