Stig Nygaard, 2007.The Bar:

Monkey Pub sits across the street from Dante’s, at first seeming a relatively low-key alternative to the multi-level bro orgy that serves jello shots out of syringes. However, Monkey explodes on Friday nights around 8 PM into a mob of its own: a motley crew of young and old raring for a double-header of Pub Trivia and Karaoke, both hosted by the charismatic Patrick Marr.The Quiz: (Fridays, 8PM, $3 per team member) By far the most eco-friendly quiz of any other covered by Trivia Tuesdays, Monkey forgoes the huge stack of answer sheets in favor of reusable laminate sheets called “Fuckers” (as in, “Turn those Fuckers in now.”) that all look like they’ve had quite a long run. While all laminates contain fifteen answer spaces, most rounds contain only 10-12 questions. First prize wins a $100+ pot that has only gotten bigger week after week, while second, third and last place are all rewarded with varying amounts of hard liquor.The average Monkey trivia night is split into four rounds: general knowledge (or “Shit The Internet Taught Me”), an audio round, a multiple choice round and a visual round. Question balance was a little off, with over half of the quiz being devoted to pop culture and another round entirely devoted to astronomy, but scores were high and diverse enough to show that questions were at least tailored well to their audience.Seattle has a huge number of quiz nights — but a very scant few end up on the weekend. When asked why Monkey Pub chose to use one of the most prime drinking times of the week for a pub quiz, Patrick replied earnestly: “Well, Monkey was pretty much dead on Fridays.”With a huge turnout this weekend, it’s becoming impossible to ignore the fact that trivia nights are becoming less of a throwaway novelty and more of a formidable draw, at least in the hands of trained professionals (or at the very least, people who aren’t dumb and boring).The Host: Quizmaster Patrick is acerbic and unforgiving — but that’s probably what keeps large, trivia-seasoned crowds coming back for more. Whereas most quizmasters seem to settle for a boring list of rules at the beginning of their show, then proceed to ignore the inevitable laundry list of infractions, Patrick has absolutely no qualms with snide comments and small-scale public humilitation. He can be stinging, but never unfair and always in jest. Separating him from the integrity of the quiz itself, I have to say he was the most entertaining and perceptive quizmaster Trivia Tuesday has ever covered.Special Effects: As mentioned before, Monkey does karaoke, meaning that the quiz can easily utilize the screens and PA system for both audio and visual rounds. However, as Monkey doesn’t quite have the bank roll that Jillian’s does, there were quite alot of technical difficulties with old equipment. The visual round in particular had a certain difficulty to it, due to the fact that all of Monkey’s screens have seen alot of hard times and make it hard to identify totally clear images, let alone the challengingly obscured ones that Patrick displays. As a result, I found myself looking at all four of the Monkey’s imperfect screens and trying to piece together a mental picture from there — which is kind of ingenious, once you think about it. It more than likely wasn’t intentional, but that didn’t make it any less of a neat detail.As an added “bonus”, there is a “Haiku Space” on every answer sheet. As someone who turned in a different haiku every round and tanked in the quiz pretty miserably, I’m pretty sure there aren’t any actual bonus points to be gained from it — but shouldn’t creativity be its own reward?The Verdict: If you want to start your Friday night U-District pub crawl with an engaging and funny quiz, Monkey is most certainly worth your time. You might get your ass kicked by the bar’s experienced regulars, but $3 for a combination comedy show/trivia night/good seats for karaoke immediately thereafter certainly helps make the thrashing worth it.