All the Little Pigs, They Grunt and Howl Quiz

Answer: Vietnamese pot-bellied pig

Know as 'Lon I' in its homeland, the adorable (well, I think they are anyway) Vietnamese pot-bellied pig is bred for its meat. It originally comes from the Red River Delta and is a fat black porker with a large belly, short snout, giving it a squishy face like a bulldog, and short legs. From the '70s onward, they were exported to Europe and North America to be kept in zoos or animal parks.

They are resilient pigs when it comes to terrain, being accustomed to mud and marshes. (As for the other answers, the babirusa is a wild pig from Indonesia, with long tusks, and the Meishan and Fengling are Chinese; the Meishan also has a face full of folds, but much floppier ears.)

Answer: duroc

The Duroc is an American pig breed, thought to be originally descended from African pigs brought over from Guinea during the slave trade. Today's Duroc is descended from red Durocs from New York crossed with New Jersey red pigs. It has large floppy ears and a thick reddish-brown coat, though some variants of the coat can be golden yellow or dark red, and is one of the less aggressive breeds of pig.

Its name is thought to either come from a racehorse or from Géraud Duroc, a friend of Napoleon Bonaparte who later became Grand Marshal of the Palace.

Answer: Mel Blanc

The multi-talented Mel Blanc, the 'Man of 1000 Voices', provided the voices of several 'Looney Tunes' and other Warner Brothers characters, including Bugs Bunny, Speedy Gonzales, Daffy Duck, Barney Rubble, Captain Caveman, Sylvester the Cat, Elmer Fudd and, of course, Porky Pig. Like many Jewish comedians and actors, Blanc started out performing in vaudeville shows; he later moved to radio and then film and television. By 1946, he was appearing in over fifteen radio shows, and got his own show that year.

His debut performance as Porky Pig (and Daffy Duck) was in the 1939 Tex Avery cartoon 'Porky's Duck Hunt'. After Blanc's death in 1989, 'That's all folks' was inscribed on his gravestone.

Answer: Obelix

Asterix's gigantic best mate is at his happiest when hunting wild boar in the Gaulish forest with Dogmatix, his dog, and can easily put away a whole one at the village feast at the end of every 'Asterix' book. In one book, he even manages to eat a boar that has been spiked with sleeping drugs! Wild boar have lived in France, which was once part of Ancient Gaul, for centuries, and their numbers have spiked in the south of France since the 1990s; populations increased even further during the COVID crisis of the 2020s, due to bans on hunting. René Goscinny, one of the co-creators of 'Asterix', was often offered wild boar by hosts at parties, but was unable to eat it due to being Jewish (boar being considered unclean under Jewish law).

Answer: Metal

Though a similar Italian tale featuring geese and a fox has a goose protecting herself by having an iron house built, the three little pigs use straw, wood and bricks respectively as their building materials. While the Big Bad Wolf easily blows down the straw house, and manages to destroy the wooden house after a few attempts, he cannot blow down the brick house.

In some versions, he eats the first two pigs, while in others, they flee to each other's houses for safety. He tries to get down the chimney of the brick house, but the third pig has cannily placed a pot of boiling water under the chimney and the wolf is boiled to death. 'The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig' by Eugene Trivizas is a subversion of the story; the wolves use steel, concrete and bricks to build their houses, and as the Big Bad Pig can't blow them down, he uses a sledgehammer to destroy the brick house, a pneumatic drill to destroy the concrete one, and blows up the steel one with dynamite.

However, the wolves get the last laugh when they build a house made of flowers, the pig smells the flowers and has a change of heart.

Answer: Grunt

If someone talks about doing 'grunt work', they mean a menial job that is often unglamorous and/or underpaid. The minor Team Rocket villains who appear in 'Pokemon Go' and challenge the player at black PokeStops are known as 'grunts'; upon being beaten, they will often complain about being docked wages by their boss Giovanni. 'Grunt' is also military slang for a US Army footsoldier, particularly around the time of the Vietnam War, and several breeds of fish in the family Haemulidae, which get their name from the sound they make from grinding their teeth.

More obscurely, blueberry grunt is also the name of a fruit dessert from New England, similar to cobbler, although the topping of a grunt is steamed rather than baked. It gets its name from the grunting sound blueberries supposedly make during cooking.

Answer: Cuba

The Bahía de los Cochinos, or Bay of Pigs, is located in the south of Cuba at the Gulf of Calzones, and is in Matanzas Province (it was originally in Santa Clara Province until Cuba was reorganised into fourteen provinces). 'Cochino' can either mean 'pig' or a type of triggerfish native to Cuba. Fidel Castro is said to have owned a luxurious holiday home there.

It is most famous for being the site of a failed invasion in 1961, when Cuban exiles attempted to overthrow Castro with the support of the USA. Kennedy was US president at the time.

The invasion led to tensions between the US, Cuba and the Soviet Union, who were allies of Cuba and stationed nuclear missiles there, kicking off the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Answer: Liverpool FC won the FA Cup.

Dennis Nilsen, a Scottish serial killer, confessed to the murder of several men and was jailed for life. Margaret Thatcher, the UK's first female prime minister, enjoyed a landslide victory, with Labour only gaining 28% of the vote; three of their new MPs, Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, would all become leaders of the Labour Party. Harrod's, a prestigious department store in London, was bombed by the IRA in December, killing six people and injuring 90 more.

As for the football, it was Ron Atkinson's Manchester United who won that year; the game went to replay after an initial 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion, but won the replay 4-0.

Answer: Stegt flaesk

Stegt flæsk, or stegt flæsk med persillesovs ('fried pork belly with parsley sauce'), is the national dish of Denmark and consists of slices of pork belly served with potatoes and a parsley sauce, and sometimes with apple compote as well. While flæsk is similar to bacon, unlike typical Danish bacon, it is never smoked and rarely salted either.

It has become popular in Denmark to eat stegt flæsk on election nights as a joke; 'valgflæsk' (literally 'election pork') refers to promises politicians make, but never keep.

At one point, Danes could even buy stegt flæsk flavour crisps! The other answers are Danish pork dishes, Denmark being famous for its pig products. Rullepølse is a cold cut made with pork belly, seasoned with herbs and pickled in brine; brændende kærlighed is mashed potatoes topped with fried bacon and onions; and æbleflæsk is cured pork belly served with fried apples.

Answer: A comb and scissors

'Culhwch and Olwen' is the story of Culhwch's quest to marry Olwen, the daughter of Ysbaddaden, after his stepmother curses him, saying that Olwen is the only woman he will ever be able to marry. Ysbaddaden sets Culhwch a large number of tasks in order to prepare for the wedding, and one of the tasks is to retrieve a comb and scissors (and a razor as well) from Twrch Twryth's head; Culhwch also needs Drudwyn, a powerful hunting dog, to hunt the pugnacious piggy, a special leash for Drudwyn, and so on. Luckily, Culhwch has his cousin, King Arthur, some of the Knights of the Round Table (Kay/Cei, Bedivere/Bedwyr and Gawain/Gwalchmei) and Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Fair Folk, to help him, along with many others who are recruited for the task. The shapeshifter Menw turns into an eagle to check if Twrch Trwyth has the shaving implements on his head, but is injured when he tries to steal them.

Although the vicious boar does kill several of the party, he is ultimately forced to give up the scissors, razor and comb, and is then driven into the sea and drowned.

Answer: Animal Farm

This line comes at the end of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm', a metaphor for Stalinist Russia. Old Major, a pig, leads an uprising against Mr Jones, a farmer who has allowed his farm to fall into disrepair. Under the control of the animals, the farm is much better off at first, but when another pig, Napoleon (who represents Joseph Stalin) takes over and has a committee of pigs running the farm, he becomes a tyrant and has various animals purged for being too sympathetic to his rival Snowball. Boxer, an ageing carthorse and supporter of the regime, ends up being sold to the knacker's yard by Napoleon, who uses the money to buy whiskey for himself and the other pigs.

At the end of the story, the pigs start to act and dress like humans and make an alliance with other farmers.

The rest of the animals watch them eating dinner and playing cards, and cannot tell the difference between men and pigs.

Answer: Snatch

The crime boss and boxing promoter Brick Top (Alan Ford) is first shown having two minions executed in turn, while a pair of boxers fight in a ring. Turkish (Jason Statham), another boxing promotor and the narrator, explains what Brick Top does to his victims: he has them tazed, then suffocated to death with plastic wrap over their faces, and then fed to his pigs after their heads are shaved and their teeth removed.

As Brick Top gleefully points out, pigs are omnivorous creatures (and there have been real-life cases of people being eaten by pigs), and he purposely starves his pigs to make them hungrier.

Answer: Nine Inch Nails

'March of the Pigs' and 'Piggy' both feature on Nine Inch Nails' second (and, in my opinion, greatest) album, 'The Downward Spiral', a dark concept album about a man's descent into insanity which culminates in suicide. 'March of the Pigs' was the first single to be released from the album in February 1994, followed by one of NIN's signature songs, 'Closer'.

It is musically unusual as it has a changing time signature, with three bars in 7/8 time and one in 8/8. 'Piggy', meanwhile, was released in December 1994 as a promotional single; singer Trent Reznor would play drums on it live.

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt, the man after whom the teddy bear was named, not only loved hunting animals, but owning them as well. In a letter of 29th January 1901, Roosevelt told his daughter Ethel about Maude, a large white pig who lived on Keystone Ranch. She would wander around eating scraps and stealing the alfalfa from the cows. Roosevelt's other pets included a hyacinth macaw called Eli Yale, a badger called Josiah, and a hyena called Bill, who was given to him by Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.

Answer: Matthew

This particular verse comes from Jesus' Sermon of the Mount, and it can be found in Matthew 7:6. 'Casting pearls before swine' is not literally about pigs; it is often interpreted as being about giving valuable things - material or otherwise - to people who may not appreciate them, or may even be angered by them.

The newspaper comic strip 'Pearls Before Swine', featuring anthropomorphic animals, gets its name from this verse, as does an Australian rock band.

Answer: A metal obtained from smelting iron ore in a blast furnace

No, pig iron has nothing to do with barbecuing! It gets its name from the moulds used to cast the ingots, which resemble a sow nursing her piglets. Smelting, the process of using heat to extract metal from iron ore, is used to create pig iron in a blast furnace. Traditionally, pig iron has been used in the process of creating wrought iron or steel; it can be melted down again once cast.

It is very brittle due to its high carbon content. The ingots are known as pigs, and they can be broken down into 'piglets'.

It can also be used along with steel and scrap iron to make grey iron, a type of iron used for casings, cylinder blocks and other objects which may heat up during use.

Answer: University of Arkansas

Also known as the Hogs, the Arkansas Razorbacks are the collegiate sports teams of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, represented by an angry red boar. Their live mascot is a Russian wild boar called Tusk, while their costumed mascot is Big Red.

They were originally known as the Cardinals, but changed their name following a comment by coach Hugo Bezdek that they played like 'a wild band of Razorback hogs'. Former Razorbacks include basketball player Alvin Robertson, sprinter Tyson Gay, and football player Brandon Burlsworth, the subject of the 2016 film 'Greater'. ('The Natural State' is the nickname of Arkansas.)

Answer: Peppa Pig

Loved by many children in the UK, 'Peppa Pig' features Peppa, her parents, her little brother George and various friends, such as Suzy Sheep and Danny Dog. It also has a surprisingly large following in China. Although the characters are anthropomorphic animals, and behave and talk like humans, they still make animal noises (such as the Pig family's grunts). Peppa has been voiced by a variety of young actresses over the years, beginning with Lily Snowden-Fine in 2004; Harley Bird, who was just five years old when she got the role, was the longest-running actress at thirteen years.

The show caused some controversy in Australia with an episode about befriending spiders, Aussie spiders not being the safest of creatures.

Answer: Angry Birds

'Angry Birds' was developed by Rovio Entertainment and released in 2009, initially for iOS and Maemo phones before branching out to other brands. The objective of the game was to destroy the obnoxiously tittering green pigs, who had stolen the birds' eggs, and their crudely-built structures by catapulting the titular feathered fiends at them.

A film of the game was released in 2016. Fans of Everton FC may recall that during the 2017-2018 season, the team had Angry Birds as their sleeve sponsor and Angry Bird versions of Everton players Cenk Tosun, Theo Walcott and Gylfi Sigurdsson were created to promote the deal.

Answer: Bu bu

In Japanese, a pig's squeal is rendered as 'bu bu' or 'boo boo'. 'Nyan nyan' is the sound cats make, while foxes say 'kon kon' (so there's your answer, Ylvis!) and mice say 'chuu chuu'. The Japanese word for pig is 'buta', and if you're at a restaurant and see a dish with 'ton' in its name, it contains pork (e.g. tonkatsu, a deep-fried breaded pork cutlet). If you're wondering what pigs say in other countries, French pigs say 'groin groin', Polish pigs say 'chrum chrum', German pigs say 'grunz grunz', and Korean pigs say 'ggul ggul'.