Red in Entertainment Quiz | Entertainment by Themes

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which shade of red appears in the title of a 19th-century Nathaniel Hawthorne novel about Hester Prynne, a woman who suffers public humiliation after having a baby with an unknown father, and Arthur Dimmesdale, a minister who experiences great guilt?

Answer: Scarlet

"The Scarlet Letter" is named for the red letter "A" that Hester is made to wear as punishment for conceiving a baby through an affair. In the book, red symbolizes shame, guilt and sin.

2. In "The Matrix", Neo is offered a choice between a red pill and a pill of what other color?

Answer: Blue

The blue pill returns somebody to their normal life, while the red allows them to learn the nature of their existence - as a person trapped in a pod experiencing a simulated reality.

Made by two transgender women, the film's two pills are an allegory for being transgender, though Lilly Wachowski did not publicly discuss this until 2020. The character Switch was intended to be male in the real world and female in the Matrix, though Warner Brothers rejected this. The symbolism of the choice of red has been speculated to be related to how estrogen pills of the time were red.

3. Which of these is not an album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

Answer: In Utero

"In Utero" is a Nirvana album.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers chose their name after blues and jazz artists whose name incorporated heat-related themes, like Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five. They changed their name to this after initially performing as Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem.

4. In 2011 and 2012, Ant and Dec hosted a UK gameshow later considered by several critics to be one of the worst of all time. It gave away �1 million to contestants who successfully guessed a series of 50:50 random outcomes, where each outcome is either Red or which other title color?

Answer: Black

"Red or Black?" started with 1,000 contestants who were divided into half at each decision stage, with outcomes decided by things like whether they chose a fortune cookie containing the right color, or whether they guess the winner of a boxing match between someone in the "red" corner and someone in the "black" corner.

The symbolism of red and black is in gambling, as many casino games like roulette use these colors.

5. The 2009 mobile game "Angry Birds" features a group of birds, led by Red, defending their eggs against which green-colored animals?

Answer: Pigs

The gameplay consists of birds being slingshotted at the pigs. Many later games in the franchise have themes like "Star Wars" or "Transformers".

Anger is the meaning of red in "Angry Birds", with the bird Red being the angriest of all the characters.

6. Fill in the blank: Praised by Ronald Reagan, Tom Clancy's first novel was called "The Hunt for Red ____."

Answer: October

"The Hunt for Red October" is military fiction that follows CIA agent Jack Ryan as he investigates the titular Red October submarine and its captain.

The book was first published with the military as the target demographic. It gathered mainstream success after then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan received it as a Christmas present and praised it publicly.

Red is likely chosen for the submarine as it is the color of the Soviet Union and of socialism and communism.

7. Given that the 1990s French film trilogy "Three Colors" was flag-themed, which position film was named "Red", or "Rouge" in the original French?

Answer: Third

The three colors of the French flag are - from left to right - blue (bleu), white (blanc) and red (rouge), matching the order of the release of the three films. Additionally, each film was themed after the color's symbolism in the flag: blue is liberty, white is equality, and red is fraternity.

The films are psychological dramas, with shared imagery and symbolisms but not shared main characters.

8. A song by Childish Gambino (the stage name of Donald Glover) from "Awaken, My Love!" was ranked as #383 on "Rolling Stone's" 2021 Greatest Songs of All Time. They wrote that it "set aside the backpack rap of his early releases and attained the Seventies funk grail". What was it called?

Answer: Redbone

"Redbone" was the second of three singles from "Awaken, My Love!", released on November 17, 2016. The song is about worrying that your partner will have an affair, and "redbone" is slang for multi-racial.

9. In the UK, the BBC organize days of television entertainment - with celebrity versions and crossovers of many popular shows - to raise money for the charity Comic Relief. The day coincides with children wearing red items to school on what part of the body?

Answer: Nose

Red Nose Day is the name of the event, and it is generally held on odd years, with Sport Relief events in the even years. In 2020, Comic Relief worked with Children in Need - another charity that does telethons and events in schools - to produce a collective "Big Night In" telethon for COVID-19.

The reason red was chosen is not particularly clear, but it could be because it draws the most attention, is immediately distinguishable from human skin tones or because red noses indicate soreness.

10. "Portal" is a 2007 puzzle video game where the player creates portals to teleport objects in a test chamber between the portals. A Sentry Turret can produce what from its single red eye?

Answer: A laser

The turret's eye also detects movement, which will cause it to fire two machine guns from other parts of its body. The turret can be tipped over or disintegrated, with other more advanced ways to render it useless in "Portal 2".

The red color of the eye and the laser indicate danger to the player.

Source: Author AdamM7

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Red in Entertainment Trivia Quiz

Join me for a quiz about red in lots of different types of entertainment as we explore ten of the things it can symbolize, from shame to fraternity.

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>