Funn

Funn is the property exhibited by things in quizbowl that meet all of the following three conditions:

• they violate "good quizbowl" and/or standard quizbowl practices
• someone obviously thought that their violation of good and/or standard practices was more than made up for by how fun they are
• they are not actually fun

Examples

Things that are funn include:

• "Shootouts," lightning rounds, and other departures from Tossup/Bonus format at the collegiate level
• Most Reach for the Top categories, especially "chain snappers", wherein each question is related to the answer of the previous question (most readers are only able to say 3–4 words before the next question is answered)
• Self-referential questions
  • Bonuses whose answers spell out a sentence when arranged in order
  • Questions (or notes appended to questions) relating the answer to the location in which the tournament is taking place
  • Constrained writing: Questions on haiku written in the form of a haiku, questions on limericks written in the form of a limerick, questions on Memento written backwards, etc.
  • Meta questions about quizbowl itself, such as its rules, players, tournaments, etc.
• Single-elimination playoffs [note that some generally well-received tournaments such as ACRONYM and various online events in the 2020-2021 year used single-elimination playoffs; however, the reason for this was to meet practical necessities given the field size and the available time for the tournament, not a belief that such playoffs are more fun, therefore these were not instances of funn]
• Tossups on two different things with the same name in the same tournament (e.g., the Hitchcock film Spellbound and the documentary Spellbound)
• Chanting things in unison
• Throwing food products
• 40-point bonus clues
• Every single thing that goes on at VETO

Tournaments run by Charlie Steinhice are often accused of being funn.

See also

• Weiner's Law #1