The Style Invitational, or Invite, is a long-running humor contest that ran first in the Style section of the Sunday Washington Post before moving to Saturday's Style and later returning to the Sunday paper. Started in 1993, it has run weekly, except for a hiatus in late 1999. Its last publication date was December 11, 2022. In that time, it has had two head judges who select winning entries: "The Czar" and "The Empress." The Czar, who was anonymous, abdicated in late 2003, leaving the contest in the hands of his former associate, The Empress, copy editor Patricia (Pat) Myers. The humor ranges from an intellectual vein to a less mature style, and frequently touches on sophisticated political or historical allusions. While the contest theme changes every week, some popular contests are periodically repeated. The S.I. has a loyal following of self-proclaimed "Losers," who refer to having a contest entry published as "getting ink".
The Style Invitational kicked off in March 1993 by asking readers to come up with a less offensive name for the Washington Redskins. The winner, published two weeks later, was Douglas R. Miller, with the entry "The Baltimore Redskins. No, don't move the team, just let Baltimore deal with it." He won a Timex watch like the one President Bill Clinton wore at the time, and apparently never entered again, as he wanted to retire undefeated.
The second week's contest was to replace the state of Maryland's slogan "Manly deeds, Womanly words" and yielded up such responses as "Maryland - Home to its residents" and winner "Maryland - Wait! We can explain!" by Oslo. He won an as yet unpurchased large kitschy crab sculpture/decoration, but traded it for a Timex watch like the one President Bill Clinton wore at the time. Another early contest asked entrants to help choose a better nickname for Washington, D.C., to replace "A Capital City". Exemplifying the S.I.'s irreverence, the winning entry was "A Work-Free Drug Place."
Each column was titled with its week number, beginning with Arabic numerals. In 2000 the numbering restarted at I using Roman numerals. In March 2003, for the 10th anniversary, the column continued numbering at 496, once again using Arabic numerals.
The contest had a several-month hiatus beginning in August 1999, and restarted in January 2000. It usually received entries from hundreds of persons each week and, because up to 25 entries are allowed for each individual, has received upwards of 20,000 entries in a single week.
A group of devotees (see links) of the S.I. meets periodically in the Washington, D.C., area, and hosts an annual "Flushies" awards dinner that has attracted gameplayers from as far away as Ireland and California. The contest also gets entries from England, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand. Further indicative of interest in the S.I. was a (now-defunct) Rotisserie League, in which players championed and won points for the successes of their favorite entrants. There has also been a contest newsletter, "Depravda", begun by Elden Carnahan of Laurel, Md., and subsequently foisted off on another unsuspecting Loser. Once a proud monthly periodical, "Depravda" now appears only when editorial inertia can be overcome.
In August 2007, the contest was moved to the Style section of Saturday's Post when Sunday Style was shortened and combined with Arts. In early 2011, the Invitational returned to the Post's Sunday Style.
On December 1, 2022, the Post announced that the last day the column would run would be December 11. Any contests in progress that would have had winners published after that date will not appear. Although the Post received numerous letters to the editors complaining about the change, the final column did run on December 11 and was a celebration of past entries.
Several days later, it was announced[1] on the S.I.'s Facebook Page,[2] and Gene Weingarten's Twitter feed,[3][4] that the S.I. would take up a new home on Substack, be renamed "The Invitational",[5] and that the Czar and Empress would co-moderate it. As of 2023, it is free to read, but users must subscribe at a rate of $50 per year to contribute. This subscription also allows the user to contribute to Gene's semi-weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays) online chat, on his Substack page "The Gene Pool".[6]
Numerous humorous lists passed around the Internet, usually misattributed, had their actual origin in the Style Invitational.
Notable entrants
The most notable name in S.I. annals is Chuck Smith, of Woodbridge, Virginia, who first won in the contest's sixth week. His frequent successes inspired a contest solely to decide what to do about him. He won that contest, too.[7]
Brendan Beary, of Great Mills, Md., was the 2005 chart topper, with 179 "inks". In 2006, he won a limerick contest between himself and Chris Doyle (see below).[8]
Russell Beland, formerly of Springfield, Virginia now of Fairfax, Virginia, was the first Loser to reach 1,500 inks, a record he set in June 2011. He passed 1,000 in 2006, and earned the opportunity to judge a week of the contest.[9] He has temporarily retired from the Invitational on several occasions, one of which prompted a contest to suggest an Invitational prize sufficient to lure him back. (One entry: "A night on the town with Mrs. Beland.")
Elden Carnahan, of Laurel, Maryland (aka Grace Fuller) tabulates running statistics on the contest that are available on the "Losers"' unofficial web site.
Chris Doyle, currently entering from Denton, Texas and earlier from various Internet cafes during dozens of overseas trips, is known for his prodigious wordplay, poetry and anagrams, and was a perennial winner in a similar past contest in New York magazine, from which the S.I. may have drawn its inspiration. He is the current all-time Invitational leader, the first entrant to amass over 2,000 inks, and is also the third-most prolific contributor to the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form (OEDILF). Many Style Invitational Losers have become OEDILF contributors (and vice versa) after the Invitational's Week 572 Contest.[10]
Kevin Dopart, of Washington D.C., has been a frequent contributor to the contest. He became the fastest entrant ever and 4th overall to attain 1,000 inks, reaching that number in January 2014. He was the top-inking Loser in each year from 2006 through 2012.
Jennifer Hart, of Arlington, Va., has been a frequent winner and eclipsed Chuck Smith as all-time points leader during the years in which she actively participated.
Niels Hoven, originally from Silver Spring, appeared on the third season of Beauty and the Geek.
Frank Mann, of Washington, D.C., is the brother of singer Aimee Mann.[11]
Joe Romm, of Washington D.C., was a frequent contributor from the contest's second year until a gradual decline in his participation from around 2006. His entries appeared 343 times, including 16 winning entries,[12] and he was the first "Rookie of the Year".[13] Among his submissions was the winning entry of what was later declared to be the best overall week's results of the Style Invitational's first decade. (A discarded first draft of some famous line: "We hold these truths to be, like, du-uuh.")[14]
Ervin Stembol, of Alexandria, Va., has been an occasional winner in this and other humor contests. His unmasking as a nom de plume prompted the current contest rule barring pseudonymous entries.
Bob Staake (pronounced "Stack") illustrates the contest and occasionally suggests contest ideas.
Tom Witte, of Montgomery Village, Md., is a frequent winner and contest-namer. In 2009 he became the third person to amass 1,000 appearances.[15]
Czar/Empress
"The Czar of the Style Invitational" was, until December 2003, the pseudonymous man behind the contest. He chose all the winners - calling the contest the "last pure meritocracy on Earth" - and controlled all aspects of the contest.
Very little was known about the Czar for some time, except that he worked for The Washington Post coming up with the contest ideas and choosing the winners for every week's contest. Post writer and humorist Gene Weingarten was believed to be the Czar despite public denials. However, in 1999, and again in 2001, he admitted in his column that he edited the feature.[16][17]
The Czar retired in late 2003, giving all the power to "The Empress of the Style Invitational", who has suggested she has a lower tolerance for immature or bathroom humor than the Czar.[18]
In early 2011, with the Invitational's move to Sunday's Style section, the Empress was outed by the Post as former copy editor Pat Myers, whose real name appears in the byline. On washingtonpost.com and in the contest's discussion group, the Style Conversational, she still goes by "The Empress."
Format
Each week's contest begins with a few examples of answers to the contest, which is confusing since they appear before the contest theme for the week is presented. There is often a picture or pictorial example. Sometimes the contest relates to a picture, such as one where entrants suggest what a given cartoon picture or group of pictures might represent. Beneath this is a paragraph beginning with the phrase "This week's contest," followed by a description of the contest. There is then fine print describing the prizes, how to enter, and how to determine if you are eligible for the prizes.
Following is the "Report from Week X," where X = [this week's contest number] - 4, the result of the four weeks between when a contest is first shown and the winners are announced. These results begin with commentary by The Empress on the results, entries that were too common to publish, funny but un-printable entries, and anything else of note. There follows the first- to fourth-place entries in that order, after which is listed a (usually) generous number of Honorable Mentions, and the week's report ends with a reminder of which contest results will appear the next week. On occasion, the Post website includes "overflow" Honorable Mentions absent from the print editions; this is typically limited to contest results in which each entry is necessarily lengthy (e.g., song parody lyrics) and the print column capable of running only a small number of entries.
Winning isn't everything
Aside from the typical Winner, Runners-Up, and Honorable Mentions, there have been many other means to get one's name in print over the years. Ongoing methods include donating the weird prizes, suggesting the contest for the week, supplying a revised title for Honorable Mention entries for a given week's results, and writing the revised contest title that runs when the contest results are printed. There is an occasional "Anti-Invitational" entry printed (being an entry that is directly opposite what was asked for in the contest). Defunct past themes included writing the "Ear No One Reads", being "Uncle's Pick" (a reference to a humorless figure nominated to replace the Czar years ago), being the Rookie of the Week, and penning the Contest's short-lived "Dead Presidents" comic strip.
Individuals are often singled out for abuse by Czar or Empress. Verbal abuse is frequently heaped upon writers of remarkably obscene or distasteful entries, and individuals who whine about the judging (see Russell Beland) or overtly lobby for their own entries. The Empress is constantly on the look out for flagrant plagiarism (defined as "being in touch with one's inner Google"), the penalty for which is severe admonition and retribution.
Prizes
Prizes have changed under the current administration, as tabulated below. In March 2012, a reusable grocery bag was introduced as a new runner-up prize; just weeks later, the Empress switched to a new first-place statue, the "Inkin' Memorial" (an Abraham Lincolnbobblehead) from the original "Inker" (a bookend of The Thinker with a paper bag over its head) after the bookends went out of manufacture. In 2017, a new trophy, the "Lose Cannon", replaced the "Inkin' Memorial", when it too became unavailable.
Under the Czar (old)
Under the Empress (new)
Under the Empress (starting in April 2012)
Winner
A strange, weird thing that few people would want. Changes every week
A trophy known as the "Inker"
A trophy known as the "Inkin' Memorial". Replaced in 2017 by a new trophy known as the "Lose Cannon". This was replaced in December 2020 by the "Clowning Achievement", a clown head.[19]
First Runner-Up
A Style Invitational Pen
A strange, weird thing that few people would want. Changes every week
A strange, weird thing that few people would want. Changes every week
Other Runners-Up
A Style Invitational Shirt
Choice of a Style Invitational Shirt or Coffee Mug
Choice of a Style Invitational Coffee Mug or Grocery Bag (T-shirts were phased out) [20][21]
David McAlister Barry is an American author and columnist who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comic novels and children's novels. Barry's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1988) and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (2005).
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC) is a tongue-in-cheek contest, held annually and sponsored by the English Department of San José State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" – that is, one which is deliberately bad.
Gene Norman Weingarten is an American journalist, and former syndicated humor columnist for The Washington Post. He is the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Weingarten is known for both his serious and humorous work. Through September 2021, Weingarten's column, "Below the Beltway," was published weekly in The Washington Post magazine and syndicated nationally by The Washington Post Writers Group. Weingarten also writes Barney & Clyde, a comic strip with illustrations by David Clark.
In the United States, a sweepstake is a type of contest where a prize or prizes may be awarded to a winner or winners. Sweepstakes began as a form of lottery that were tied to products sold. In response, the FCC and FTC refined U.S. broadcasting laws. Under these laws sweepstakes became strictly "No purchase necessary to enter or win" and "A purchase will not increase your chances of winning", especially since many sweepstakes companies skirted the law by stating only "no purchase necessary to enter", removing the consideration to stop abuse of sweepstakes. Today, sweepstakes in the United States are used as marketing promotions to reward existing consumers and to draw attention to a product. By definition, the winner is determined by pure random chance rather than skill.
Cool "Disco" Dan was the pseudonym of American graffiti artist Dan Hogg. His standard mark, a particularly styled rendering of his name, was ubiquitous in the Washington metropolitan area, notably along the route of the Washington Metro Red Line.
Richard Church Thompson was an American illustrator and cartoonist best known for his syndicated comic strip Cul de Sac and the illustrated poem "Make the Pie Higher". He was given the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year for 2010.
Bob StaakeSTAK is an American illustrator, cartoonist, children's book author and designer. He lives and works in Chatham, Massachusetts on the elbow of Cape Cod.
Joel LeRoy Achenbach is an American staff writer for The Washington Post and the author of seven books, including A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea, The Grand Idea, Captured by Aliens, It Looks Like a President only Smaller, and three compilations of his former syndicated newspaper column "Why Things Are". He is a contributor to many publications, including Slate and National Geographic, where he is a former monthly columnist. Achenbach has been a commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and does occasional lectures and other speaking engagements. In addition to his work in the print version of The Washington Post, Achenbach was one of the first Post writers to have a significant presence on the Internet and formerly wrote the popular Post blog, "The Achenblog," which ended in March 2017.
Jay Patrick Lynch was an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his Bijou Funnies and other titles. He is best known for his comic strip Nard n' Pat and the running gag Um tut sut. His work is sometimes signed Jayzey Lynch. Lynch was the main writer for Bazooka Joe comics from 1967 to 1990; he contributed to Mad, and in the 2000s expanded into the children's book field.
Christopher Michael Cillizza is an American political commentator, who worked for the television news channel CNN from 2017 to 2022. Prior to joining CNN, he wrote for The Fix, the daily political blog of The Washington Post, and was a regular contributor to the Post on political issues, a frequent panelist on Meet the Press, and an MSNBC political analyst. Cillizza is also a co-host of The Tony Kornheiser Show sports podcast. In April 2017, Cillizza began working for CNN, including writing and onscreen appearances. He was terminated by CNN in December 2022. Currently, he maintains a political blog on Substack.
Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American editorial cartoonist whose cartoons typically present liberal viewpoints. He currently draws cartoons for the Tribune Content Agency. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post and USA Today. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor. In addition, he is co-founder of Counterpoint Media.
Eric Shansby commonly known as Shansby, is an American cartoonist and children's book illustrator. His cartoons appear in American news outlets, most prominently in The Washington Post alongside columns by humorist Gene Weingarten.
The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) was a contest sponsored by Amazon.com, Penguin Group, Hewlett Packard, CreateSpace and BookSurge to publish and promote a manuscript by an unknown or unpublished author. The first award was given in 2008 and in 2015 Amazon announced that they would not be continuing the award and would instead focus on the Kindle Scout program.
The Post Hunt was an annual puzzlehunt in Washington, DC. It was co-created by Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry, along with Gene Weingarten and Tom Shroder. The Post Hunt debuted in 2008. The most recent hunt took place on May 22, 2016. The hunt was discontinued in 2017. It was a renamed version of the Tropic Hunt, also created by Barry, Weingarten and Shroder, which had a long run in Miami, FL.
What has become known as the first Miss America pageant was, at its start in 1921, an activity designed to attract tourists to extend their Labor Day holiday weekend and enjoy festivities in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Atlantic City's Inter-City Beauty Contest, as it was initially called, attracted over 1,500 photographic entries from around the country, all vying to win the "Golden Mermaid" award and cash prizes. With only 10 contestants, this would be the lowest number of contestants in the pageants history.
Young Abe Lincoln, is a 1962 public artwork by American artist David K. Rubins, located outside of the government center near the Indiana State House, in Indianapolis, Indiana, US. This bronze sculpture is a depiction of a young Abraham Lincoln, an Abraham Lincoln that spent the majority of his formative years in Indiana.
Ty-D-Bol is an American brand of toilet cleaner that was introduced in 1958. In its original format, the product is a blue cleanser/disinfectant liquid released into the toilet tank from an automatic dispenser.
Hoxwinder Hall is an American comic strip by Daniel Boris, who started the strip while in art school in the 1980s at Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
Matthew Robert Patrick, better known as MatPat, is an American semi-retired YouTuber and internet personality. He is the creator and former host of the YouTube series Game Theory, and its spin-off series Film Theory, Food Theory, and Style Theory, each analyzing various video games, films alongside TV series and web series, food, and fashion respectively. Each of the different series are posted on individual channels, each named after the respective series. In addition to the creation of his channels, Patrick narrates the majority of the videos that are presented on his channels.
Helen Hadsella.k.a.Helene Hadsell was an American widely known as the "contest queen". She entered and won many contests for items and for all-expense paid trips. She also won a house which was showcased at the 1964–65 New York World's Fair. Later she lectured and held workshops on positive thinking. A "Doctor of Metaphysics", she was the author of the popular book The Name It and Claim It Game: with WINeuvers for WISHcraft.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
