Cartoons have always leaned on animals, and that gives these cartoon trivia questions a tidy rule: every answer is a creature, from a cat and a mouse's enemy to a puppy in Brisbane. The clues describe a habit, a catchphrase or a colour, and you name the character. The set spans nearly a century of drawing, so a grandparent and a grandchild each have a few they can answer first, which suits a family trivia night.

Ten creatures to name

  • 1. Which cartoon cat is forever chasing a mouse called Jerry?

  • 2. Which fast bird says "Meep meep!" as it escapes Wile E. Coyote?

  • 3. Which little Looney Tunes bird always gets away from Sylvester the cat?

  • 4. What kind of dog is Scooby-Doo?

  • 5. Which cartoon cat loves lasagne and hates Mondays?

  • 6. Who is Mickey Mouse's pet dog?

  • 7. Which Looney Tunes pig signs off with "That's all folks!"?

  • 8. Which grumpy Disney duck wears a sailor shirt and no trousers?

  • 9. Which comic-strip beagle sleeps on top of his doghouse?

  • 10. Which Australian cartoon follows a Blue Heeler puppy and her family?

The answers, one line each

  • 1. Tom. Tom and Jerry won seven Oscars in the animated short film category.

  • 2. The Road Runner. Wile E. Coyote orders every gadget from the fictional Acme Corporation.

  • 3. Tweety. He was first drawn pink and without feathers.

  • 4. A Great Dane. His full name is Scoobert Doo.

  • 5. Garfield. His comic strip holds a world record as the most widely syndicated in the world.

  • 6. Pluto. He first appeared in 1930, the year the planet Pluto was discovered.

  • 7. Porky Pig. Mel Blanc voiced Porky, Bugs, Daffy and many more.

  • 8. Donald Duck. He has appeared in more films than any other Disney character.

  • 9. Snoopy. His owner is Charlie Brown, in Charles Schulz's Peanuts.

  • 10. Bluey. The show is set in Brisbane and became one of the most-streamed in the United States.

Which characters will a family know?

Tom, Donald Duck and Snoopy are known to almost everyone, so they make good openers. Bluey is the clear pick for a family with young children and may be the only one a child knows, so I would ask it early to give them a turn.

The older creatures make a different kind of question. Tweety, Porky and the Road Runner are known by name to most people, though fewer can say which show they came from. If a younger player gets the character but not the cartoon, accept it.

Can you play it as online trivia for the whole family?

Boardit's Trivia Tavern lets up to eight players join with a link, so grandparents and children can sit at different screens and play along with friends and cousins. It has an Entertainment category that covers animation, and every question has four choices. For a gentle family evening, the host can switch to the slower pace, where a quick answer only scores a little more. Boardit is aimed at a general audience, not at under-13s, so a young child should have an adult beside them at the screen.

What if a child has never met the old cartoons?

Then turn the question around. Show the picture in your head: a cat chasing a mouse, a bird that runs instead of flying. Most children know the shape of the joke even when they have never seen the cartoon, and they enjoy being the one who says the name. A trivia quiz works well for this, because the answer is a single word and a wrong guess costs nothing.

A good last question

End with a number if you want a tie-break. "In which year did Pluto the dog first appear?" is a fair closest-number question, and the note about the planet gives the table a satisfying link to the answer, 1930.

Each note has one reference page behind it, stored beside the question.

Ahmed Moaz builds Boardit, a free browser game site.