There’s a scene in Stephen Frears’ “High Fidelity” in which audiophile and record store owner Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is asked to list his top five side-one, track-ones of all-time. After mentioning Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” employee and archetypical music snob Barry (Jack Black) blasts him for being unoriginal and deconstructs his list, asking, “Tell me, how can somebody who knows nothing about music own a record store”?
We’ve all encountered this sort of clash of tastes, whether we end up defending the Ke$has of the world for their simple catchiness or extolling the achievements of passed-over acts like Pavement or Ted Leo (even now I can see the smirks on some readers’ faces as they wonder if Pavement can really be considered “passed-over”). The lesson learned is that most taste is relative, and what’s really important is that you’re paying attention to what’s going on around you. There is no better place in town to test your knowledge of the peaks and valleys of American pop culture than Logan’s monthly pop culture trivia, hosted by UW-Madison alum and current doctoral student Nick Marx.
Marx is a a candidate for a Ph.D. in Media and Cultural Studies in the communication arts department, and he plans to become a professor upon completion of his degree. His dissertation concerns the history of television sketch comedy, spanning from vaudeville shows through “Saturday Night Live” and even more recent projects like the web-based FunnyOrDie.com.
“A lot of the stuff that’s written about comedy tends to be about sitcoms or the stuff everybody knows about and is popular,” Marx said in a recent interview with The Badger Herald. “Sketch comedy is something that nobody has really paid attention to, and it’s stuff that I really liked growing up.”
As part of his doctoral work, Marx has also published two scholarly articles on “South Park” and the show’s ability to streamline production so that the writing is highly topical, often in ways that other filmed sitcoms cannot emulate. Summarizing his field of study, Marx said, “It broadly encompasses the study of television, the Internet, film and pop culture, all of which lines up with these trivia nights.”
Marx got started on the trivia circuit as the emcee for The A.V. Club’s monthly “Jarringly Obscure Trivia Challenge.” After such an event was held at Logan’s last spring, the manager asked him to do a similar contest to help drive up weekday business, and Marx has been steadily whipping up stumpers about Paul Thomas Anderson movies and Lady Gaga’s pants policy every month.
Barflies undergo a handful rounds of pop culture minutiae to compete for free booze and gift certificates, though the real reward might just be the satisfaction of demonstrating to the entire bar that you really know your shit when it comes to Alan Thicke.
It’s not surprising that a college town such as Madison has more than its fair share of think-and-drinks at campus watering holes. Between the weekly contests held at The City, Amy’s, Lucky’s and Quaker Steak & Lube (just to name the downtown spots), there’s enough quizzing to fill up an entire school week. But we in the Arts section are particularly fond of Marx’s monthly pop culture at Logan’s, as it rewards those of us who spend their time re-watching season one of Arrested Development or debating the relative merits and failures of Pinkerton (who needs questions about arcane topics like “science” or “current events”?).
That said, Marx does well to keep his trivia nights from becoming two hours of “may the most pretentious low-culture snob win.” Topics are broad and accessible, so check your disdain at the door (though an encyclopedic knowledge of “Star Trek” or the history of Death Row Records probably won’t hurt you).
“I try to think about what I presume most young people want to talk about when they’re out and about with their friends,” Marx said. “Admittedly, I keep up with crap like ‘Dancing With the Stars.'”
Furthermore, contestants won’t get stranded for entire rounds for lack of knowledge on a hyper-specific subject. “I try to find a common thread that most people will be familiar with,” Marx said. “Leslie Nielsen just died, so I might go back and start thinking about parody movies. And that might set my mind down this weird path where I’m thinking about parody songs and Weird Al Yankovic.”
There’s even room for pop culture teetotalers or smaller teams, as they can be awarded points and free beer for creative (read: “cleverly dirty”) team names.
“I have a particular fondness for good, clever uses of the ‘C’ word,” Marx said, referring to both the male and female reproductive organs. “If you can use that in a good, punny way, you’ve instantly endeared yourself to me. And it’s not enough to just use profanity for profanity’s sake.”
In the end, the monthly events are a casual way for Marx and trivia-goers to pay off all those hours watching “Seinfeld” reruns or flipping through old Now! That’s What I Call Music! albums. It’s a laid-back, snob-free atmosphere free of too much excitement.
“I’d like to say some girl has asked me to sign her boob afterwards,” says Marx, “but that hasn’t happened yet.”
The next Pop Culture Trivia Night is tomorrow, Dec. 2, at Logan’s Madtown, from 7 to 9 p.m.
