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About This Quiz
Put on your legwarmers and fire up your Walkman, it's time to look at '80s fads! From paisley ties to Pringles, we've got a bit of everything from the Bueller Decade. Try the quiz!
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Which '80s fad was this?
Leg warmers
Leg warmers were an outgrowth of the aerobics craze. As with all fitness-related crazes, MANY people who'd never seen the inside of a workout studio wore them.
Paisley ties
Rubik's Cube
Donkey Kong
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Which '80s fad was this?
Simon
Atari 2600
Rubik's Cube
Who didn't at least try to complete a Rubik's Cube? This puzzle has enjoyed a resurgence recently.
Pet Shop Boys
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Which '80s fad was this?
Rubik's Cube
Skateboard
Hair metal bands
Simon
Simon was a maddeningly simple game. Four lights go in sequence, and you try to follow ... then it gets faster.
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Which '80s fad was this?
Merlin
Merlin was one of the first attempts at a multifunction handheld game. It had a grid of red LEDs, and it ate batteries like candy.
Nintendo NES
Thigh Master
Abdominizer
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Leg warmers
Hair metal bands
Paisley ties
Hair scrunchies
Hair scrunchies were a must-have accessory for the '80s girl. They came in a variety of colors.
WikiCommons
Which '80s fad was this?
Super Mario Bros.
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 was for all intents and purposes the first game console for home use. The graphics were abysmal, the games were simple and it sold by the millions.
Skateboards
Pet Shop Boys
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Which '80s fad was this?
Fun Dip
Pringles
Pringles were a huge sensation when they came out. They've recently gotten into flavors like chicken ramen!
Skinny ties
Parachute pants
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Hair scrunchies
The Breakfast Club
Every teen had to see "The Breakfast Club" when it came out. Some of us even got detention on purpose just to be like the heroes.
St. Elmo's Fire
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Pudding Pops
Pudding Pops were a billion-selling alternative to Popsicles. Then, one day, they weren't in stores anymore! It was a dark time.
Fun Dip
Pringles
Jolt! cola
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YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Smurfs
Headbands
Cabbage Patch Kids
Woe be to the toy store employee who ran out of Cabbage Patch Kids. Mothers, grandmothers and other relatives got into fistfights over the homely little dolls at Christmastime in the mid-'80s.
Jean jackets
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Moonwalk
Skateboards
Hair Metal bands
First there was heavy metal, then there came hair metal. The rock was a little less hard, but the costuming was more outlandish.
Hair scrunchies
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Which '80s fad was this?
Rubik's Cube
Deely bobbers
Parachute pants
Skateboards
Everybody wanted to be cool on a skateboard in the '80s. Few of us could be, which led to the proliferation of drop-in medical clinics.
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YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Inline skates
Slap bracelets
Deely boppers
Parachute pants
M.C. Hammer is largely responsible for the explosive popularity of parachute pants. Bonus points if you bought yours at Chess King in the mall!
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
St. Elmo's Fire
This was for all intents and purposes the last of the Brat Pack films. All the stars were getting older, and some had developed off-camera addictions.
The Breakfast Club
Paisley ties
Cabbage Patch kids
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Which '80s fad was this?
Sony Walkman
The Walkman was simultaneously one of the greatest and most annoying inventions. Imagine a device that obsessed its users so much that they lost touch with the world around them! Oh, wait ... we have smartphones.
Merlin
Boom boxes
Swatch
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YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Koosh ball
Pac-Man
Pac-Man was an unlikely arcade hit. There were no explosions, no punches thrown and no blood flying across the screen. And yet, it made billions.
Super Mario Bros.
Cabbage Patch Kids
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Hacky Sack
Inline skates
Abdominizer
American waistlines were beginning to spread in the '80s, and fitness became a national craze. The Abdominizer was one of many gadgets that cashed in on the mania.
Swatch
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Parachute pants
Inline skates
Aerobics
If you do Zumba, CrossFit or any of the other gym-based fitness classes, you owe a debt to aerobics. It was the original activity which gathered groups of sweaty people together to sprain things in groups.
Pringles
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YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Mohawks
Headbands
Jean jackets
Thigh Master
There's not a man alive who was a teenage boy in the '80s who doesn't remember Suzanne Somers's commercials for the Thigh Master. They were as close to R-rated movies as many of us got.
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Neon clothes
Skateboards
Baby on Board signs
The yellow Baby on Board signs were everywhere in the '80s. Of course, the parody signs weren't far behind.
Koosh balls
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Koosh ball
The Koosh ball was the perfect passive-aggressive toy. You could throw it really hard, but you couldn't damage anything.
Hair scrunchies
Skateboard
Pringles
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Which '80s fad was this?
Swatch
Fruit Roll-Ups
Nintendo NES
For years, the Atari 2600 was the top of the video game heap. Then the NES came along, and the bar got raised incredibly. If only we hadn't had to constantly blow out the cartridges!
Merlin
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Which '80s fad was this?
Thriller
California Raisins
Pet Shop Boys
Super Mario Bros.
The Super Mario Bros. series took the Donkey Kong hero and gave him a world of his own. Sliding turtles, flame-shooting flowers and those annoying mushroom people added to the fun.
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Pastel shirts
Moonwalk
Bone Fone
The Bone Fone was an odd outgrowth of the Walkman. It was a speaker you wore around your neck like an ox collar which let you "feel" the music.
Parachute pants
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Which '80s fad was this?
Moonwalk
Michael Jackson's signature dance was the Moonwalk. It was NOT the signature dance for the millions of uncoordinated suburban kids who broke their ankles trying to do it.
Pac-Man
Parachute pants
Headbands
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Which '80s fad was this?
Deely bobber
Skateboards
Simon
Pastel shirts
Don Johnson and Philip-Michael Thomas made pastel shirts a must-have accessory on "Miami Vice." Soon, dry cleaners everywhere were rejoicing at the increased number of stain removal jobs.
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Which '80s fad was this?
Paisley
Everywhere you looked in the '80s, you saw paisley. It started with ties, then became shirts, posters, wallpaper and even car paint jobs.
Abdominizer
Thigh Master
Fruit Roll-Ups
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Which '80s fad was this?
Koosh ball
Jean jackets
Deely bobbers
Like many things in the '80s, there was no earthly reason for deely bobbers to exist. However, they came in an assortment of colorful designs, and some even lit up, so they had that going for them.
Ray Bans
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Smurfs
While the Smurfs have recently re-emerged in popularity, their highest apex was in the '80s. Little girls wanted to be Smurfette for Halloween, and of course there were all manner of "adult" Smurfette costumes.
Swatch
Fruit Roll-Ups
Koosh ball
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Hacky sacks
Pudding pops
Slap bracelets
Like deely bobbers, slap bracelets really had no reason to exist. They were tons of fun to put on and take off, though, until your mom lost her mind over the repeated "slap" sound and took them away.
Inline skates
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Which '80s fad was this?
Swatch
Inline skates
Simon
Hacky Sack
A lot of the '80s came out of California, and Hacky Sack was one of the biggest. Every college quad was filled with kids trying to play ... and accidentally kicking each other.
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Leg warmers
Inline skates
Inline skates were a fusion of roller skating and ice skating. They made it possible for those who couldn't quite handle regular roller skates to hurt themselves in new and different ways.
Paisley
Parachute pants
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Headbands
Mohawks
Swatch
A rarity among '80s fads, Swatch was actually a well-made piece of fashion. The watches lasted forever, and the brand is still going well.
Paisley
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Which '80s fad was this?
Ford Fiesta
The Breakfast Club
Pet Shop Boys
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Who didn't want to be Ferris? Matthew Broderick's rule-breaking hero led to numerous teenage bad decisions.
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Inline skates
Jean jackets
Ford Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta was a dinky little car that sold millions. It was the perfect runabout for young teen drivers, and it was surprisingly durable in wrecks.
Skateboards
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Which '80s fad was this?
Painter hats
Mohawks
Headbands
Jon Bon Jovi and John Cougar Mellencamp wore them, so everyone who wanted to be as cool as them had to have one. Oh, and some unknown guy named Bruce Springsteen was known to throw them to his fans.
Skateboards
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Which '80s fad was this?
Mohawks
The Mohawk was a hairstyle that definitely made a statement. Specifically, that statement was "I never want to hold an executive-level job."
Aerobics
Paisley
Super Mario Bros.
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Which '80s fad was this?
Shoulder pads
Ray Bans
Paisley
Jean jackets
The best thing about jean jackets was sewing patches onto them. The cooler you were, the more exotic locations you'd have sewn across your back.
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Koosh ball
Ray Bans
Ray Bans owed their popularity directly to Tom Cruise. In "Risky Business," he made Ray Bans the eyewear of choice for the smooth kids.
Bone Fone
Skateboard
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Which '80s fad was this?
Paisley
Parachute pants
Boom boxes
Neon clothes
Neon clothes were one of the more garish fashion trends in the history of clothes. Eye-bruising neon green short sets and bright purple shirts made the wearers stand out ... and not always in a good way.
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Baby on Board signs
Painter hats
Madonna brought painter hats to the fashion forefront in her videos. Soon, they were everywhere, with a dizzying variety of logos on the bills and colors all around.
Boom boxes
Izod shirts
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Which '80s fad was this?
Fruit Roll-Ups
Supposedly healthy snacking was what Fruit Roll-Ups sold. What you actually got was fruit-flavored sugar with enough additives to set off a hazmat situation.
Pringles
Ray Bans
Skateboards
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Which '80s fad was this?
Jean jackets
Ford Fiesta
Thriller
The world of music videos was turned upside down by Thriller. Michael Jackson's long-form music video, with voice-over by Vincent Price, took over MTV.
Painter hats
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Boom boxes
St. Elmo's Fire
MTV
MTV came on the air with "Video Killed the Radio Star," and made that come true in spades. It changed everything about the way music was made, sold and enjoyed.
Izod shirts
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
Paisley
Shoulder pads
The shoulder pad look was taken to its hilarious extreme by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. On the "Stop Making Sense" tour, he wore a white suit with shoulder pads as large as footballs.
Painter hats
Skateboards
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Which '80s fad was this?
Ford Fiesta
Pastel shirts
Swatch
Members Only
Members Only jackets were THE must-have accessory for the Preppy set. They were basically windbreakers with a bottom seam, but they sold like hotcakes.
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Which '80s fad was this?
Swatch
Friendship bracelets
If you wanted to identify friend from foe, colorful friendship bracelets were a help. They were a fashion statement and a tribal marking!
Deely bobbers
Pastel shirts
YouTube
Which '80s fad was this?
California Raisins
The California Raisins were smooth singing characters that almost made raisins cool. The toys sold tons, but raisins still suffer from the handicap of being the most-traded lunchbox food.
Boom boxes
Pringles
Fruit Roll-Ups
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You Got:
/48
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