A lot of hay is made over karaoke nights, ladies' nights, specialty dance nights and video-game nights at bars. But very little is ever said of the humble pub quiz - a time-honored tradition in the UK that's slowly been making its way across the pond for some time now.

The basic idea is simple: drinkers get nice and soused and group up into teams. From there, they are given paper and pencil, and answer questions posed to them by a quizmaster (of sorts). These questions typically range from the general to the delightfully, frustratingly obscure, and everything in between. Excited whispers can be heard from table to table, as players defensively block their papers with their arms to protect from the wandering eyes of opponents. It's all good clean fun, and with a winner's pot at stake, it can be somewhat lucrative.

Taking the first major step in spreading the gospel of the pub quiz is a syndicated game called Geeks Who Drink. All over the country, pub quizzes can utilize the daily gauntlet of questions that Geeks Who Drink provides. But these are no ordinary topics. Geeks Who Drink has a particular focus on firmly buried nuggets of trivia that lay dormant in your mind, until the right combination of booze and competitive spirit team up to bust them loose. Categories can range from misheard lyrics in pop songs to the ins and outs of the early '90s video game cult favorite, Battletoads.

These are questions designed to worm their way into your brains - to make you feel an acute sense of loss when you miss one that you knew you knew - you know? These are questions that make you attempt to shush a whole bar, while muttering, "Wait, wait, wait, wait ..." and holding up your hands. These questions can inspire a true sense of victory.

In addition to questions that are asked by your quizmaster, there are audio questions and visual questions, which help shake up the game. After eight rounds of questions, one team is crowned victor, and the rest live to anticipate the following week, when they can attempt to reclaim their honor. Quizzes can get awfully competitive - er, in a fun way, of course - and it's not uncommon to see teams repeatedly show up to try and defeat a rival team.

Geeks Who Drink has several games going in Washington, including two in Tacoma at Paddy Coyne's (Tuesday) and The Ram (Thursday). If you pride yourself on your normally-kind-of-embarrassing wealth of esoteric knowledge, this is the place to open up that vault and let your inner geek out.

[Paddy Coyne's Irish Pub, Geeks Who Drink with Quizmaster Holland Hume, Tuesdays, 8 p.m., no entry fee, 815 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.6963]

[The Ram Restaurant and Brewery, Geeks Who Drink, Thursdays, 8:30 p.m., 2001 Ruston Way, Tacoma]

LINK: Trivia and game nights in the South Sound