It's a place where seemingly cast-iron relationships are tested almost to shattering point, and law-abiding citizens come very close to stepping over the thin blue line.
And, most concerning, these places are becoming more prevalent in New Zealand society.
Pub quiz nights are making a comeback, thanks to the screening of the New Zealand-made television series Nothing Trivial on TV One this year.
The show is set in the highly competitive world of pub trivia and is based around a pub quiz team of five likeable but dodgy late-30-to-40-something-year-olds, called Sex on a Stick.
But with the resurgence of pub quiz nights has come an underbelly of questionable activity.
Wives pull husbands aside from confrontations outside the pub to avoid a night in the police cells, when the boys from the local rugby club decide to rub in the fact they just beat the team of university lecturers.
Those spouses who don't end up in the police cells are often relegated to the couch for the night.
That's if one spouse hasn't already criticised the intelligence of the other for not knowing which well-known movie was released as Vaselina in Venezuela.
"Well, of course, it's Grease, you idiot!" says one.
"No, I don't think so. It seems too obvious. What else could it be?" says the other.
Another bugbear of pub quizzes is cheating.
Methods of cheating are changing.
There are still the traditional waggling ears, listening for a drunk competitor who is struggling to share answers with team-mates without blurting them out for neighbouring teams to hear. Then, there is the good old "peek-over-the-shoulder" technique perfected by contestants pretending to go to the bar for another drink.
But technology is now allowing people to cheat without even leaving their seats.
These days, anyone with opposable thumbs can discretely log on to the internet through their cellphone and answer almost any question put to them.
"Cellphones" is the first suggestion the university lecturers trump up with when asked how the boys from the local footy team managed to beat them.
Do people take it far too seriously?
Vic Holloway thinks so. The 43-year-old Bog Irish Bar owner and quiz master says many people forget most quizzes are held to raise funds for community organisations or schools.
And, most importantly, they are supposed to be fun.
One of the best ways to keep everything civil is to create a bit of banter, friendly rivalry and comedy during the night, he says.
Choosing a quiz team name gets the ball rolling.
Names that have raised a giggle over the years are The Three Must Get Beers, E for Idiot, One Wheel Short of a Unicycle, The Beating Chastards and, my favourite, The Good, The Bad and We Left Murray at Home.
Vic says teams come up with great names just to get him to say them out loud - such as Ivor Weeny, Anita Mann, or Nosmo King. He seldom has trouble getting his own back. After all, he has the microphone, and he's not scared to use it.
"I like to tease the teams - like, if a group of boys gets questions about nursery rhymes right, well, that's not right is it?
"Some people do take quizzes seriously. They take their own score and they challenge me at the end of the night about the score I've recorded.
"I just ignore them. Most teams don't give me much trouble. I have the mic' and I just get into them if they do."
A decade ago, most community quizzes consisted of a boring guy up front reading out questions using a squealing microphone, while people wrote their answers on a piece of paper in a reserved fashion.
But much has changed in the presentation of quizzes in recent years.
The ready accessibility of technology such as computers, sound systems and projectors on big screens means quiz masters can change the way they ask questions.
Vic says he can include a lot more audio and visual questions, such as identifying movies, songs, people, their dogs - anything.
It's more entertaining, and Vic tries to fire the questions out quickly, so there is no time for high jinks.
"We do take notice of cheating, especially on phones, and we do mention it beforehand. It is a fun time. Most people take it as that."
Vic says staying married, and out of the police cells, is easy if participants remember five simple rules.
"My advice is: get there early; spend some money, so we can continue to run quiz nights; get a good mix of people; don't have too many in a team, because you argue too much; and don't take it too seriously.
"It's supposed to be a fun event."
Ten of the best from the Impossible Quiz. -
1. Which weighs more?
• 125 pounds of cement
• 60 kilograms of feathers
(70.3% have managed to answer this question correctly)
2. The number of sides in a hexagon, multiplied by the number of sides in a pentagon, is less than which of the following?
• The atomic number of manganese
• The number of years of marriage marked in a silver wedding anniversary
• The number of days and nights rain fell during Noah's flood
• The number that represents the first point gained in a game of tennis
(51% have managed to answer this question correctly)
3. Which word below contains all the letters of the roman numeral for 951?
• Gonorrhea
• Chlamydia
• Syphilis
• Hepatitis
(56.8% have managed to answer this question correctly)
4. ?sdrawkcab nettirw iP ni srebmun ruof tsrif eht era tahW
• 414.3
• 141.3
• 314.1
• 411.3
(65.1% have managed to answer this question correctly)
5. If you score (the number of pawns on the board at the start of a game of chess, minus the number of clubs in a standard set of playing cards) on a par-5 hole in golf, you have made a(n):
• Eagle
• Birdie
• Par
• Bogey
(35.4% have managed to answer this question correctly)
6. Which city is located in a country that does not border a country with a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea?
• Berlin
• Vienna
• Lisbon
• Warsaw
(39.5% have managed to answer this question correctly)
7. Which would buy you more cases of beer?
• 12oz of gold
• 40oz of silver
• 1oz of platinum
(38.8% have managed to answer this question correctly)
8. Someone who suffers from Apotemnophobia would head for the hills if confronted by:
• A slab of meat
• A horse
• My step-mother
• A one-legged woman
(42.1% have managed to answer this question correctly)
9. Who is not, not, not a person who has not, not set foot on the moon?
• Neil Armstrong
• Your mum
(64.5% have managed to answer this question correctly)
10. I want a glimpse of the future. I live in Los Angeles, California, United States and it's Thursday night around 5pm. Calling which city would give me the furthest glimpse into what's happening on Friday?
• Athens, Greece
• London, England
• Auckland, New Zealand
• Tokyo, Japan
(40.3% have managed to answer this question correctly)
• Answers to these questions can be found on the website: www.impossible-quiz.com
