History Main / ThePointsMeanNothing

--->'''RuPaul:''' And the winner is... who cares!

* Speaking of ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', in the Halloween cartoon ''Recap/HomestarRunnerPumpkinCarvenival'', award ribbons with meaningless accolades were handed out by [[TheDitz Homestar]] to the various pumpkin carvers. These include "2nd Place", "Worst Place", "Good Prize", "Not Last Place", and "Most Improved". Homestar also ranked two or three different pumpkins as "Last Place". [[spoiler: Considering the contest was actually an elaborate prank by Strong Bad (disguised as Homestar), this is more or less [[JustifiedTrope justified]]]].

--> '''Angus Deayton''': Good evening and welcome to the programme attacked this week by one viewer who wrote to complain about the random way the points are allocated, on the grounds that "the level of money wagered on the outcome of this show increases week on week," so our apologies to Mr. Joseph Wall of Newark, and one point to Ian.

* ''The 99p Challenge'', a ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''/''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'' type programme in which Sue Perkins hands out random amounts of small change at the end of each round. The winning panelist gets a chance to risk their winnings to win the 99p jackpot, with some episodes featuring the winner having to risk their winnings of over £1 to play for the jackpot. The [[StationIdent continuity announcers]] sometimes joked about a [[PhoneInGameShows phone-in contest]] for viewers to win 99p of their own (calls cost £1.50 a minute).

* ''The 99p Radio Show'', a ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''/''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'' type programme in which Sue Perkins hands out random amounts of small change at the end of each round.

* You might expect ''Radio/WaitWaitDontTellMe'' to be like this, but it actually keeps a fairly rigid scoring system. Subverted in that the prize is essentially bragging rights for the panelist. What does matter is how callers do -- they get announcer Carl Kassell to record a message on their answering machine.

* The Creator/PGWodehouse short story "[[Literature/JeevesAndWooster The Ordeal of Young Tuppy]]" centers around a rugby grudge match between small villages, where the players are more interested in inflicting [[RugbyIsSlaughter violence and injuries]] then officially scoring points.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', the House Points and the House Cup are fairly arbitrary to begin with since professors can award or deduct any number of points for any reason at any time, including giving points to the House they are in charge of or repeatedly taking points from a rival house. Despite this, they're treated as a massive deal in the first book, but by the [[Literature/PrisonerOfAzkaban third book]], the results of the House Cup aren't even mentioned.

* Website/{{Reddit}}: That Karma is essentially meaningless is [[TakeThatUs a perennial joke]] on the site.

* In the opening episode of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', [[CoolOldGuy Gustav]] and [[TheWatson Carol]] are [[AsYouKnow discussing the immortals]]. Gustav awards Carol arbitrary points for her observations. These points have no meaning in the rest of the story. They're just a RunningGag.
* ''LightNovel/ChromeShelledRegios'' has the Queen grabbing the boobs of females around her, giving them a random score. For Leerin, she gives 10,000,000 points and for her personal servant, 20. Ouch.

** In Series 28: Episode 8 Rod Gilbert decided to deduct points from Noel's team because Music/PalomaFaith stuck a ball in a sponge-cake. At the end of the show he didn't even read out the scores telling us who won because he was so distracted by his dog.

* Speaking of WebAnimation/HomestarRunner, in the Halloween cartoon "Pumpkin Carve-nival", award ribbons with meaningless accolades were handed out by [[TheDitz Homestar]] to the various pumpkin carvers. These include "2nd Place", "Worst Place", "Good Prize", "Not Last Place", and "Most Improved". Homestar also ranked two or three different pumpkins as "Last Place". [[spoiler: Considering the contest was actually an elaborate prank by Strong Bad (disguised as Homestar), this is more or less [[JustifiedTrope justified]]]].

* Speaking of WebAnimation/HomestarRunner, in the Halloween cartoon "Pumpkin Carve-nival", award ribbons with meaningless accolades were handed out by [[TheDitz Homestar]] to the various pumpkin carvers. These include "2nd Place", "Worst Place", "Good Prize", "Not Last Place", and "Most Improved". Homestar also ranked two or three different pumpkins as "Last Place". [[spoiler: Considering the contest was actually an elaborate prank by Strong Bad (disguised as Homestar), this is more or less [[JustifiedTrope justified]].]]

* Speaking of WebAnimation/HomestarRunner, in the Halloween cartoon "Pumpkin Carve-nival", award ribbons with meaningless accolades were handed out by [[TheDitz Homestar]] to the various pumpkin carvers. These include "2nd Place", "Worst Place", "Good Prize", "Not Last Place", and "Most Improved". Homestar also ranked two or three different pumpkins as "Last Place".

** Someone did in fact [[http://www.reddit.com/r/whoselineisitanyway/comments/x3oqn/the_points_that_dont_matter_for_each_cast_member/ add up all the points each cast member accumulated,]] not that this led to any number you could make sense of. Drew occasionally joked about people like this keeping score at home; once he declared, "If you're keeping score at home, medical help is on the way," another time he told viewers to buy "the official ''Whose Line Is It, Anyway?'' scorebook... ya big dope," and another time he gave a score "recap" that went thus:

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', the House Points and the House Cup are fairly arbitrary to begin with since professors can award or deduct any number points of points for any reason at any time, including giving points to the House they are in charge of or repeatedly taking points from a rival house. Despite this, they're treated as a massive deal in the first book, but by the [[Literature/PrisonerOfAzkaban third book]], the results of the House Cup aren't even mentioned.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', the House Points and the House Cup are fairly arbitrary to begin with since professors can award or deduct points any number of points for any reason, including giving points to the House they are in charge of. Despite this, they're treated as a massive deal in the first book, but by the [[Literature/PrisonerOfAzkaban third book]], the results of the House Cup aren't even mentioned.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', the House Points and the House Cup at the end of the year mean less and less with each book, with it not even being mentioned which house won it from ''Literature/PrisonerOfAzkaban'' onwards.

** Someone did in fact [[http://www.reddit.com/r/whoselineisitanyway/comments/x3oqn/the_points_that_dont_matter_for_each_cast_member/ add up all the points each cast member accumulated]], not that this led to any number you could make sense of. Drew occasionally joked about people like this keeping score at home; once he declared, "If you're keeping score at home, medical help is on the way," another time he told viewers to buy "the official ''Whose Line Is It, Anyway?'' scorebook... ya big dope," and another time he gave a score "recap" that went thus:

** In addition, Dara never explains how many points are awarded, instead just says 'the points' or 'the winners of this round are...'

* The Creator/PGWodehouse short story "[[Literature/JeevesAndWooster The Ordeal of Young Tuppy]]" centers around a rugby GrudgeMatch between small villages, where the players are more interested in inflicting [[RugbyIsSlaughter violence and injuries]] then officially scoring points.

** In a series K episode they admitted that the answers to a lot of previous questions had since been proven incorrect and so back paid points depending on the number of shows the guests had been on. Naturally, Alan was owed a lot, and finished the episode with over 600 points.

* Mocked by ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'', where the scorekeeper, the lovely and [[ReallyGetsAround possibly sex-mad]] Samantha, is [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar introduced]] at the beginning of each episode with more fanfare than the contestants -- and then the score is never mentioned again. This is perhaps not a surprise, given that Samantha [[TheVoiceless doesn't exist]]. Tis a shame.

** Drew once declared Colin as having one the 1 millionth point ever awarded on the show. They celebrated with balloons falling from the ceiling.

* Not from a game, but for a service related to them: Origin (aka "Not-Steam") hands out points for earning achievements in games. You can't do anything with these points; they just exist.
** Similarly, achievements on the Xbox consoles are worth points that don't do anything, as are trophies that are on Playstation systems. Like ''Pacman'' above, they also have hardcore fans who see it as a sign of dedication and skill (or more cynically, how much money people are willing to spend on games that give easy achievements).

[[folder:Live Action TV]]