Entertaining Places With Silly Sketches Quiz

Answer: Cockaigne

Pieter Brueghel the Elder painted in 1567 the mythical land we were looking for. Alas, it has various names in different languages. In Dutch it is called Luilekkerland (which translates more or less to "The land of lazy gourmets"), the Germans call it Schalaraffenland ("Land of Milk and Honey"), Swedes speak of Lubberland ("land of the lazy fat fellows"). But In English it is named Cockaigne or Cockayne, derived from the Middle French Cockaigne, perhaps derived in turn form the Latin Cucaniensis. The exact etymology is unclear, but Cockaigne bears an eerie resemblance to the words cuckoo (the bird) and cuckold (husband of an unfaithful wife).

As I can't draw a roasted goose, I've sketched a roasted chicken - you get the general idea. Other characteristics of Cockaigne are the idea of upside down relations (the slave beating his master) and free unlimited sex - which of course would be unfit to illustrate on this site.

Brueghel was more than likely familiar with Thomas More's "Utopia" (1516), a similar "ideal" society.

The other options postdate Brueghel. "Erewhon" was a 1872 novel by Samuel Butler, and Kurt Vonnegut mentioned the planet Tralfamadore in several of his books, most notably "Slaughterhouse Five" (1969).

Answer: Arcadia

Arcadia is indeed a subdivision of the Peloponnese, situated in the centre of this peninsula. It contains five municipalities: the capital Tripoli, Gortynia and Megalopoli in the inland, and North and South Kynouria which border the Aegean Sea. It still is a mainly agricultural subregion, with focus on pasture and on potato culture.

Nicolas Poussin painted in 1637 the painting "Les bergers d'Arcadie", internationally known under the Latin name "Et in Arcadia ego". It was similar to an earlier painting by Guercino.

In 1993 Tom Stoppard published the theatre play "Arcadia", with the characters Thomasina Coverly and Septimus Hodge (in 1809) as well as Hannah Jarvis and Bernard Nightingale (in the present time).

Guillermo del Toro produced the animated TV series "Tales of Arcadia", starring the Trollhunter James Lake Jr.

The video game series "Dungeons and Dragons" contains a plane of existence named Arcadia, with a lawful/neutral to lawful/good allegiance. So criminals keep out!

Lana del Rey sang in 2021:
"In Arcadia, Arcadia
All roads that lead to you as integral to me as arteries
That pump the blood that flows straight to the heart of me
America, America
I can't sleep at home tonight, send me a Hilton Hotel
Or a cross on the hill, I'm a lost little girl
Findin' my way to ya
Arcadia".

In 2024 the Greek Yorgos Zois directed Vangelis Mourikis and Angeliki Papoulia as two doctors on their way to identify the victims of a car crash.

Neither Mount Athos (northern Greece), Epirus (western Greece) or Crete (an island to the south) are part of the Peloponnese.

Answer: Xanadu

"Xanadu" is the only of these movie titles that refers to a place - the summer capital city of the Mongolian Empire led by Kublai Khan. The best known reference to this marvellous city was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797:
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea."

The 1980 movie directed by Robert Greenwald first showed the desperate artist Sonny Malone. The story then started to unfold with the scene described in this question. Later on Sonny and Kira together with the retired musician Danny McGuire (role by Gene Kelly) decided to create a spectacular musical show, in which a scene with every dancer on rollerskates.

Alas, the Olympic Gods had to intervene when Kira, in love with Sonny, revealed her true identity - the muse Terpsichore...

Olivia Newton-John gained fame as Sandy Olsson in "Grease" (1978). Gene Kelly is best known for his musical movies "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) and "An American in Paris" (1951). Michael Beck starred as Swan in the action movie "The Warriors" (1979).

Answer: Gotham

Batman was the secret identity of Bruce Wayne, a multibillionaire who as a child saw his parents killed before his eyes. Bruce Wayne had no superpowers of his own, but undertook extensive training in martial arts and also developed advanced technology to fight various criminals.

And Gotham City, where Bruce Wayne lived, had quite a lot of criminals. Oswald Cobblepot alias the Penguin (because of his wardrobe: top hat, monocle and tuxedo) was leader of a criminal gang very similar to the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Edward Nigma aka the Riddler was a criminal mastermind who loved to present his victims unsolvable riddles, and then punish them for each wrong answer. And then there was the always grinning sociopath named the Joker, whose real identity was not revealed - in fact, even the Joker himself was not quite sure of what happened before his accident that altered his face into a constant grin.

Smallville was the fictional town where the alien baby Kal-El grew up as Clark Kent. As an adult, he went to live in Metropolis and work as a newspaper reporter. He turned into Superman every time the world needed to be saved.

Princess Diana ruled over the fictive island of Themiscyra. To the outside world, she was known as Diana Prince or as Wonder Woman.

Answer: Mordor

According to "The Lord of the Rings" (novel 1955, most famous movie 2001), Bilbo Baggins left the mysterious ring in his possession to his nephew Frodo. Then the wizard Gandalf discovered this was none other than the "One Ring", into which the Dark Lord Sauron had poured all his evil - and Gandalf decided Frodo should hide the Ring at all cost. Alas, Sauron sent out his henchmen, and so Frodo had to flee first to Bree, then to Rivendell. In Rivendell a council decided the Ring should be destroyed, and Frodo with eight companions left Rivendell.

On their way to Mordor the Fellowship of the Ring (the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, the elf Legolas, the dwarf Gimli, the wizard Gandalf and the men Aragorn and Boromir) broke up. Boromir died protecting the hobbits. Frodo and Sam made their way into Mordor, and the others were reunited in Gondor for the penultimate battle against Sauron.

Answer: Gallifrey

A blue booth? That was the most common appearance of the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), a mysterious combination of spacecraft and time machine used by Doctor Who in the eponymous BBC TV series that started in 1963. Doctor Who was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, but had to leave his home as the planet was destroyed (or temporarily moved?) during the Time Wars. Before the Time Wars, Gallifrey circled two stars at a distance of approximately 250 lightyears form Earth.

Gallifrey was described as an orangey planet in a binary star system. Trees had silvery-white leaves, and the sky was seen as bright orange from the surface (although more or less azure as seen from outer space). Some episodes stated the planet was utterly destroyed by the Daleks, whereas later episodes hinted that Gallifrey still existed somewhere at the end of the universe, in a deep frozen setting.

Arrakis was a desert-like planet in the novels and movies "Dune". Mongo was the planet where Flash Gordon fought the dictator Ming the Merciless. And the "Dungeons and Dragons" game series had a spin-off on the planet Abeir-Toril, which had various continents styled upon medieval Earth settings.

Answer: Margaritaville

The "Margaritaville" mentioned in Buffett's song was a fictional resort, but since then several beach resorts have adopted this name.

Jimmy Buffett wrote the lyrics for "Margaritaville" during a holiday in Florida. One day he stepped on a pull tab opener, thus ruining his sandals and bruising his foot. This inspired him to this song.

The glass depicted here is a cocktail glass, used for making margaritas. You have to moisten the rim of the glass, roll it through some salt, and then stir in the glass tequila, triple sec and fresh lime juice. The lime gives a light green hue to the concoction, as seen in the sketch. Most people serve the glass decorated with a slice of lime.

The other place names refer to songs by ABBA ("Waterloo", 1974), Miley Cyrus ("Malibu", 2017) or Weezer ("Beverly Hills", 2005).

Answer: Dagobah

All right, a blue blade is an artistic liberty. A green blade did Yoda wield, but that would make my silly sketch even uglier. Frank Oz made the puppet used to portray Yoda, and also was one of the voice actors for this Jedi.

Although the very first "Star Wars" novel was published prior to the movie series, the universe is generally considered to have been created by George Lucas for the original movie trilogy that debuted in 1977. Master Yoda first appeared in the 1980 movie "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back", in which he trained Luke Skywalker as a Jedi. In "Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" Luke returned to the planet Dagobah, where Yoda died peacefully at the respectable age of 900 years.
Dagobah was a marshy planet on which Yoda chose to live in exile after the Sith Lord and his followers have killed almost all Jedi. Luke's deceased trainer Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared as an astral projection and ordered Luke to visit Dagobah and complete his training with Yoda. At first , Luke did not seem impressed with this diminutive green character - until Yoda used the Force to scavenge a sunken spaceship from the depths of the marshes.

Hoth was an ice planet on which Luke and the other good guys hid during "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back". Kashyyyk was an arboreal planet, home of the Wookies, giant apelike creatures with long furs such as Chewbacca. And Coruscant was a city planet, seat of the government and of the Jedi Temple - until this Temple was destroyed in "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" (2005).

Answer: Essos

My silly sketch is not a parrot, but a dragon - see the three flames it breathes.
Dragons appear in many fantasy series, but here I refer to the three dragons reared by Daenerys Targaryen in Essos, according to the story lines of George Martin's novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire" and the TV series "Game of Thrones" developed more or less simultaneously.

Daenerys Targaryen, a princess in Westeros, was taken away from her hometown into the overseas settlements of Braavos and later Essos when Robert Baratheon staged a coup for the throne of Westeros. In Essos, Daenerys was coerced into marrying Khal Drogo, a fierce warrior and leader of the Dothraki. When Drogo fell ill and a sorceress failed (on purpose) to heal him, Daenerys killed both her ill husband and the reluctant sorceress, and ascended the funeral pyre with three dragon eggs. Miraculously Daenerys survived the fire unscathed, and the three eggs hatched into her faithful dragons.

George R.R. Martin started writing "A Song of Fire and Ice" in 1991. The first novel "A Game of Thrones" was published in 1996, followed by four more novels up till 2011. The last two instalments "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring" were not published yet when this question was written in 2024.

Meanwhile HBO broadcast the series "Game of Thrones" between 2011 and 2019, based upon the first five novels but also delving into the events in the two concluding volumes that were not yet published. The role of Daenerys Targaryen was played by the British actress Emilia Clarke, who was four times nominated for an Emmy award for this role.

Pern refers to "The Dragon Riders of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey, Earthsea was created by Ursula le Guin, and Christopher Paolini created the land of Alagaesia in the "Inheritance" novel series.

Answer: Diagon Alley

At the end of the novel and movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (novel 2003, movie 2007), Fred and George Weasley left school, having driven the unpopular teacher Dolores Umbridge barking mad with multiple pranks. The novel even mentioned a magic swamp in a corridor, which did not appear in the movie.
Harry had donated them the proceeds of the Triwizard Tournament (see "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"), and Fred and George used this money to install on Diagon Alley the joke shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. They sold various pranks, from trick wands (turning into rubber chickens) over ton tongue toffees (which made the tongue swell beyond proportion) and skiving snack boxes (temporary diseases which were used to skip boring classes) to the highly effective Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.

My silly sketch (made with a trick wand) shows an alley running along a diagonal into a parking lot for one car, so "Diagon Alley" (or "Diagonally" as Harry pronounced it the first time using floo powder - see "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets").

Hogwarts was the Scottish school for magic and wizardry, and Harry and his classmates attended school there. The French equivalent was Beauxbatons, where Fleur and Gabrielle Delacour were the students who visited Harry and co during "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". And Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian quidditch seeker, attended Durmstrang - a similar school situated either in Scandinavia or in Eastern Europe.