80s Trivia Jeopardy

Synth-pop, blockbusters, and mall-era fads: a whole board of 1980s nostalgia that any host can copy for free and run with phones as buzzers.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

Copies all 30 clues into an editor of your own. Free, no account needed.

Every clue on this board

This page is public, so anyone can read the answers — copy the board and swap a few clues before game day.

80s Music

$200
This King of Pop's 1982 album Thriller became the best-selling album in history and featured a famous zombie-dance music video.
Who is Michael Jackson?
$400
This British rock band released the album The Joshua Tree in 1987, featuring the hit With or Without You.
Who is U2?
$600
This American pop star's 1984 album Purple Rain accompanied a film of the same name.
Who is Prince?
$800
This American singer's 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. included seven top-ten singles.
Who is Bruce Springsteen?
$1,000
This Norwegian synth-pop trio's 1984 single Take On Me, known for its pencil-sketch animated video, topped the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1985.
Who is a-ha?

80s Movies

$200
In this 1982 Steven Spielberg film, a young boy helps a stranded alien phone home before it returns to space.
What is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?
$400
This 1984 comedy follows a team of misfit ghost hunters battling supernatural threats in New York City.
What is Ghostbusters?
$600
This 1987 fantasy film stars a young boy being read a story about a farm hand, a princess, and a giant.
What is The Princess Bride?
$800
This 1983 sci-fi film, the sixth in its franchise, ends with the destruction of a second Death Star.
What is Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi?
$1,000
This 1980 sequel to a space saga reveals that a masked villain is the hero's father.
What is The Empire Strikes Back?

80s Television

$200
This primetime soap opera about a Texas oil family famously asked who shot its patriarch's son in a 1980 cliffhanger.
What is Dallas?
$400
This sitcom starring Bill Cosby as a Brooklyn obstetrician was the highest-rated show on American television for much of the 1980s.
What is The Cosby Show?
$600
This NBC sitcom set in a Boston bar starred Ted Danson as a former baseball player turned bartender.
What is Cheers?
$800
This crime drama series, starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as undercover detectives, was known for its pastel fashion and Miami setting.
What is Miami Vice?
$1,000
This children's cartoon and toy line featured robots that could transform between vehicles and humanoid forms, debuting in the U.S. in 1984.
What is Transformers?

80s News and Events

$200
On January 28, 1986, this NASA space shuttle broke apart shortly after launch, killing all seven crew members aboard.
What is the Challenger?
$400
This wall dividing East and West Berlin fell in November 1989, becoming a symbol of the end of the Cold War.
What is the Berlin Wall?
$600
This U.S. President survived an assassination attempt outside a Washington, D.C. hotel in March 1981, just months into his first term.
Who is Ronald Reagan?
$800
In 1986, this nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine suffered a catastrophic meltdown, becoming the worst nuclear accident in history.
What is Chernobyl?
$1,000
This March 1989 environmental disaster occurred when an oil tanker struck a reef in Alaska, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil.
What is the Exxon Valdez oil spill?

80s Toys and Games

$200
This Hungarian-invented three-dimensional puzzle, covered in colored squares, became a global craze after its 1980 international release.
What is the Rubik's Cube?
$400
This line of soft-bodied dolls, each sold with an adoption certificate, was created by Xavier Roberts and first sold in 1982.
What are Cabbage Patch Kids?
$600
This handheld electronic game system, released by Nintendo in 1989, let players carry games like Tetris in their pocket.
What is the Game Boy?
$800
This home video game console, released by Nintendo in North America in 1985, helped revive the video game industry after the 1983 crash.
What is the Nintendo Entertainment System?
$1,000
This board game, in which players guess words drawn by a teammate, was first published in 1985.
What is Pictionary?

80s Fads and Fashion

$200
These brightly colored knit tubes, worn scrunched around the ankles or wrists, were a signature 1980s aerobics-inspired accessory.
What are leg warmers?
$400
This hairstyle, shaved or short on the sides and back with long hair left on top, was a popular 1980s look for men.
What is a mullet?
$600
This teased and heavily hair-sprayed style, associated with 1980s rock bands, added significant height and volume to the hair.
What is big hair?
$800
This exercise craze, popularized on television by celebrity workout videos, combined dance moves and fitness routines set to music.
What is aerobics?
$1,000
This brand of colorful, high-top athletic shoe endorsed by a Chicago Bulls player debuted in 1985.
What are Air Jordans?

Final Jeopardy — 80s Movies

In this 1985 blockbuster, a Hill Valley teenager travels from 1985 back to 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean.

What is Back to the Future?

How to run this board

Nostalgia nights work best with a decade everyone in the room actually remembers, and for a certain crowd that decade is the 80s. The board covers its music, movies, television, news and events, toys and games, and fads and fashion.

Throw it on the TV at a themed party, a reunion, or a milestone birthday, and let guests buzz in from their phones. Leg warmers optional but encouraged.

Hosting tip: seed each team with one person born after 1990. Watching them guess is half the fun, and the occasional correct answer gets the biggest cheer of the night.

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