In bars and restaurants across the city, trivia nights have become more than just games. They’re social rituals, creative outlets, and even the start of love stories.
Paul Paquet’s Ottawa Trivia League (OTL) poses most of the questions. Founded in 1998, OTL stages trivia nights at around 25 bars and restaurants.
After a hard fought battle, Paquet’s high school team placed second on the long running television series Reach for the Top in the 1980s, sparking his love of trivia.
Watching himself at 17 on YouTube, Paquet says, is an eerie experience. Now 60, Paquet laughs that writing trivia questions keeps him up on youthful trends like skibidi toilet and Teddy Swims.
In addition to OTL, Paquet runs the Trivia Hall of Fame website and assists in the production of World Trivia Night.
Since OTL’s first organized bar trivia night, Paquet says the demographic has shifted from Boomers and Gen X players to Millennials and Gen Z, and with that came a calmer atmosphere.
Back in the early aughts, the OTL handbook included sections on what to do if there is a fist fight or the host is groped, Paquet continues, “crowds have become more reserved.”
While society is more accepting and progressive, the crowds at trivia are turned off by explicitly sexual content, Paquet observed
“It’s very much a generational change. This generation has come up with different influences and different ways of being. It’s just the way it is.”
OTL avoids overtly political content, although Paquet says creating an inclusive environment “is an implicit political statement.”
“We recognize the ills of the world but we’re not out there to harsh your mellow,” Paquet says. Scott Mullin, the Monday night emcee at Queen Street Fare, recalls just two unpleasant moments in years of hosting: a bar patron once passed him a note threatening to egg him, and there was a single instance of passive homophobia. But overall, he says, these are rare exceptions.
Mullin began hosting as a student in Newfoundland after attending as a player.
“I used to love the way the environment was set up. Fun and inclusive, wracking your brain trying to get the answers,” Mullin, who has hosted events for Rainbow Rockers Curling, said.
“It was a fun way to hang out with friends and reconnect with acquaintances after work. I like seeing those intersections happen while I am hosting trivia.”
Anina’s Cafe on Bradley Street hosts a bimonthly trivia night headed by Mullin’s drag alter ego Shea Muah.
An Aug 18 event for Public Service Pride week saw drag queens lip synching for the music trivia categories, Mullin recounts. “We had a good time highlighting some of the historic and current queer pop culture icons.”
Icons of television are celebrated in show specific trivia nights around the city, with events for prolific programs like Friends, Breaking Bad and The Simpsons.
Host of the bimonthly Simpsons trivia night at the Gilmour, Ben Thomas remembers falling in love with the show while watching via rabbit ears in his childhood basement. Over the pandemic, Thomas purchased DVDs and these rewatch binges form the basis of his trivia questions.
“I usually choose a season to base a trivia night around,” Thomas says. “I’ll watch and let it percolate in my brain. A lot of questions come to me the next day as I’m driving to work.”
Attendee Adam Goldberg remembers The Simpsons from its original airing on the Tracy Ullman Show, and has attended Star Wars trivia nights.
“It’s fun, we always reference Simpsons memes. It’s where you get to dump out your useless knowledge. I know this esoteric fact that nobody else does,” Goldberg says. “I have made many friends from Simpsons trivia.”
Jeannie Nikolic hosted Simpsons trivia in Ottawa for over five years and praises Thomas’ creativity.
“He does a good job of making the questions progressively harder and not accepting any half answers for the last few rounds,” Nikolic says. “He has great prizes too.”
Trivia is a great way for people to come together, Nikolic adds.
“If it’s a show you like and it’s a group of people who also like that show, you have found your people. Everybody’s friendly. You are all laughing at the same jokes. You share something in common. You might not have found these people otherwise.”
There are some OTL attendees who have been playing for over two decades. Paquet officiated two weddings for trivia regulars.“Couples have met, fallen in love over questions about Taylor Swift and plate tectonics, and got married,” Paquet said. “There are at least four human beings who only exist because their parents met playing trivia. When I eventually retire from this, that is something that will be an ongoing legacy. That’s something I am quite proud of.”