Is The Movie about The Philly Quizzo Scene Any Good? Yes, It’s Very Good!

Wow, I stayed at work 15 minutes later than usual last night (and I never do that) because I was watching and totally caught up in The Legend of Sofa Kingdom, a very entertaining documentary about Quizzo, the popular team quiz game played in Philly pubs and in some other lesser cities throughout the world. This film focuses on Johnny Goodtimes, the reigning ringmaster of various Quizzo nights in the city, and Sofa Kingdom, a team of slightly geeky but very likable guys who battle it out over beers on weeknights with other infomaniacs, all striving to be named the city’s best at Quizzo Bowl, the super-bowl of Quizzo!

Mr. Goodtimes is easy to root for, he’s a funny and hard-working guy who has created a nice niche for himself, plus he really seems to enjoy the service he provides for his trivia-obsessed savant community.

Before Johnny came on the scene and before we had kids, my friends and I spent many wonderful beer-soaked Thursday nights at Fergie’s Pub playing Quizzo, matching wits with the friendly locals and sadly, many highly-annoying Penn students. The originator of the game in Philly, Pat Hines, doled out questions ranging from sports to politics to geography to cheesy pop culture. Pat was a great host and ran a tight ship. He gave out some kick-ass spot prizes too. I won a collection of Shakespeare stories (still unread!) and this sweet mug I still drink mead from every night (Mead also called honey wine, is an alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water.)

Back to the film! It’s a well-paced, witty and warm film that will appeal to those who enjoy docs about nerdish hobbies/obsessions like Word Wars (Scrabble), The King of Kong (video games) and The Rock-afire Explosion (animatronic entertainment).

Most importantly, there are some killer Philly accents in the film.

Movie Info: www.quizzomovie.com

Johnny/Quizzo Info: johnnygoodtimes.com and @johnnygoodtimes