Faces, Places
December 18, 2022 10:46 AM   Subscribe

The 2022 NYT face quiz is here! Can you recognize these 52 famous faces?
posted by Going To Maine (66 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
An interesting test case for Who Is That?, Microsoft/Bing's facial recognition engine. Then again the first few images in the quiz are very easy. And it may be too direct a task for a search engine since the NYT is using exact photos that have already been published. Facial recognition really shines when it's a brand new photo of someone.

(Google and Facebook and many other companies could have created a full facial recognition search engine years ago. They don't because of privacy concerns. Microsoft's is the first mainstream facial recognition I know of in the US. There've been a couple of Russian ones, including at one time Yandex. Who Is That gets around privacy concerns by only identifying "famous faces".)
posted by Nelson at 11:06 AM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


(38 for me, apparently I only know Zendaya as Michi)
posted by Going To Maine at 11:11 AM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


I got 33/52. Out of the 19 I missed, I recognized 11 names (but apparently couldn’t connect them to faces or bring the name to minds with the hint) and hadn’t heard of 8.

I’m kind of surprised that so many people recognized Musk (95%) - though I suppose some of those people probably figured it out from his shirt or the hint, not his face.
posted by maleficent at 11:12 AM on December 18, 2022


35. Very clever how it let me do the whole quiz and then threw up the paywall on the results page.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:15 AM on December 18, 2022 [7 favorites]


I got 27.
A few people I have heard of but never seen a picture, the sports people I almost entirely didn’t know, and what felt like ten people (like the federal reserve guy) had names I don’t think I had ever seen or heard before.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:36 AM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


I got 31 but also got paywalled away from the details. Several were people where I knew the role but not the name. And a few I had heard of in retrospect. And I didn’t guess Ron deSantis on purpose in a petty hope that he feels bad about having low face recognition.

Overall this quiz proved that I am old and don’t consume very much popular media or sports.
posted by janell at 11:40 AM on December 18, 2022 [5 favorites]


8.

And even that’s a bit suspiciously high, I really depended on context clues. White guy wearing an “Occupy Mars” shirt? Must be Musk. Young white women with a ton of makeup that looks like she’s at an awards show? Taylor Swift keeps winning stuff, worth a guess. Dressed like a fancy rapper? Well I’ve been seeing the name Bad Bunny in headlines a lot, let’s try that. I did recognize Will Smith with no effort, feel good about that.

Faces are hard!
posted by lepus at 11:43 AM on December 18, 2022


Did not accept "The Fresh Prince" for Will Smith. Sad.
posted by graymouser at 11:53 AM on December 18, 2022 [9 favorites]


32/52
I got Joe Manchin and Kevin McCarthy mixed up lol
posted by phunniemee at 11:56 AM on December 18, 2022 [7 favorites]


39, but I feel cheated out of a couple by a bad interface -- a couple of times I reflexively hit the return key before it showed the next question and immediately pegged me as wrong and moved on. I at least would have gotten SBF and I like to think I'd have had Poitier as well but he'd really aged in that photo I got a bare glimpse of! I also "missed" Ketanji Brown Jackson because I can never remember the order of her second and third names. Honestly surprised it didn't give it to me when I spelled her first name correctly. After all, it gave me a "close enough" when I misplaced the "H" in Rihanna!
posted by jburka at 12:02 PM on December 18, 2022 [4 favorites]


38. It went a lot faster once I realized I could just put in the last name.
posted by pangolin party at 12:07 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


I wondered if Ye would work for Kanye West. It worked.
posted by McSly at 12:07 PM on December 18, 2022 [8 favorites]


Faces are hard!

You got that right! I got 12 and pretty much all the other ones I had no clue. Many of them were names I've never heard. I got Rushdie and Lansbury instantly which apparently a lot of people didn't know and that surprises me.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 12:09 PM on December 18, 2022 [3 favorites]


Riddled with errors! It wouldn’t accept “Elon Fucking Musk” as a legit answer.
posted by andraste at 12:10 PM on December 18, 2022 [11 favorites]


It went a lot faster once I realized I could just put in the last name.

Just typing the first name also works.
posted by klausman at 12:14 PM on December 18, 2022


Sorry to all non-subscribers; I want sure how to do a gift link for the quiz from my phone.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:15 PM on December 18, 2022


22/50. Not bad for being face blind. I had a few lucky guesses.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 12:16 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


24 though I recognized most of the politicians I missed (that's the former PM of Japan, the current UK PM, the Chinese one), I just couldn't recall their names on demand.

Should be 25 but I refuse to call the President of Russia anything but "Pooty."
posted by dances with hamsters at 12:18 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


36, but I think I should get credit for "flaming jackass" on Samuel Alito, so I'm gonna say 37.
posted by mcstayinskool at 12:23 PM on December 18, 2022 [4 favorites]


43! Used 25 hints, though, so. 🤷‍♀️ Five of my missed ones I hadn’t even heard of.

Here’s a gift link that I took from the results page; hopefully that might work for people.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:34 PM on December 18, 2022 [3 favorites]


31 out of 52, and several of those were really "D'oh" misses.

What? The very brief occupant of No. 10 Downing St. did not spell her surname "Dross"?
posted by virago at 12:39 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


39, plus three that I recognized but couldn’t get the name out of my brain.
posted by Ruki at 12:51 PM on December 18, 2022


Well this fun quiz led directly to my taking another fun quiz, the Alzheimer's Memory Quiz. Because although I recognized as many of them as I would expect to, for an alarming number I was only able to come up with descriptions like "antisemitic musician," "hit comedian at awards ceremony," and "five-minute British PM." Not joking, I'm starting to worry about myself.
posted by HotToddy at 1:04 PM on December 18, 2022 [4 favorites]


Most alarming of all, my brain flatlined on ZELENSKY but was able to instantaneously spit out Angela Lansbury.
posted by HotToddy at 1:07 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


47, which surprised me. I recognized a lot more people than I expected and didn't even realize for half the game there were clues (though I don't think they would have helped the ones I missed early on anyway). Weirdly proud to not recognize Alex Jones.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:11 PM on December 18, 2022


Elizabeth Regina: Wrong. Mr. Twitter: Wrong. Justice Jackson: Correct. I quitting while I’m still on top.
posted by TedW at 1:19 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


If you haven't taken this yet, here's an important bit of info: It will accept first names alone, or last names alone, but if you guess first name and last name and get one right and the other wrong, it will mark the answer wrong.
posted by HotToddy at 1:32 PM on December 18, 2022 [3 favorites]


To further expound on HotToddy’s comment, “asshole Alito” is wrong, as is “PM II” and “PM III” for Truss and the new guy. (I didn’t actually quit while I was on top.)
posted by TedW at 1:37 PM on December 18, 2022


Both 'Bey' and 'Bibi' worked for their respective people.
posted by box at 1:40 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


"antisemitic musician," "hit comedian at awards ceremony," and "five-minute British PM".
Richard Wagner, Bob Hope, and George Canning?
posted by dannyboybell at 1:45 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


I got a lot (38?) but apparently the people taking this quiz are recognizing Liz Cheney at the same rate as TOM CRUISE... either he needs his face done again or the NYT attracts a very specific crowd!
posted by kingdead at 2:03 PM on December 18, 2022


I chose poorly.
posted by tllaya at 2:21 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


I don't know the names of anyone under the age of 50, apparently. That's concerning.
posted by mittens at 2:25 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


I wrote my opinion about each of the figures instead.

Also ‘ye’ worked.
posted by sibboleth at 2:36 PM on December 18, 2022


I gave up after I discovered that it parochially accepts only the western form of Japanese names: e.g. the family name of the current PM of Japan is Kishida; Western usage would have him as Fumio Kishida, while Japanese usage has him as Kishida Fumio.

There is a well-known Japanese figure in the quiz, and I put their family name first. WRONG, I was told. *shrug* Considering it has a decent tolerance for slight misspellings of names, I found this odd.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:38 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


I wondered if Ye would work for Kanye West. It worked.
posted by McSly at 2:07 PM on December 18 [3 favorites +] [!]

I tried Nazi, it didn't.
posted by symbioid at 3:11 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


And yeah, I put a lot of epithets instead of names (even if I mostly knew who they were). I will prolly try to take it for real later.
posted by symbioid at 3:12 PM on December 18, 2022


Haha here I was feeling so proud to get 24! Some of you are face wizards. I genuinely hadn't heard of a lot of the actors and athletes. And recognized Michelle Yeoh right away but couldn't retrieve her name.

It's really not a great test of face recognition though as it gives too much context. You could narrow down lots of them into a line of work just based on their outfit or setting. And I know I have no idea what one of the athletes looks like but the hint gave it away completely.
posted by potrzebie at 3:25 PM on December 18, 2022


Well, I did get the single least recognized face in the quiz.
posted by cron at 3:34 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


apparently the people taking this quiz are recognizing Liz Cheney at the same rate as TOM CRUISE

It was the NEY on the nameplate in front of her for me.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:34 PM on December 18, 2022 [4 favorites]


Did not accept "The Fresh Prince" for Will Smith. Sad.

And it wouldn't accept "Lizzie" for the relevant dead monarch, which feels like a war crime.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:55 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


47

...Yikes. I should maybe spend less time consuming news?
posted by minervous at 4:24 PM on December 18, 2022


36/52. I have very little knowledge of current pop culture figures, but recognized all of the politicians and newsmakers. I did blank on a couple of names where I did know the face.
posted by briank at 4:57 PM on December 18, 2022


I have up because I apparently double tapped on my ipad several times and it marked blanks as wrong.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:24 PM on December 18, 2022


You could narrow down lots of them into a line of work just based on their outfit or setting.

The only reason I got Liz Truss is that she was standing in front of 10 Downing Street. Also the Federal Reserve Board of Governors seal on Jerome Powell's podium was a big giveaway.
posted by praemunire at 5:28 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


(In conclusion, holy heck, all the white men in government besides Fetterman blend into one.

I got the rarest one, Hilary Mantel, and I feel bad about the reason, which is that her author photos were almost uniformly terrible, and I felt so protective of her, I just wanted her to brush her hair so as not to be mocked.)
posted by praemunire at 5:33 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


couldn’t get the name out of my brain for a bunch where I got a partial or, as with Alex Jones, could just think fucker.
posted by theora55 at 5:45 PM on December 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


Judge Brown-Jackson --> wrong
but they accept Ye?

I protest.
posted by tula at 6:27 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


I put cabbage instead of lettuce for what's her name, the one who came after Trump lite and before look how diverse we are while we remove rights and destroy the economy.

I wonder if they wild have accepted lettuce.

I put something rude if Mccarthy. He deserves worse. And whoever that Yankee was, I maintain "soulless wonder" is an accurate description given where he grew plays (even if you're drafted, just by virtue of playing repeatedly in Yankee stadium, one slowly has one's soul removed. It's the closest we'll ever see to a hellmouth in the real world.)
posted by Hactar at 6:34 PM on December 18, 2022


Almost tried QE2 for Liz but decided to do it 'correctly'.

Turns out my policy of not paying attention to the world at large put me at 19 correct. I had fun coming up with epithets for the folks I didn't recognize though.

Even as a Canadian, it's funny how you can recognize a fucking republican. I wonder if it's some inherent physical attribute (other than usually, white, (old), male or the way they're photographed).
posted by rhooke at 7:15 PM on December 18, 2022


Well this fun quiz led directly to my taking another fun quiz, the Alzheimer's Memory Quiz. Because although I recognized as many of them as I would expect to, for an alarming number I was only able to come up with descriptions like "antisemitic musician," "hit comedian at awards ceremony," and "five-minute British PM." Not joking, I'm starting to worry about myself.


Uh, yeah, I did the same thing on many of them because I had a similar experience. Uh, that sucked. Or I got a first or last name wrong even though I definitely knew who they were. Guess I'll be taking that Alzheimer quiz so thank you for posting it.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 9:35 PM on December 18, 2022


Did not accept "The Fresh Prince" for Will Smith. Sad.

Nor "weasle" for Kevin McCarthy. (oops, looks like it's spelled "weasel", so I should try again)
posted by mr vino at 10:02 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


36. The ones I missed were almost all actors and actresses that I'd never heard of. Can't believe I missed Bunk, though. My guess at the new UK PM's name, off by one letter, was another miss.
posted by neuron at 10:11 PM on December 18, 2022


45. Useless on baseball or basketball; better on most of the others.

Bit of a shock to see a recently-former UK prime minister. So that wasn't a vivid and surreal nightmare, after all. Well, guess in a way it was.
posted by Wordshore at 10:31 PM on December 18, 2022


I was surprised they didn't have Boris Johnson in there so you could collect the full set (realizing the year is not yet done..). Maybe there was a maximum quota on UK Prime Ministers.

Also boo to the NYT for accepting SBF and Ye as abbreviated answers but not Former Prime Minister Abe
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:11 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


Fetterman is Ron Perlman in my mind.

It accepted Taytay for my girl Taylor Swift. But wasn't so accepting of labeling all the republican scum accurately. Nor did it take murderer for Putin
posted by Jacen at 11:26 PM on December 18, 2022


I scored ten (with 45 hints). Poor at faces and didn't know a lot of the people.
posted by paduasoy at 6:26 AM on December 19, 2022


26, but I yipped on the return key on three that I would've gotten.

It took QE II for me. I confused Machin and McCarthy. I also confused Xi and Shinzo, which makes me feel inherently racist and very American.
posted by slogger at 6:32 AM on December 19, 2022


It marked "President of Ukraine" as wrong.
posted by signal at 6:45 AM on December 19, 2022


Yikes, 23! I guess this is what happens when I get most of my news from the radio. I don't know what these people look like.
posted by Gray Duck at 7:12 AM on December 19, 2022


I got 23, which isn't terrible for me, considering I'm bad at recognizing faces anyway. I'm apparently extremely bad at knowing recent-ish celebrities and Supreme Court justices.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:14 AM on December 19, 2022


I got 25 of 52 questions correctly (using 1 hint), better than 67% of Times readers. IDK on all those politicos. :/
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 7:35 AM on December 19, 2022


40 out of 52. Should have been one higher because I got Xi Jinping but my spelling was too far off to be accepted. But then, it should also have been one lower because I knew who Aaron Judge was but couldn't remember his name, so I googled "yankee home run record." That's probably cheating, so it evens out.

Put "some douche" for JD Vance because I couldn't remember which Republican douche he was. Should have recognized Keke Palmer but it was a bad picture (I guess from Nope, which I haven't seen?). Guessed Bolsonaro for Lula da Silva, so I feel kinda bad about that. Couldn't remember the name of the current Fed chair, so I put Tim Geithner even though I knew it was wrong (but at least more likely than Janet Yellin).
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:48 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


Took it again and identified both J.D. Vance and Alex Jones as Donald Trump, Jr., because fuck all three of those guys.
posted by box at 8:48 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


35. I recognized everyone except the skier, Bad Bunny, and Bill Russell, and for some reason, to my great embarrassment, I always mix up the names of Wendell Pierce and Wendell Berry! Had it been a multiple-choice test, I think I could have gotten 49 or 50. I do much better with voices than faces, so I’m fairly happy.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 8:19 PM on December 19, 2022


Can I recognize these faces? No. No I cannot. I got off to a good start, but had no idea on many many more at the end. There were some that I knew who it was, but couldn't come up with their name (PMII in britain and Manchin). Others I flat-out never have heard of. I think I got 17.
posted by hydra77 at 11:49 AM on December 20, 2022


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