The Style Invitational

The Style Invitational, or S.I., is a long-running weekly humor contest in the Sunday Washington Post Style section. Started in 1993, it had run nearly 600 times as of January 2005. It was initiated by a mysterious individual known as "The Czar", who abdicated in late 2003. The contest is currently run by the The Empress. The humor ranges from a less mature style to a more intellectual vein, and frequently touches on sophisticated political, scientific, or historical allusions. While the contest theme changes every week, some popular ones are periodically repeated. It has a loyal following of self-proclaimed "Losers", who refer to having an entry published in the contest as "getting ink". Columnist and former Style section editor Gene Weingarten has been rumored to have some connection with the contest.

History

The Style Invitational kicked off in March 1993, first 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, and apparently never entered again, as he wanted to retire undefeated.

The contest took a several-month sabbatical beginning in August 1999, starting again in January of 2000 using annoying roman numerals to number the contest weeks. It usually receives entries from hundreds of persons each week and, since multiple entries are allowed for each individual, has received upwards of 20,000 entries in a single week.

Notable entrants

The most notable name in S.I. annals is Chuck Smith, of Woodbridge,Va., 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.

Russell Beland, of Springfield, Va. holds the record for most entries printed, with over 800 as of early 2005. He is known for his obsession with the contest, and has often drawn criticism for this and other quirks from the Czar or Empress.

Elden Carnahan, of Laurel, Md. (aka Grace Fuller) tabulates running statistics on the contest, available on the "Losers"' unofficial web site.

Chris Doyle, currently entering either from Forsyth, Mo. or various Internet cafes during an around-the-world trip, is known for his prodigious word-play, 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 also presently the 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.

Sarah Worcester Gaymon, of Gambrills, Md. is a former Jeopardy champion who was once labelled a "humongous genius" by the The Czar, to get her to stop sending postcards detailing the escapades of the missing Week 57.

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.

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. Losers suspect that in instances of maintaining national security this principle may not be rigidly adhered to by contest authorities.

Bob Staake (pronounced "Stack") illustrates the contest and occasionally suggests contest ideas.

Tom Witte, of Montgomery Village, Md, a frequent winner and contest-namer, is notoriously reclusive. It was once announced that he would be attending a gathering of Losers, who offered $10 to anyone who could get him to say how many children he had. He failed to show up.

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 something is a picture of. 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 4 weeks between when a contest is first shown and the winners are announced. These results begin with commentary by the 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 runners-up, from last to first, followed by the winner. After each entry is the name of the winner. A generous list of Honorable Mentions follows, and the week's report ends with a reminder of which contest results will appear the next week.

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, and writing the revised contest title that runs when the contest results are printed. Defunct past themes included writing the "Ear Nobody 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. There is always opportunity to be singled out for abuse by the Czar or Empress in the paragraph introducing the winning entries. 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.

Prizes

Prizes have changed under the current administration, as tabulated:

                     Under the Czar (old)                   Under the Empress (current) 

Winner:              A strange, weird thing that            A trophy known as "The Inker"
                     few people would want. Changes
                     every week. 

First Runner-Up:     A Style Invitational Pen               A strange, weird thing that
                                                            few people would want. Changes every week.
    
Other Runners-Up:    A Style Invitational Shirt             A Style Invitational Shirt 

Honorable Mentions:  A Style Invitational Bumper Sticker    A Style Invitational Refrigerator Magnet

Links

Gopherdrool.com, the semi-official website of the Style Invitational Losers This website has everything you could possibly need about the contest. It's got a glossary of insider lingo, every winner ever, total Inks for all entrants in the current year, an archive of The Weak Week (Russ Beland's now-defunct SI newsletter), information on upcoming Loser events, and all sorts of other cool stuff.

The Style Invitational Page of the Washington Post, with an archive of 100 weeks of the contest.

Dave Barry's website. Losers' humor at its best is reminiscent of Barry (whose early humor writing benefitted from the aid of editor Gene Weingarten) at his worst.

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