Celebrity Pranksters Trivia Quiz

Answer: George Clooney

Clooney might very well be a pathological prankster. He pranks everyone - co-stars, friends, and even tried to prank the world with a fake staged wedding for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

The painting prank was inspired. Clooney found a hideous painting in a pile of trash, took it, framed it, and signed it. He then started setting up the prank by telling close friend Richard Kind that he was taking painting lessons. This dragged on for months, until Kind's 40th birthday. Clooney gave the eyesore to Kind as a birthday gift, presenting it as his own work from his painting class. Kind felt obliged to hang it in his living room.

Everyone else in their mutual circle of friends knew the truth about the painting, and always complimented Kind on it, keeping the prank going. When Clooney finally came clean about the prank, Kind's response was a simple "I hate that painting".

Answer: Jimmy Kimmel

Kimmel started young. Raised in Las Vegas, he spent his time developing a love for pranks, which served him well as host of "Jimmy Kimmel Live".

The first video supercut of Kimmel's halloween prank, which he based on his own attempt to prank his kid, was aired in November 2011. The reactions of the kids to hearing all their candy was gone were priceless. They ranged from screaming red-faced tantrums, to a quiet, heart-melting "That's ok".

Kimmel had more pranks up his sleeve, such as embarrassing random passers-by on the street, and hooking kids up to a fake lie detector and questioning them, often with hilarious results.

Answer: Wore the same clothes for six months

Ok well not exactly the same clothes, but the same zipped up jacket and hat. No matter when the paparazzi took pictures of him, they all looked like they'd been taken on the same day and they couldn't sell them. Brilliant! In interviews where Radcliffe told this story, he shared that he took great delight in watching the paparazzi grow more and more frustrated.

The other answers have been methods used by other stars - Taylor Swift would walk backwards, Dustin Hoffman would hide behind trees, and Robin Willians would wear a mask; so even if they took his photo, they would have to blur his face.

Answer: Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake was the first celebrity to be pranked on the MTV show "Punk'd", hosted by Ashton Kutcher.

Timberlake arrived home to find his belongings packed up on his lawn and government agents (actors) claiming he owed back taxes to the tune of $900,000. Upon hearing his home, belongings, and even his dogs had been seized brought Timberlake to tears. Kutcher let the prank continue for almost an hour before letting Timberlake know it was all a joke.

An interesting tidbit I turned up in my research for this quiz: the original idea behind "Punk'd" was actually a show called "Harrassment" that would prank regular people. The first - and last - prank involved a hotel, a dead body, and a couple on vacation. The prank did not go well and the victims wound up suing for $10 million. That's when it was decided to prank celebrities instead.

Answer: Ellen DeGeneres

It all began when Ellen spoofed and aired a video clip of "Today" show host Matt Lauer wearing nothing but bondage gear while interviewing stars from "Fifty Shades of Grey".

DeGeneres also altered another video of she and Lauer that aired on the daytime Emmys. In the video, Matt declared he would donate $1,000 for every Emmy winner that thanked him in their acceptance speech. Lauer, much to his surprise, was thanked to the tune of $16,000.

Of course Lauer didn't sit still for this and gave as good as he got. He put up billboards around town advertising Ellen's plumbing services replete with pictures of her in droopy jeans, and once filled her car with 20,000 ping pong balls.

Answer: BAFTA

More specifically, the award was BAFTA's Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy. While Cohen was on stage, Salma Hayak walked on with an elderly woman in a wheelchair. The woman was introduced as the last living actor to appear in a film with Chaplin.

A horrified audience then watched as Cohen 'accidentally' pushed the woman off the stage, and watched her fall out of her wheelchair and onto the floor - unresponsive. Cohen jumped down from the stage to try to revive her, but gave up quickly and returned to stage to deliver his acceptance speech. It took a minute or two for the stunned audience to pick up on the fact that this was just one of Cohen's elaborate pranks.

Answer: Adele

This particular prank was part of a special called "Adele at the BBC". The setting was an Adele impersonator contest, so everyone had made themselves up to look like Adele, except Adele.

In a fake nose and chin, Adele mingled and chatted with the contestants as one by one they went up to perform. The real Adele was the last to go on stage and as she sang, it slowly began to dawn on her fans that they were watching the true Adele.

Answer: Conan O'Brien

Not only did Cosby show up to accept the fictional award, but he arrived in style on a private jet and dressed to the nines in a tuxedo. O'Brien was waiting to pick Cosby up in his parents' old station wagon, not quite the stretch limo Cosby was expecting. He wound up presenting Cosby with an old bowling trophy.

Why did O'Brien pull the prank? He wanted to meet Bill Cosby. Mission accomplished.

Answer: A meteorite

Aaron Paul went all out for this one. His victim, roommate David Tom, was convinced that 2012 was going to be the end of the world. Paul preyed on that fear by convincing Tom that meteorites were crashing into the earth, the end was nigh. To make it all believable, Paul bought actual meteorites, dug a large hole in the backyard and filled it with the meteorite chunks, added water, then set off a dry ice bomb in it - in the middle of the night.

The explosion was enough to shake the house and send Tom running outside. Paul played dumb and investigated with Tom, who was in an absolute panic.

The whole event made it onto the local news.

Answer: Y2K bug

Also known as the 'Millenium Bug', the Y2K scare was based on computers' notations of dates with just the last two digits of the year, e.g. 1972 notated as "72". People were convinced that when the year 2000 came along, computers would read "00" as "1900" leading to crippling repercussions.

Pitt capitalized on this panic by throwing a huge New Year's Eve party December 31, 1999. He rented out a full Mexican resort, and bribed government officials to cut the power and phone lines at midnight, convincing the party-goers that society had collapsed as predicted. But that wasn't enough of a giggle for Pitt. In the pitch black and panic, armed troops barged in and arrested one of the party goers on false drug charges, dragging him off in the dark.