The Big Brunch Quiz: Did you vibe with 2025?

This year was One Battle After Another. There were Stranger Things. We lived through some epic Eras. Were you tuned in? Test yourself with our quiz

1. This Tortured Poet happens to be a Showgirl and the wealthiest female musician. She shook off her past relationships, swore she’d never get back together. Then, she found a Lover and got engaged. It was a moment for the Eras. Whose Love Story?

We’ve lived through Stranger Things, Wicked stuff and epic Eras in 2025. (SHUTTERSTOCK)

Tyla

Doechii

Selena Gomez

Taylor Swift

Ye and Kim Kardashian made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2025. (SHUTTERSTOCK)

2. Yay for women in film! Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies was India’s official selection for the Oscars. Anuparna Roy won the Orizzonti Award at Venice for Songs of Forgotten Trees. Payal Kapadia got on the 2025 Cannes jury after winning the Grand Prix in 2024 — for which movie?

Cinema Bandi

All We Imagine As Light

The Great Indian Kitchen

Girls will be Girls

It was a great year for Saiyaara stars, Aneet Padda and Ahaan Pandey, and fans of tearjerker romances.

3. Tickets in India vanished at The Speed of Sound. Resale value: Up to ₹10 lakh. A record 1.34 lakh people showed up at Ahmedabad. Jasleen Royal opened for them in Mumbai. A CEO and a co-worker were caught canoodling under A Sky Full Of Stars at their US concert. Say a Hymn for the Weekend, at whose concerts?

Oasis

Porcupine Tree

Coldplay

Radiohead

4. Everyone looked like they stepped into a Miyazaki frame. OpenAI’s 4o generator converted photos into dreamy, magical, almost hand-drawn portraits. It went viral and was dubbed the ______-style, after Miyazaki’s Studio. The Italian word actually means a hot dust-bearing wind of the North African desert.

Naruto

Mononoke

Kodama

Ghibli

Owen Cooper was stunning as a murderous 13-year-old in Adolescence.

5. Owen Cooper was stunning as a murderous 13-year-old in Adolescence. Stephen Graham directed, wrote and acted. But Matthew Lewis’s cinematography stole the show. The behind-the-scenes got attention for the same reason Russian Ark did in 2002. Hitchcock’s Rope sort of invented it. Four episodes. How many takes per episode?

1

4

20

200

6. Round up the ARMY. Stock up on ARMY bombs. The Bulletproof Boy Scouts are out of the military. The new album is recorded. The comeback tour is planned. Apobangpo! If you purple them, name the boy band.

SEVENTEEN

BTS

EXO

Stray Kids

Taylor Swift kept the surprises coming, giving Swifties a new album, bonus tracks and announcements. (INSTAGRAM/@TAYLORSWIFT)

7. Ok, Boomer, you gave way to Gen X — the forgotten generation. Millennials followed. Gen Z slayed with the lingo, no cap. Now there are new kids on the block. A demographic cohort started in 2025. They’re the first generation who’ll live to the turn of the century. Who comes after Gen Alpha?

Cap kids

Gen Beta

Gen Y

Gen Omega

8. Extroverts are outgoing. Introverts keep to themselves. Some people don’t fit into either box. Emotional independence and original ideas define them. Think Frida Kahlo, Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein. You could be one too. Thank Rami Kaminski for coining which new term that perfectly describes these outliers?

Controvert

Antivert

Subtravert

Otrovert

There’s a new term for outliers. Frida Kahlo, Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein are all part of this club. (SHUTTERSTOCK)

9. Speaking of outliers… Ne Zha II was the highest grossing film of the year globally (and highest grossing animated film of all time). Kantara: A Legend — Chapter 1 made record-setting collections in India. Not Hollywood. Not Bollywood. Give the two original languages of these films.

Arabic and Khasi

Persian and Pali

Korean and Telugu

Mandarin and Kannada

10. They’re divorced but famous. She completed a four-year legal apprenticeship, but failed the bar exam. He was born Kanye West. She launched a line of thongs with fake pubic hair on them. He released a song called Heil Hitler. They’re related to North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm. Name the exes.

Ye and Kim Kardashian

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes

Ne Zha II was the highest grossing film of the year globally, and highest grossing animated film of all time.

11. Kunafa chocolate wasn’t the only green obsession. 2025 ushered in a tea trend that turned everything green. It was in cakes, cocktails and cosmetics. Made from tencha. Sourced from Japan. It delivers a caffeine boost without the jitters. But high demand, heatwaves and US tariffs led to shortages. What did you sip on this year?

Rooibos

Chai latte

Genmaicha

Matcha

12. It’s a decade-old feud. They’ve been spitting verses, one upping each other. At first about being the greatest. Then about domestic abuse and secret families. One set of their exes — SZA and Serena Williams — teamed up at the Super Bowl. They Not Like Us. So, who are they?

Simon and Garfunkel

Roger Waters and David Gilmour

Drake and Kendrick Lamar

Nicki Minaj and Cardi B

Indian women made their presence felt at the Oscars, Venice Film Fest and Cannes.

13. Both are blondes with big smiles. But don’t mistake one for the other. One is Man’s Best Friend who sips Espresso. The other claimed to have “great jeans” and played boxer Christy Martin. One’s name sounds like a teenage witch who is also a wood worker. Name both women dominating our screens?

Gigi & Bella Hadid

Sabrina Carpenter & Sydney Sweeney

Miley Cyrus & Hannah Montana

Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen

14. Rumi, Mira and Zoey lead double lives. Their girl group HUNTR/X surpassed Blackpink on the US Spotify charts. Their voices: Literally magical. Their goal: To strengthen the Honmoon. Their enemies: The Saja Boys. Watch out for Gwi-Ma. What are we talking about?

Trollhunters

K-Pop Demon Hunters

My Little Pony

K-Pop: Lost in America

Kunafa chocolate wasn’t the only green obsession of 2025. (SHUTTERSTOCK)

15. The best-selling videogame of all time also had the best-selling videogame movie opening weekend of all time. Jack Black is Steve. Steve is an expert crafter. It all takes places in a cubic world. The movie made $957 million, But critics say it could’ve been a Notch better. Plenty of room in the sandbox for improvement. Which movie?

A Minecraft Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Jumanji

Tetris

16. Wide eyes, bat ears and nine sharp teeth. These female elves have been everywhere, even with Naomi Osaka at the US Open. A life-size one sold for $150,000; Sony is making a movie about them because they were so popular. They’re actually characters from Kasing Lung’s The Monsters. What did he call them?

Lafufu

Lego

Chucky

Labubu

Everyone looked like they stepped into a Miyazaki frame, thanks to OpenAI’s 4o generator . (SHUTTERSTOCK)

17. Louis Vuitton launched a new ₹14,000 item this year. It has no pockets, no straps, no zippers. At least it’s refillable. It contains upcycled mimosa wax in 55 shades. Launched in August. Sold out in August. Fans kissed their money goodbye with which product?

Lipstick

Perfume

Eyeliner

Foundation

18. First announced in 2022. Then delayed, delayed again, and delayed some more. No Rockstar behind this video game. The makers fired 30 employees to stifle their union efforts. It’s taking longer than a traffic jam in Vice City to release. We got a new year before we got what?

Minecraft

The Witcher 3

Grand Theft Auto VI

Resident Evil 4

Katy Perry went to space, and also hard-launched a new beau. (INSTAGRAM/@KATYPERRY)

19. Rhode got sold to e.l.f. Beauty for $1billion. It makes pocket blushes and peptide lip treatments. Its founder stays on as chief creative officer. She was born a Baldwin. Rhode is her middle name. She’s a bonafide Belieber. Don’t mention Selena Gomez. To whom?

Scarlett Johansson

Hailey Bieber

Rihanna

Selena Gomez

20. These two have announced that they are in a “non-demi-curious, semi-binary relationship”. It just means they’re not actually a couple, but the possibility interests them. Wicked label, Glinda and Elphaba! Defy Gravity and name the duo.

Gwyneth Paltrow & Chris Martin

George Clooney & Amal Alamuddin

Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi

Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo

Prada’s braided open leather slipper worth ₹1 lakh was a direct copy of which Indian chappal? (SHUTTERSTOCK)

21. Cambridge chose parasocial. Oxford chose rage bait. The Economist chose slop. These words of the year define the mood of our time, wouldn’t you say? Dictionary.com chose a number. It originated from a song lyric, it was meme-fuelled and meaningless. No maths needed. What number?

67

69

99

13

22. Arslan Nizami was working as a civil engineer near Leh. Faheem Abdullah went by The Imaginary Poet. Nizami quit his job. Abdullah shed his stage name. They went to Bollywood, where they wrote the first Indian song to hit Top 10 on the Billboard Global 200. Which song?

Big Dawgs

Saiyaara

Raanjhanaa

Atrangi yaari

This blonde actor was all over our feeds and movie screens this year.

23. Big year for Katy Perry. She went to space, quit American Idol, announced a world tour. Then, she made her relationship Insta-official after a trip to Japan, where they both met former Japanese PM Fumio Kishida. The beau: A recently divorced former PM of Canada. Who dis?

Bill Clinton

Tony Abbott

Justin Trudeau

Nicholas Sarkozy

India couldn’t get enough of this band. (SHUTTERSTOCK)

24. For Spring/Summer 2026, Prada showcased a braided open leather slipper that cost ₹1 lakh. It was almost a direct copy of a hand-crafted, GI-tagged chappal, which takes its name from a Maharashtrian city. No credit given. You’ve probably worn them too. What kind of chappal?

65s

Kolhapuris

Juttis

Padukas

25. A member of Delhi Capitals, but a Bandra girl at heart. She’s been open about dealing with anxiety. She withdrew from the Women’s Big Bash League to support a teammate during a hard time. Her Instagram is all music and heart. Who helped catapult the women’s cricket team to the World Cup final, which they won?

Jemimah Rodrigues

Smriti Mandhana

Harmanpreet Kaur

Shafali Verma

ANSWERS: 1. Taylor Swift 2. All We Imagine as Light 3. Coldplay 4. Ghibli 5. 1 6. BTS 7. Gen Beta 8. Otrovert 9. Mandarin and Kannada 10. Ye and Kim Kardashian 11. Matcha 12. Drake and Kendrick Lamar 13. Sabrina Carpenter & Sydney Sweeney 14. K-Pop Demon Hunters 15. A Minecraft Movie 16. Labubu 17. Lipstick 18. Grand Theft Auto VI 19. Hailey Bieber 20. Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo 21. 67 22. Saiyaara 23. Justin Trudeau 24. Kolhapuris 25. Jemimah Rodrigues

From HT Brunch, December 27, 2025

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