Trivia are unimportant (or "trivial") items, especially of information. In the late twentieth century the expression came to apply more exclusively to information of the kind useful almost exclusively for answering quiz questions.

Quiz shows

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Before the trivia subculture became widespread, via radio and TV quiz shows and books, the term commonly referred to bits of information to which most adults in the culture had at one time been exposed, via standard education or via popular culture. In time the term came also to comprise more obscure and arcane bits of knowledge. In 1974, a former Sacramento air traffic controller named Fred L. Worth published The Trivia Encyclopedia, which he followed in 1977 with The Complete Unabridged Super Trivia Encyclopedia, and in 1981 with Super Trivia, vol. II. The popularity of these books laid the groundwork for the first edition of Trivial Pursuit in the early 1980s.

The enormous success of this game led, in the United States, to the re-launch of Jeopardy!, reviving a quiz show genre that had been dormant since the scandal of the 1950s. ABC had a surprise hit with Who Wants to be a Millionaire, an import of a successful British quiz format which launched another wave of interest in trivia. In the UK, the quiz format has enjoyed continuous success since the 1950s, untouched by the scandals that dogged the American format.

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