Every now and again the Thursday quiz gets overexcited and goes off piste. Celebrity Traitors has been so omnipresent in the UK that the idea of doing questions based on awkward rhymes around it became overpowering. It is still the same old mix of topical news, general knowledge and pop culture questions, and there are no spoilers. You don’t even have to have watched the show. But if you’ve ever wanted to watch someone struggle to rhyme a question with Romesh Ranganathan, now is your chance. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, no 269 – Celebrity Traitors special

1. 1.Just how many? Count with King Kenny! The Tom Cruise vehicle Digger is set to lose how much at the box office, according to reports?
2. 2.Big or small? With Jerry Hall! None of the tropical storms formed in the Atlantic so far this season had turned into hurricanes, until the one that made landfall across the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama at the weekend. It was called …
3. 3.Fancy a bet? With Joe Lycett! Apparently more than $26m was bet on Polymarket before the announcement of the winner of the Nobel peace prize. Who won it?
4. 4.Who did that art? With Miranda Hart! They are having a legal tizz at the Paris opera house over what should be displayed in the roof – the original decoration from the 1800s or the canvas that was put over it in the 1960s. Who are the two artists?
5. 5.Spot that queen, with Michael Sheen! Dolly Parton was an absolute queen, and her fans turned a place in Australia pink in her honour. Which place?
6. 6.Name that plant, with Richard E Grant! A plant selfie in a Colombian jungle led to ‘jaw dropping’ giant waterlily find. What is the scientific name of the new species discovered?
7. 7.Who held it aloft? With Sebastian Croft! New Zealand beat Australia in the first tie of this year's Bledisloe Cup series. In which sport?
8. 8.You've got some front, with beautiful James Blunt! In an astonishing turn of events, who has been elected mayor of a remote district in the Peruvian Andes?
9. 9.Which was a cappella? With Game of Thrones' Bella! OK, the rhymes are getting harder to tie to current events now. So which of these hits by The Housemartins was a cappella?
10. 10.That's so very puny, with Sharon Rooney! Qantas had to ground a plane after finding it was infested with bed bugs. *Shudder*. Where?
11. 11.Who's the master? With James Acaster! We all know Gromit is effectively the master of the Wallace and Gromit household in the wonderful Aardman animations. But who is going to finally give Gromit a voice for the first time in the audiobook of his autobiography?
12. 12.Lower or higher? With Love Island's Maya! Some supermarket refrigerators in France hit what temperature after they were hacked remotely?
13. 13.Little Mix's Leigh-Anne asks: Sudan or Japan? Another extremely strained question. According to the archived version of the CIA World Factbook, which country has the largest total area – Sudan or Japan
14. 14.It's time to wreck it, with lovely Rob Beckett! Who has just been ousted as US ambassador to Greece after being engulfed in reports of improper behaviour, which – the Guardian's lawyers are keen to stress – she denies
15. 15.A loss of concentration, with Romesh Ranganathan! Thanks to nobody looking at the CCTV, or something like that, thieves made off with a not inconsiderable 30,000 bottles of wine from the prestigious Marchesi Antinori winery in which part of Italy?
16. 16.What was that burn? With Industry's Harper Stern! Last week a fan of the Thursday quiz emailed the quiz master to say 'Journalist? You are a piece of shit'. Thanks, mate. What activity did they then suggest the quiz master carry out?
17. 17.Name that 'stan, with Ireland's Joanne! Ashgabat is the capital city of where?
18. 18.Make it taste Cajan, with that ol' Amol Rajan! God, this is getting hard. Which of these spices is most associated with cajun food?
19. 19.Where is the lie? With Prof Hannah Fry! One of these headlines appeared on the Guardian website this week. Which one?
20. 20.Truly unruly with Accrington's Julie! Nothing rhymes with Hesmondhalgh. Nothing. Anyway, across the Pennines from where Julie was born, there was a happy ending after a discarded 1950s wedding album was reunited with the son of the couple photographed in it. Where?
21. 21.We really just can't, with EastEnders' Grant! Absolutely done for rhymes now. Instead tackle this: which Canadian-born musician announced this week they had become a US citizen?

This was a terrible idea. If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working and are absolutely 100% positive you aren’t attempting to factcheck a joke – you can complain about it in the comments below. Why not watch Dinosaur Park by Wes Parker instead?