The Simpsons has been on the air so long that a joke from its first season is now older than most of the people watching its newest one. That duration creates something unusual for trivia: a show where almost everyone in the room thinks they know it well, but different generations know completely different versions of it. Someone who grew up on seasons three through eight lives in a different Springfield than someone who started watching in 2010. And that gap is where the best simpsons trivia lives, right in the space between what people assume they remember and what actually happened on screen.
I’ve run these questions at pub nights where the entire room erupted over a single wrong answer about Ned Flanders. I’ve watched confident people crumble on questions about the first episode. This set is built from those moments.
The Ones That Feel Easy Until They Don’t
1. What is the name of the elementary school Bart and Lisa attend?
This is your table-setter. Everyone reaches for it. But I’ve had more than one person confidently say “Springfield Elementary” without the rest of the name, and that’s technically incomplete.
Show Answer
Springfield Elementary School. It’s occasionally referred to with the full name, but the key detail people sometimes miss in harder versions of this question is that it’s named after Jebediah Springfield. The school’s full formal name has shifted over the years, which is very Simpsons.
Common wrong addition: Some people want to add “Jebediah Springfield” to the school name formally, but the show itself just calls it Springfield Elementary.
2. What instrument does Lisa Simpson play?
If someone gets this wrong, they haven’t watched the show. But it earns its spot here because it builds confidence, and confident people are easier to trip up later.
Show Answer
Baritone saxophone. Not just “saxophone.” If you’re running this at a trivia night, give full points for saxophone but bonus points for baritone. It starts a conversation every time.
3. What is Homer’s middle name?
This is the first real filter. People who’ve casually watched the show guess “James” or “Joseph” or just stare blankly. People who know the show know it immediately.
Show Answer
Jay. Just the letter. Homer Jay Simpson. It’s a tribute to cartoon producer Jay Ward, which most people don’t know and which makes the answer better once you do.
4. What was the first full-length Simpsons episode, which aired on December 17, 1989?
Here’s where the overconfidence starts. People who consider themselves hardcore fans lock in fast on this one, and about half of them are wrong.
Show Answer
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” (also known as “The Simpsons Christmas Special”).
Common wrong answer: “Some Enchanted Evening.” This was actually supposed to be the first episode, but animation problems pushed it back. It eventually aired as the season finale. The fact that the intended first episode became the last one is a piece of production trivia that changes how you think about the whole first season.
5. Before The Simpsons became its own show, it appeared as short segments on which variety program?
Younger players almost never get this. Older players get it instantly and feel briefly, pleasantly ancient.
Show Answer
The Tracey Ullman Show. The shorts ran from 1987 to 1989, and the animation was so rough that Homer looked like he’d been drawn during an earthquake.
Springfield Geography and the People Who Live There
6. What is the name of the bar where Homer drinks?
Straightforward, but it’s here because the next question isn’t.
7. What is Moe’s last name?
This is the one that makes people realize they’ve been watching this character for decades without ever processing his full name.
Show Answer
Szyslak. Moe Szyslak. The spelling alone is worth a bonus round. I’ve seen people try to spell it on napkins at bar trivia and produce something closer to a Polish train station than a surname.
8. What street do the Simpsons live on?
People either know this cold or they’ve never once thought about it. There’s almost no middle ground.
Show Answer
742 Evergreen Terrace. The number matters. “Evergreen Terrace” alone is worth the point, but 742 is one of those details that separates people who watched the show from people who memorized it.
9. What U.S. state is Springfield in?
I love asking this one because it generates genuine debate. People start arguing before you’ve even finished reading the question.
Show Answer
It’s intentionally never been definitively confirmed in the show. Matt Groening has said it was inspired by Springfield, Oregon, but the show deliberately contradicts any single state identification. The writers have put clues pointing to dozens of different states over the years, all on purpose. If someone at your table insists it’s one specific state, they’re wrong in the most Simpsons way possible.
10. What is the name of the nuclear power plant where Homer works?
Show Answer
Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, owned by Charles Montgomery Burns. Some people say “Burns Nuclear Power Plant,” which isn’t technically wrong but isn’t what the show uses.
11. Who is the founder of Springfield, according to local legend?
The real answer is one thing. What the show reveals about the founder is another thing entirely, and it’s one of the best early-season plot twists.
Show Answer
Jebediah Springfield. His real name was revealed to be Hans Sprungfeld, a murderous pirate. Lisa discovers this in “Lisa the Iconoclast” and ultimately decides to keep the truth hidden. It’s one of those episodes that’s genuinely about something.
The Part Where It Gets Harder
12. What is Bart’s real first name?
Classic simpsons trivia, and it still catches people. They know Bart is short for something, they can feel the answer right there, and then they can’t quite reach it.
Show Answer
Bartholomew. Bartholomew JoJo Simpson, if you want the full thing. Yes, his middle name is JoJo.
13. What is the name of the clown who hosts the show Bart loves?
Show Answer
Krusty the Clown. His real name is Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky. That full name is its own comedy routine.
14. Sideshow Bob’s last name is Terwilliger. What is his full first name?
People say “Robert” and feel good about themselves. They’re not wrong, exactly. But they’re not all the way right.
Show Answer
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger Jr. The “Underdunk” is the part that makes people laugh when they hear it. Kelsey Grammer’s voice sells that name like it belongs in a Dickens novel.
15. What does the cash register read when Maggie is scanned in the opening credits?
This is one of those details that rewards obsessive viewers. Most people have watched the opening hundreds of times without catching it.
Show Answer
$847.63. At the time the show debuted, this was reportedly the estimated monthly cost of raising a baby in the United States. It’s the kind of joke that hides in plain sight for years.
16. What is the name of the fictional itchy-and-scratchy-style show within the show that Bart and Lisa watch?
This one’s a gimme for fans, but it’s placed here to give people a breath before the next run.
Show Answer
The Itchy & Scratchy Show. Itchy is the mouse, Scratchy is the cat. A violent inversion of Tom and Jerry that somehow serves as meta-commentary on cartoon violence while being a cartoon. The layers in this show never stop.
17. What is Ned Flanders’s wife’s name, the one who dies in a later season?
Show Answer
Maude Flanders. She’s killed by a T-shirt cannon at a stock car race in season 11’s “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily.” The voice actress, Maggie Roswell, had left the show over a pay dispute. They wrote the character’s death as a result, and it remains one of the show’s most jarring moments.
Common wrong answer: Some people say “Edna,” who Ned does eventually marry, but Edna Krabappel is a different character entirely.
18. How many fingers do Simpsons characters have on each hand?
Everyone thinks they know this. Then they start second-guessing themselves. I’ve watched tables hold up their own hands and start counting.
Show Answer
Four (three fingers and a thumb). This is standard for most animated characters and saves animators thousands of hours over a series run. But when you actually look at your own hand and then picture Homer’s, the gap is unsettling.
19. In “Marge vs. the Monorail,” who wrote the episode?
This question separates Simpsons fans from Simpsons scholars. The answer is someone whose other work makes perfect sense once you hear it.
Show Answer
Conan O’Brien. He was a writer on The Simpsons before he became a late-night host. “Marge vs. the Monorail” is widely considered one of the greatest episodes ever written, and the monorail song is burned into the brain of anyone who’s heard it even once.
20. What is the name of Homer’s bowling team?
Deep cut. People who know this one light up. People who don’t are usually surprised there’s a consistent answer at all.
Show Answer
The Pin Pals. The team includes Homer, Moe, Apu, and Otto (who replaces an injured member in the key episode). Mr. Burns also briefly joins. The Pin Pals jersey is one of the most recognizable pieces of Simpsons merchandise.
Voice and Sound
21. Who provides the voice of Homer Simpson?
Show Answer
Dan Castellaneta. He also voices Barney, Groundskeeper Willie, Krusty, Hans Moleman, Sideshow Mel, Mayor Quimby, and about a dozen others. The range is genuinely staggering when you list them all out.
22. Which cast member voices both Bart Simpson and Nelson Muntz?
The Bart part is well known. The Nelson part catches people off guard every single time.
Show Answer
Nancy Cartwright. She also voices Todd Flanders, Ralph Wiggum, and Database among others. The fact that Bart’s “eat my shorts” and Nelson’s “ha-ha” come from the same person is the kind of thing that changes how you hear both characters.
23. Who performed the number-one hit “Do the Bartman”?
The song itself is a time capsule. The production credit behind it is the part that blows the room up.
Show Answer
Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson. But the song was co-written and produced by Michael Jackson, who was a massive Simpsons fan. Jackson also guest-voiced in the episode “Stark Raving Dad” under the pseudonym John Jay Smith, playing a man in a mental institution who thinks he’s Michael Jackson. The layers of that premise have only gotten stranger with time.
The Ones That Start Fights
24. What is Comic Book Guy’s real name?
For years, he didn’t have one. Then the show gave him one, and it was so perfect that it retroactively felt like it had always been there.
Show Answer
Jeff Albertson. It was revealed in the season 16 episode “Homer and Ned’s Hail Mary Pass.” Even some of the show’s writers have admitted they forget it, which somehow makes it even more fitting.
25. What brand of beer does Homer drink?
Show Answer
Duff Beer. And before you ask, no, there wasn’t a real Duff Beer for most of the show’s run. Various companies around the world have tried to produce it, leading to multiple trademark disputes. The Simpsons eventually licensed an official version. Reality imitating Springfield is a recurring theme.
26. In the “Treehouse of Horror” segments, what classic story is the basis for the segment where Homer repeatedly goes back in time and accidentally changes the present?
Science fiction fans get this instantly. Everyone else describes the plot of the segment perfectly without being able to name the source material.
Show Answer
“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury. Homer steps on things in the prehistoric past and returns to increasingly bizarre versions of the present. It’s one of the most referenced Treehouse of Horror segments, and it introduced “Mmm, donuts” falling from the sky as a concept the internet never forgot.
27. What is the name of the cat that the Simpsons family owns?
Seems easy. Then people realize there have been multiple cats and they’re not sure which name is current.
Show Answer
Snowball. The current cat is Snowball V (also called Snowball II for simplicity, as Lisa decides at the end of the episode “I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot”). The original Snowball died before the events of the show, Snowball II was the longtime cat, and subsequent Snowballs met various unfortunate ends. The genealogy of Simpsons cats is darker than most people remember.
28. What is Apu’s last name, and how many children does he have?
The last name is hard to spell but most fans can say it. The number of children is where people start guessing wildly.
Show Answer
Nahasapeemapetilon. He has eight children, octuplets born in the episode “Eight Misbehavin’.” I’ve run this question dozens of times and the most common wrong answer for the children is “four” or “six.” Eight shocks people every time, which is exactly the joke the show was making.
29. What subject did Edna Krabappel teach at Springfield Elementary?
People who can picture her classroom perfectly suddenly can’t name the subject. It’s a strange blind spot.
Show Answer
4th grade. She was Bart’s teacher, so she taught general 4th-grade classes rather than a specific subject. The character was retired after voice actress Marcia Wallace passed away in 2013. The chalkboard tribute in the episode following her death just read “We’ll really miss you Mrs. K.” It’s one of the few times the show was completely sincere, and it landed harder for it.
The Last One
30. The Simpsons is the longest-running American animated program in television history. But what is the only prime-time animated series to have been canceled and then brought back to become a massive hit, partly because Simpsons reruns proved there was a huge audience for adult animation?
This is the question I save for the end of a night because it forces people to think about The Simpsons not just as a show but as a thing that changed what television was willing to try. The answer owes its entire second life to the audience The Simpsons built.
Show Answer
Family Guy. It was canceled by Fox in 2002, but massive DVD sales and strong ratings for reruns on Adult Swim, which existed in a landscape The Simpsons helped create, led to its revival in 2005. You can draw a straight line from The Simpsons proving that animation wasn’t just for kids to every adult animated show that followed. Family Guy, South Park, Bob’s Burgers, Archer, all of it. The Simpsons didn’t just dominate its time slot. It built the neighborhood.
Common wrong answer: Futurama, which was also canceled and revived, but it was never a prime-time network ratings juggernaut in the way Family Guy became after its return.
That’s your thirty. And if you’re sitting there with 25 or more correct, you don’t just watch The Simpsons. You live there. The rest of us are just visiting.
I host a monthly music and film quiz in Dublin, Ireland that I've been running for 4 years. The questions I've kept coming back to are the ones that make people argue even after I've given the answer. My rounds have been used by Quiz Night King, and I take the same care with every set I write.
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