Balloon battles, raging bulls and a shark at large in Paris – take the Thursday quiz

A shark in close-up, taken through the glass of aquarium. Photograph: s1murg/Getty Images/iStockphoto

With a UK general election campaign in full swing, and with Emmanuel Macron calling a snap vote in France, you will be pleased to know that this week’s election question features Belgium. Your challenge overall is to answer 15 questions on topical news and general knowledge, with a smattering of in-jokes included. There are no prizes, but let us know how you get on in the comments, where you can earn bonus points by being funny or spotting tenuous links to children’s teatime favourite Doctor Who. Enjoy!

The Thursday quiz, No 164

1. 

   The Belgium prime minister was one of a slew of politicians stepping down from their roles after poor performances for their parties in the European elections. Who was the prime minister of Belgium who resigned on Monday?

   1. Yves Leterme

   2. Léon Colbert

   3. Pierre-Yves Dermagne

   4. Alexander De Croo

2. 

   That new deeply weird and deeply red portrait of King Charles III had something stuck over it in a protest by animal rights activists. What?

   1. The face of Peppa Pig from Peppa Pig

   2. The face of Pingu from Pingu

   3. The face of Wallace from Wallace and Gromit

   4. The face of Zippy from Rainbow

3. 

   The Thursday quiz loves an academic legal ding-dong. Which university is facing legal challenges after changing its name to the University of Greater Manchester?

   1. University of Stockport

   2. University of Rochdale

   3. University of Oldham

   4. University of Bolton

4. 

   Under Paris, the Netflix blockbuster about a shark, is apparently in the 'so bad it is actually amazing' category. What is its original name in French?

   1. Maison de Requin

   2. Shark de Triomphe

   3. Sous la Seine

   4. Porcs Sauvages dans L'eau

5. 

   North Korea and South Korea have been rattling their sabres by sending balloons (not pictured) across the border. North Korea's have apparently contained poo. What has South Korea been sending back in revenge?

   1. USB sticks loaded with K-Pop

   2. DVDs of James Bond movies

   3. Tickets to watch the South Korean national team in their World Cup qualifiers

   4. Greatest Hits CDs by Bombalurina featuring Timmy Mallett

6. 

   Whose statue was beheaded and covered in red paint in the latest attack on colonial monuments in Melbourne, Australia?

   1. Queen Victoria

   2. King George V

   3. Capt Arthur Phillip

   4. Lt James Cook

7. 

   The HTTP status codes you are most likely to see as a user when things go wrong on the world wide web include 404 not found, 500 internal server error and 503 service unavailable. But what is the HTTP response code for successful HTTP requests, which means OK?

   1. 100 OK

   2. 200 OK

   3. 30-50 FH OK

   4. 400 OK

8. 

   You've always wanted to pass GCSE statistics, right? Try this one. If you asked 120 pupils who their favourite recording artist was, and 45% of them said Taylor Swift, how many pupils said that?

   1. 45

   2. 49

   3. 54

   4. 59

9. 

   Over the last 24 weeks we went through questions on all 24 teams playing at the Euros this summer. So now here's a new series of questions about countries who are NOT playing at the Euros. Algeria's flag has a white half, and a red star and crescent on it. But which colour is the other half of the flag?

   1. Green

   2. Blue

   3. Yellow

   4. Black

10. 

    Which of these is the name of the first episode of hilariously childish animation South Park?

    1. Cartman Gets an Anal Probe

    2. Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus

    3. The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka

    4. Are You There God? It's Me, Ron From Sparks

11. 

    To whom did Marjorie Taylor Greene (not pictured) compare Donald Trump this weekend?

    1. P T Barnum

    2. Vito Corleone

    3. Liberace

    4. Jesus Christ

12. 

    Nottingham Forest (very much not pictured) made a right hoo-ha last season about VAR, at one point posting to social media accusing an official of making decisions against them because they supported Luton. How did they vote in the Premier League rules-making meeting?

    1. Nottingham Forest voted to keep VAR

    2. Nottingham Forest voted to scrap VAR

13. 

    It is time for jazz club. Nice. What is Keith Jarrett best known for playing?

    1. Double bass

    2. Clarinet

    3. Piano

    4. Kazoo

14. 

    It is the anniversary – give or take a few calendar changes over the centuries – of the Edict of Milan in AD313, which in theory ended the persecution of Christians within the Roman empire (pictured). Which of these emperors issued it?

    1. Constantine

    2. Diocletian

    3. Theodosius

    4. Justinian

15. 

    This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She knows that a bull escaped a rodeo in Oregon this week. What was its name?

    1. Party Animal

    2. Party Bus

    3. Party Hearty

    4. Party Pooper

Solutions

1:D - He will stay on as caretaker until a new appointment is made, 2:C - Cracking cheese, Gromit, 3:D - The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University are right royally peeved about it, 4:C - Relentlessly silly but also horrifying apparently. The Thursday quiz hasn't watched it yet, 5:A - A group of North Korean defectors called the Free North Korea Movement on Thursday claimed it had sent 10 large balloons filled with 200,000 leaflets critical of the regime of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, as well as US dollar bills and flash drives loaded with K-pop, 6:B - A couple of Captain Cook statues have been vandalised this year, but in this instance it was King George V who lost his head during a public holiday to celebrate the birthday of King Charles III, 7:B - The responses are grouped, so the 100 codes are informational, 200 codes indicate success, 300 is redirection, 400 are client errors and 500 are server errors, 8:C - Well done if you picked this option – you've got one point towards your fictitious statistics GCSE , 9:A - Yes, the vexillological way to describe it is "per pale vert and argent; a crescent and star gules" and it was adopted in 1962, 10:A - The only South Park episode animated largely without the use of computer technology, the plot revolves around Cartman having been abducted by aliens and then at the end Kenny gets killed, 11:D - “The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about ‘President Trump is a convicted felon’,” she told a Las Vegas crowd. “Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.” A few sandwiches short of a picnic, that one, 12:A - Wolves, who had approximately 1,057 bad VAR decisions against them last season, were the only club to back their proposal to get it into the bin, as Forest failed to back their own high and mighty social media statements, 13:C - His album The Köln Concert, released in 1975, is one of the best-selling piano recordings in history, 14:A - It was issued jointly by the western Roman emperor Constantine I and Licinius, who ruled in the Balkans, 15:B - It ran through a concession area into a parking lot, injuring at least three people before wranglers caught up with it

Scores

1. 0 and above.

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

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and you would have more fun watching the new Desperate Journalist video instead.