Lobsters in Film Trivia Quiz

Answer: Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush was the United States' First Lady during the presidency of her husband, George H W Bush, from 1989-1993, and thus held that office when this film was released. In this sequence, the business of eating lobster is treated as a source of slapstick visual humour, as is to be expected from a "Naked Gun" movie.

The harder Drebin tries to extract the flesh from his enormous lobster, the more he hits, pokes and generally assaults the wife of the President. Apparently, the real Mrs Bush subsequently told Leslie Nielsen that she and her husband had enjoyed the movie enormously.

Answer: Multiple Maniacs

Like most early John Waters films, "Multiple Maniacs" (1970) is not for the easily offended. Most of the plot is not suitable to describe here, but it revolves around the character of Lady Divine, who runs a freak show named "The Carnival of Perversion", and makes money by robbing (and later murdering) its customers. There is no logical reason for the sudden appearance of Lobstora towards the end of the film.

Answer: Daryl Hannah

The actress Daryl Hannah's first major screen role was as the replicant Pris in Ridley Scott's 1982 movie "Blade Runner", although "Splash" was a more instant success, and was really responsible for making her name. Her co-star in this movie was Tom Hanks, and it also featured a scene-stealing performance by John Candy as Hanks' brother. Since then, most critics feel that she never quite cemented her place as an A-list movie star, despite some fine performances.

Incidentally, those who have been led by Disney's "The Little Mermaid" to believe that mermaids and crustaceans are the best of friends may be shocked by the scene in which Madison eats a whole lobster, including the crunchy bits most people leave on the side of their plate. One cannot imagine Ariel, even in her full human form, polishing off her little crab pal Sebastian with quite such relish.

Answer: Love Actually

The scene nicely parodies the allegedly "all-inclusive" type of nativity plays seen in trendy North London primary schools, where every child must be allowed to play whatever role they want, for fear of causing parental offence. This often leads to plays featuring 10 little girls each dressed as the Virgin Mary, several fully-costumed examples of whatever super-hero is popular at the moment, and any number of peculiar animals in attendance (including, on this occasion, more than one lobster).

Answer: false

"Lobster Man From Mars" is in fact a 1989 comedy directed by Stanley Sheff. Its basic plot is similar to that of Mel Brooks' "The Producers", with a Hollywood producer (played by Tony Curtis) wishing to fund a box-office flop as a tax dodge. It features, as a "film within a film", a spoof of 1950s science-fiction B-movies, with their ridiculous plots, stilted dialogue, dreadful acting and cheap special effects. Needless to say, the eponymous film proves to be huge success, landing the devious producer in jail for tax fraud.

Answer: Bill Cosby

All of the above have made some dreadful movies, but spy spoof "Leonard Part 6" is particularly excruciating. It won two "Golden Raspberry" awards in 1987, for Worst Movie and Worst Actor (Cosby). The plot involves a female vegetarian super-villain who uses animals in her plans to take over the world, including a team of vicious attack lobsters.

Incidentally, the title is supposed to be a joke, in which "Leonard Parts 1 - 5" were apparently banned by the government for reasons of national security. Critics said that they really should have banned this one too.

Answer: Annie Hall

In this famous scene from "Annie Hall", Alvy and Annie have purchased a number of live lobsters, intending to cook them for dinner, but needless to say they (the lobsters) escape from their bag and run amok in the kitchen.

There is something inherently both comical and dangerous about a live lobster (those huge claws can cause serious damage to human fingers). It is also interesting to note that lobsters are just about the only form of food that the general public can purchase while it is still alive (even if they need to go to a specialist retailer to do it), and then kill in their own kitchen.

Answer: Flashdance

A whole quiz could be constructed around movie sequences that exploit the erotic possibilities of food and eating. In the 1983 movie "Flashdance", the character of Alex, played by Jennifer Beals, makes the most of these possibilities in her messy lobster-eating scene.

It is worth watching for the moment when she takes off her dinner suit jacket, revealing that she is not wearing a complete dress shirt underneath, but just a shirt bib and cuffs, her arms and back being bare.

Answer: Amy Adams

In this movie, which is based on a true story, Julie Powell tries to cook all the recipes in Julia Childs book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". In this sequence, she is faced with one recipe in which she has to kill and cook live lobsters. Needless to say, she has the usual problems that one would expect in a movie, with lobsters escaping in the car and crawling still alive out of the pot of hot water. Julie's less-than-helpful husband, Eric, is played by Chris Messina, while Meryl Streep takes the role of Julia Child. This is the second pairing for Adams and Meryl Streep, who starred together in "Doubt", also in 2009. Adams also starred in 2008's "Enchanted".

Answer: Larry

Larry the Lobster is a bright red colour (indicating that the poor guy has already been cooked - fresh living lobsters are normally a purplish colour). Despite this handicap, he leads an active life, working as a life-guard on the Bikini Bottom beach when he is not keeping fit by "working out". Of the other options, Patrick (a starfish) and Pearl (a whale) also appear in the show; Leonard is just another name beginning with "L".