Entertaining 2012 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gangnam Style

Released in July 2012, "Gangnam Style" was the first international hit for the musician named Psy. Psy (aka Park Jae-sang) was an established artist in his native South Korea, where "Gangnam Style" was his 18th hit single, but the catchy song went on to top the charts in over thirty countries.

Its popularity was likely due to the video for the song, which featured the singer performing signature dance moves like "Riding the Horse" and "Lasso". By the end of 2012, the video had become the first to have over one billion views on the YouTube website, surpassing the record number of views held by Justin Bieber for his video to the song "Baby". Psy became an instant worldwide celebrity thanks to the video and even taught UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon how to perform the dance moves.

Answer: House

English actor Hugh Laurie memorably played the cantankerous but brilliant Dr. Gregory House from 2004 to 2012, receiving six Emmy nominations along the way. On the show, House led a team of physicians who specialized in diagnosing unusual illnesses at a fictional hospital in New Jersey.

The show had a standard formula: A patient would arrive with a mysterious illness, the team would try to pin down a diagnosis using a whiteboard and trial and error to eliminate options, and in the end, House would have an epiphany and solve the case.

The characters of House and his enabling best friend, Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) were often compared to Sherlock Holmes and Watson; like Holmes, House was aloof and had a special gift for seeing things that others didn't. Both also had a drug habit and only took cases that interested them. And in case there was any doubt that the comparisons were intended, both Holmes and House lived at 221B Baker Street.

Answer: The Rock

Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) had started wrestling in 1995 after an unsuccessful excursion into football, and by 2000, he had embarked upon an acting career which included roles in "The Mummy Returns", "The Scorpion King" and a few of "The Fast and the Furious" films.

He still continued to wrestle, but his lack of focus on wrestling led John Cena to accuse him of using the WWE as a stepping stone to a film career. Their feud continued until Cena agreed to meet The Rock in the main event of Wrestlemania XXVIII, with the match being set up a year in advance.

The Rock ended up winning the match with a Rock Bottom move.

Answer: The Artist

"The Artist" became the first silent film to win the Oscar for Best Picture since 1927's "Wings", making it only the second silent film to win the Best Picture Academy Award. The French film also took top honors in the Cesar Awards presented in France. In the film, Jean Dujardin portrayed George Valentin, a silent screen star whose career collapsed with the arrival of the talkies. Following a suicide attempt, he was rescued by Peppy (Berenice Bejo), an actress whose career he had helped initiate, and she repaid him by getting him a dancing role in her latest film, giving him a reason to live. Filmed in black and white, the movie only had a couple of sound sequences, including the ending where Valentin reveals his strong French accent with the line "With pleasure!"

The Academy Awards and British Academy Film Awards were in sync in 2012; not only did they both award "The Artist" as Best Film, both also awarded Michel Hazanavicius as Best Director for the film, Dujardin as Best Actor for the film, Meryl Streep as Best Actress for "The Iron Lady", Christopher Plummer as Best Supporting Actor for "Beginners", and Octavia Spencer as Best Supporting Actress for "The Help".

Answer: Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II made her acting debut in a five-minute film shown during the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, London. In the skit, James Bond (Daniel Craig) arrived at Buckingham Palace to escort the Queen to the Opening Ceremony.

After a polite cough from Bond, the Queen greeted him, "Good Evening Mr. Bond". He then followed the Queen to the helicopter with Her Majesty's corgis scampering after them. When the helicopter arrived over the stadium, Bond opened the door and allowed "the Queen" to jump out first.

The parachuting Queen could be seen descending just outside the stadium, and the illusion was complete when the real Queen entered the stadium moments later in the same attire as the parachutist. The parachuting Queen was actually Gary Connery and the parachuting Bond was Mark Sutton. Danny Boyle wrote and directed the film with the Queen's scenes reportedly being filmed in one take.

Answer: Adele

In 2009, Adele Adkins, who performed under the name "Adele", won the Best New Artist Grammy, and she lived up to the award. At the Grammy Awards that were held in February 2012, Adele won the awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for her 2011 album, "21", Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Short Form Music Video for the song "Rolling in the Deep", and Best Pop Solo Performance for the song "Someone Like You".

The album "21" was a monster hit and was the global best-selling album for both 2011 and 2012.

Besides dominating the Grammy Awards, Adele also joined the list of performers of "James Bond" themes in 2012 with her recording of the theme to "Skyfall".

Answer: Fifty Shades of Grey

Written by E.L. James, the book was developed from a fan fiction series called "Master of the Universe" which was based on the "Twilight" novels written by Stephenie Meyer. The central characters in "Fifty Shades of Grey", Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, were originally based on the "Twilight" characters of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, but when the story was considered to be too racy for fan fiction websites, James renamed the characters and published the work on her own website.

In the story, Steele was a college student who met wealthy entrepreneur Grey when she went to interview him for an article, and the two embarked on a kinky dominance/submission relationship. Vintage Books acquired the publishing rights to the story, and two subsequent volumes were also released in 2012: "Fifty Shades Darker" and "Fifty Shades Freed".

Answer: Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston was found dead in her bathtub at the age of 48 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, and the cause of death was reported to be heart disease from drug use. Born into a musical family, Houston was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Darlene Love.

Although she started performing as a child, it was in the mid-1980s when she became a star with her 1985 multi-platinum album "Whitney Houston", which hit number one in several countries around the world.

In 1992, she made her film debut, starring with Kevin Costner in the box-office hit, "The Bodyguard". Some highlights of her career include her hit songs, "How Will I Know", "Greatest Love of All", and "Saving All My Love for You", her performance of the "Star Spangled Banner" at the 1991 Super Bowl and her rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" from "The Bodyguard" (the hint in the question refers to this song). Numerous tributes were made to Houston during the Grammy telecast the night following her death.

Answer: Journey

Released in March of 2012, the unusual game captured "Game of the Year" honors from the Game Developers Choice Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers, GameSpot and IGN, among others and won eight awards including "Game of the Year" at the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Awards. Described by the developers as "an interactive parable, an anonymous online adventure to experience a person's life passage and their interactions with others", the goal of "Journey" was to reach a mountaintop by crossing a desert filled with rolling sand dunes, caves and other distractions.

Besides receiving accolades for its design, the soundtrack also received praise and even a Grammy nomination in 2013 for "Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media".

Answer: The Avengers

As is often the case, sources vary on the top grossing films for a particular year, but with receipts of $1.5 billion worldwide, "The Avengers" topped every list I could find. Other top-grossing films for 2012 include "Skyfall", "The Dark Knight Rises", "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" and "The Hunger Games". "The Avengers" was a superhero bonanza featuring Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who teamed up to stop Thor's mischievous brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

The cast also included Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow as well as a cameo by Avengers creator Stan Lee. Released in May 2012, the film held the number one ranking for three weeks and was the first film to gross over $200 million in a weekend.