Just Blue Things Trivia Quiz

Answer: Drinks

Curaçao is an orange-flavoured liqueur that gets its name from the island; its flavour comes from the dried peels of laraha, a bitter orange variant native to Curaçao. It can either be sold as dry curaçao, which is orange, or blue curaçao. The laraha is descended from the Seville oranges imported to Curaçao by Spanish colonisers.

It is unknown who developed the first curaçao liqueur, although the Dutch drinks company Lucas Bols claims that one of the Bols family members, the original Lucas Bols, developed a laraha-based liqueur during the Dutch golden age when the Netherlands colonised Curaçao. In 1912, Bols, a subsidiary of Lucas Bols, originally marketed blue curaçao as 'Creme de Ciel'. The Curaçao-based company Senior & Co have continued to use native laraha peel in drinks manufacturing, and label their curaçao 'Genuine Curaçao Liqueur'.

Answer: Drinks

WKD, pronounced 'wicked', is an alcopop made by Beverage Brands. It contains triple distilled vodka and the lurid blue variant is 'mixed fruit' flavour; a non-alcoholic version also exists, as does WKD X, a canned version containing guaraná and caffeine. Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy was reported to be a fan of the drink and had a WKD cocktail named after him, the Vardy Bomb, consisting of blue WKD and a shot of Jägermeister.

The Vardy Bomb was created in honour of Leicester's historic Premier League win in 2016.

Answer: Drinks

Calypso Ocean Blue is a bright blue lemonade made by the US-based King Juice Company, that gets its flavour from blueberries, blackberries and 'blue raspberry'. The latter is not a real fruit, but a flavouring; the colour blue is used to distinguish raspberry-flavoured products from strawberry-flavoured ones, from bubble gum to ice cream, which are traditionally coloured pink.

Other Calypso lemonade flavours include kiwi, strawberry and Southern peach. Ocean Blue also comes in a zero sugar variant.

Answer: Birds

The common kingfisher is the main species of kingfisher in the UK and, like many of its cousins around the world, has an orange belly to go with its blue plumage. Its range includes Europe, Asia and north Africa. It catches its prey by swooping and diving, and favours habitats with clear water, as it provides better visibility.

It migrates to warmer climes in winter when bodies of water freeze over. A distant Aussie relative is the kookaburra, a bird known for its distinctive cackle.

Answer: Birds

If you're a baseball fan, you might recognise this little guy; the Toronto Blue Jays are named for it, and their mascot is a blue jay called Ace. The blue jay is a North American bird, native to the eastern USA and southern Canada, and a corvid. It lives on nuts, seeds and insects, and sometimes attacks and kills other small birds and raids their nests.

It has a loud call and alerts other birds to the presence of predators by screaming. The call of the blue jay can also be used as a squirrel deterrent, as blue jays steal nuts from squirrels.

Answer: Birds

The hyacinth macaw is a parrot from South America, with its main habitats in Bolivia, Paraguay and the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil. It is the largest of the macaw family and has deep blue feathers. Because of its relatively calm nature compared to other macaws, it can be kept as a pet, though it is only recommended for experienced bird owners with plenty of space in their homes.

It can be taught to talk, although it isn't as skilled as the African grey parrot. It can also use tools to help it eat nuts, and has a very strong beak.

Answer: Songs with 'Blue' in the title

'Doomsday Blue' is a song by Bambie Thug, a non-binary singer, and was also Ireland's entry for the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. Fans of 'Harry Potter' might have noticed that 'Avada Kedavra', the killing curse, appears in the lyrics. The contest, held in Sweden, had attracted much controversy due to Israel being allowed to participate, despite the unrelated ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Some fans boycotted the contest in protest, and the Israeli entry, originally titled 'October Rain', had to be rewritten due to the rules about political entries. Security was also increased for the contest and organisers were vigilant about any pro-Palestine gestures. Amid all this, 'Doomsday Blue' came sixth.

Answer: Songs with 'Blue' in the title

'Blue Moon' is a standard written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and has been covered by multiple musicians. (I sang it in the school choir when I started high school.) The Marcels, a doo-wop group, took it to Number One on the Billboard and UK Singles Charts in 1961, and it has also been covered by Elvis Presley (who features elsewhere in this quiz), the Supremes, Cyndi Lauper, Rod Stewart, Frankie Avalon and the Mavericks (of 'Dance the Night Away' fame), to name a few. Manchester City fans have adopted it as a theme song, and a popular City fan forum is named after it. Rodgers and Hart wrote alternative lyrics for the film 'Manhattan Melodrama', but this version of the song was cut from the film.

Answer: Songs with 'Blue' in the title

'Blue Suede Shoes' was written by Carl Perkins, a rockabilly singer and guitarist, and he recorded his version in 1955; however, it was Elvis Presley who put the song on the map the year later when he recorded it for his self-titled debut. Stories about the origin of the song vary; Johnny Cash claimed that he told Perkins about a black airman who referred to his regulation shoes as 'blue suede shoes', while another story goes that Perkins saw a couple dancing and the boy told the girl not to step on his 'suedes'.

The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame chose 'Blue Suede Shoes' as one of the songs that helped shape rock 'n' roll.

Answer: Cartoon characters

Bluey Heeler is the heroine of the cartoon series of the same name, and is a young Australian blue heeler dog. She is voiced by a child actor who is not credited for privacy reasons. Bluey lives with her dad Bandit, her mum Chilli (maiden name Cattle, a red heeler) and Bingo, her younger sister, who resembles their mother.

They live next door to Pat and Janelle, a pair of Labrador retrievers, and their puppies. Bluey's canine classmates include Chloe the Dalmatian, Mackenzie the border collie and Snickers the dachshund.

The episodes usually focus on Bluey and her family playing imaginative games and going on adventures.

Answer: Cartoon characters

Huckleberry Hound is a Hanna-Barbera character and a blue coonhound who speaks in a southern accent. He first appeared in 'The Huckleberry Hound Show' in 1958, where he captured Wee Willie, an escaped gorilla. He usually wears a bow tie and a hat, and sings 'Oh My Darling Clementine' (badly).

He was originally voiced by Daws Butler, who got his idea for the Huckleberry Hound voice from a veterinarian who lived next door to his wife; the veterinarian was from North Carolina and Butler liked his voice so much that he used it for the blue cartoon dog.

Answer: Cartoon characters

Benny the Ball is a character from 'Top Cat' - he's the tubby little blue cat in a white jacket. 'Top Cat' is based on 'The Phil Silvers Show' and Maurice Gosfield, who played Private Doberman, provided Benny's voice (and resembled him somewhat). Benny is Top Cat's best friend and sidekick, and also acts as his conscience.

Benny plays a major role in the made-for-TV movie 'Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats', when he helps a rich old woman while the cats are posing as Boy Scouts; she disguises herself as a lawyer and leaves him her fortune as she cannot find Amy, her missing niece (who is working in a car wash). Her unscrupulous butler Snerdly and his dog repeatedly try to get rid of Benny, so they can claim the money for themselves; he ends up being sent to a dog pound after Snerdly manipulates him into dressing up as a bulldog for a party and reports him to a dog catcher, but Top Cat and friends get him out.