The popularity of this group, together with the Instagram account 'Facts', Facebook page 'Now You Know' and countless others illustrate that people still love trivia.
And while nobody can claim to have invented "knowing random stuff for fun," the trend gained a lot of ground in the '70s.
The original Jeopardy! daytime game show premiered in 1964 and the nighttime syndicated version started airing in 1974, around the time pub trivia began to take off. While these events probably evolved organically, the first formalized version came about in 1976, when Sharon Burns and Tom Porter peddled quizzes to pubs in southern England.
At first, the plan was to just give bars a way to get people in on slow nights, but the concept became a huge hit. In the US, groups like Pub Trivia USA and America’s Pub Quiz organize city- and state-wide competitions, often with serious cash prizes.
“We don’t want people to walk into a bar and feel like they can't contribute for a round,” Cullen Shaw, co-founder of the NYC Trivia League, told GQ about what makes for a good trivia night.
"If there’s a really difficult 17th-century poetry question, maybe there’s one person in the bar that knows that, but a sports question comes up after that and they let someone else answer. That's what’s fun about team trivia," Shaw explained.
Then again, you don't even need to be on a team to participate—or even leave your home. Hundreds of thousands of people log on to various apps to play every day.
The draw toward trivia seems to be rooted in our natural curiosity and desire for challenge. "We are a competitive people," said Shaw. "We like games; in general, humankind has gravitated toward them."
People also enjoy alcohol and socializing, so a combination of all three—plus the bragging rights that come with answering a tough question that nobody else did—creates an activity with lasting appeal.
Plus, playing trivia games also gives your brain a workout, as it requires you to recall facts, make connections, and think critically under pressure.
"[Trivia questions] can engage your brain and reward/dopamine responses," said Alan D. Castel, Ph.D., a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of California.
"Some research has shown that people are in fact willing to gamble, and even subject themselves to electric shocks to satisfy their curiosity for trivial knowledge that carries no apparent value, and may share neural mechanisms with that of hunger for food—showing the almost primal power of curiosity," Castel added.