Dozens of people crowded around tables at an Ottawa bar recently, aiming to settle who knows the most about pop culture’s favourite bug-eyed, bright yellow family.
“WOO HOO! Classic Simpsons Trivia” is a bi-weekly trivia club run voluntarily by Jeannie Nikolic and which meets, among other places across the city, at Hooley’s Pub on Elgin Street. The Ottawa club forms the local branch of a trivia network based on The Simpsons that reaches across North America.
Nikolic also hosts a bi-weekly Seinfeld trivia club based on the hugely popular 1990s television hit.
The Simpsons had a modest start as a few quick animated shorts on The Tracy Ullman Show back in 1987, but once it came into its own in 1989, it quickly flourished into a global cartoon phenomenon. The fictional town Springfield and its crazy residents still entertain fans to this day, as the show is currently partway through its 27th season.
The first Canadian gatherings of WOO HOO! — the name based on Homer Simpson’s favourite exclamation — began in Toronto about five years ago, and Nikolic says when she caught wind of these events she attended one in that city and thought Ottawa would want a piece of the action.
“I really enjoy this,” Nikolic says. “My favourite sound is the moan that people make when I tell them the answer and they knew it, but they just didn’t write it down.”
She says she wants to ensure questions are challenging enough to be fun, but not so difficult that they discourage people. One of her favourite challenging questions is: “Name all four ingredients for Homer’s patented Space Age, Out-of-this-World Moon Waffles.”
Players can form teams of up to six members, and are encouraged to name their group based on references from the show. Nikolic calls out 60 questions based on the first 11 seasons of the long-running animated series, with different rounds sometimes reflecting different themes.
While this match took place on Jan. 29 at Grace O’Malley’s on Ogilvie Road, the events also regularly occur at Hooley’s and occasionally at the University of Ottawa’s Draft Pub. She advertises the meetings through her Facebook page as well as the Ottawa forum on the website Reddit. While the bars do compensate Nikolic for drawing in crowds, she says she does it for more than just the “d’oh.”
“It took me a while to get to know the people,” she says. “Once I see the same people coming back, it makes me really happy.”
Nikolic keeps games fresh by regularly instituting her attendees’ ideas, and welcomes them to make suggestions on the club’s Facebook page. Prizes like bar gift cards and The Simpsons paraphernalia are given out to trivia champs.
Raouf Chehaiber frequently attends with a friend. He says they discovered it after envying an Australian Simpsons trivia group and scoured the Internet for something similar in Ottawa, discovering Nikolic’s initiative.
“I’m really enjoying it,” Chehaiber says. “It’s a good time and helps me get away from life and life’s problems, and kind of feel nostalgic.”
Chehaiber says they were raised on the show, and the trivia nights let him rekindle those childhood memories.
“I’m glad she’s doing it,” he says. “It’s good that there’s other Simpsons fanatics out there, and ones like her who are actually willing to be proactive and come out and do trivia nights like this.”
While Ottawa’s trivia scene has been booming lately, it has not always been this way. Two decades ago, there was not much activity at all.
“In the early 2000s, Who Wants to be a Millionaire was on, and that was a huge hit,” says Paul Paquet, host of the Ottawa Trivia League. “That really made a difference because people started getting interested around then.”
For over 16 years, Paquet has hosted the city’s biggest quiz league – a pub trivia collective with around 1,200 active members playing just about any night of the week at 20 bars around town.
Paquet’s also involved with a variety of other trivia initiatives, such as question reading and judging for Ottawa’s involvement in the annual “World Trivia Night”, the world’s largest live trivia event.
Paquet says trivia is trending thanks to its great social aspect.
“It’s the chance to meet your friends, meet new people, get out and socialize.”