University entrance exams are stressful enough, even without the looming fear that you might burst out laughing at any moment because of some surprise surreal illustrations.

But that’s exactly what happened to Japanese students over the weekend taking an English language listening test of all things.

Imagine sitting in a deadly silent exam hall, desperately trying to recall all the words you’d learnt, only to be confronted with this.

An apple and carrot with wings, ready to take flight at any moment, and a very muscular pair consisting of a cucumber and a bunch of grapes.

Not only are these pictures incredibly off-putting, but it was literally the first question, possibly forcing students to constrain giggles for the whole test.

The accompanying audio, which students would have to listen to in order to pick the correct bizarre character, was this totally natural English conversation.

Yes, I too often utter the phrase ‘for a stronger impact, give it wings to fly’.

One Twitter user noted that although the conversation called for an impactful character, perhaps these illustrations had too much impact.

After baffled students put the illustrations online for the whole of Japan to see, soon the internet was inundated with fan art and tributes to these four compelling characters.

Even the creator of Pop Team Epic got in on the action, redrawing the legendary winged carrot in his classic style.

He even inspired a bento lunch box.

As hilarious as these illustrations are, it's hard not to feel bad for any students who found them distracting. Hopefully next time the exam board will put more importance on the hard-working students' concentration, rather than the comedy value of the questions!