History Main / ThePointsMeanNothing

** Gets heavily lampshaded in series I episode "International" when they discuss points with Stephen basically pointing out nobody really knows how the system works other than the guys they pay to do it. Note that this is the very start of the show and when asked to recap the scores (before any questions), BillBailey (who first pointed this out) is winning by a whole 3 points... cue more mocking.

** In yet another episode, Drew simply brought in a ''tape recorder'' of himself saying "One thousand points!" Wayne stole it during a commercial break and overwrote the tape with himself chanting "My ass... my ass... my ass..."

** It's worth pointing out that early videos had a stricter point system with films normally coming in under 70 sin points; mainly for for plot inconsistencies, bad editing, etc. As the show has evolved the point system (and the iconic *din*) has become more of a joke in true keeping with this trope.

* ''Radio/TheNewsQuiz'' works similarly to HIGNFY, its SoundToScreenAdaptation. Former host Simon Hoggart used to regularly offer "two points to ''somebody''" or "two points to Jeremy for getting the right answer, and a bonus point to Alan for telling us what it was", and often ended with "And thanks to my unique scoring system, the winner is..." Before him was Barry Took, who gave points to Richard Ingrams if it looked like he might have once known the answer, or at least once known ''an'' answer. The last chair, Sandi Toksvig, deducted points for height jokes (although [[HypocriticalHumour she herself would make them about Andy Hamilton]]). (Like ''HIGNFY'' and ''QI'' above, not all the awarded points make it into the on-air version anyway, making the final score seem a bit arbitary to the listener.)

* Mike Tyson's Punch-Out awarded points for punches landed and knockdowns, the final tally determining whether or not the player would win a decision. However, since fights ''very'' rarely went the distance, this was largely meaningless (pretty much just a way to make the Tyson fight a little less painful). Since time of the match didn't figure into the score, it was useless even as bragging rights.

* Mike Tyson's Punch-Out awarded points for punches landed and knockdowns, the final tally determined whether or not the player would win a decision. However, since fights ''very'' rarely went the distance, this was largely meaningless (pretty much just a way to make the Tyson fight a little less painful). Since time of the match didn't figure into the score, it was useless even as bragging rights.

** To elaborate: For the first one, you have a limited number of scenes to kill the girls, and killing one will draw either a big or small laugh from Strong Bad. You're judged based on how many big laughs you get, with a small laugh being worth half as much as a big one, and of course a perfect score requires four big laughs. The second one is the same except that there are a total of five possible big laughs (one after you've killed all the girls) and a small laugh is only worth a third as much. Results for the first one are -10, 0 (.5 BL), 12, 38, 211, and 5,000; for the second they're are -20, 0, 18, 41, 358, and 6,000.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'', the points really don't matter and [[spoiler: when you everse to higher levels, the score counter goes mad…]]

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', the concept of power levels and how they relate to practical combat performance is nebulous from the start. The numbers are subject to ever-more-RidiculousFutureInflation as the series continues, until the concept is largely dropped from the show after the Freeza arc. For the in-universe explanation, it was impractical because the [[ReadingsBlewUpTheScale scouters kept exploding.]]

* ''Series/{{QI}}'': rewards contestants with points based on how interesting they are (and deduct points for obvious wrong answers). Occasionally, the host will say they get points for it; but by the end, there are often looks of shock from the contestants over the score. Creator John Lloyd said that he himself doesn't understand the scoring system - they apparently just hire someone to sit in a room and record scores, and no one knows quite what logic he uses, if any. One rule that is clear though, is that 10 points are deducted for an answer that "everyone knows" but is wrong, such as Sweden having the world's highest suicide rate. [[note]]actually, it's Lithuania[[/note]]
-->'''Stephen Fry''': I think we can all agree that nobody ''in this universe'' understands QI's scoring system!

** One episode featured Drew telling the viewers to go out and buy "the official Whose Line Is It Anyway? Scorebook...[[ViewersAreMorons ya big dope]]."

* On one occasion ''SpicksAndSpecks'' (Aussie music quiz/panel show) ended up with the audience with a considerable number of points for answering correctly.

* In 2014, the LPGA Tour introduced a new award for its five major championships (the ANA Inspiration, the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, the U.S. Women's Open, the Ricoh Women's British Open, and the Evian Championship) called the Rolex Annika Major Award, named in honor of Annika Sorenstam, the greatest women's golfer ever. The points system used for this award is actually the same system used for the tour's Player of the Year Award, where points awarded for regular tour events are doubled for majors (in majors, a win is worth 60 points, second 24, third 18, fourth 14, fifth 12, sixth 10, seventh 8, eighth 6, ninth 4, and tenth 2; if players tie for a position in the Top 10, they are awarded the same number of points allotted by that position). Where this trope comes in is how the winner of the Major Award is determined. Having the most points really doesn't matter; ''you must win a major as well''. Luckily, the first two winners of this award, American Michelle Wie, and South Korean Inbee Park, have scored the most points, in addition to fulfilling the "winning a major" requirement.

* In 2014, the LPGA Tour introduced a new award for its five major championships (the ANA Inspiration, the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, the U.S. Women's Open, the Ricoh Women's British Open, and the Evian Championship) called the Rolex Annika Major Award, named in honor of Annika Sorenstam, the greatest women's golfer ever.

->'''Tank''': Who...do you work for?
->'''Bob''': Uhh, Tom Nook.
->'''Tank''': What? HE SHOT ME!!!
->'''Bob''': Oh. You didn't do what he asked?
->'''Tank''': No, I did what he asked. He shot me anyway!
-->-- AnimalCrossingWildWorldAbridged

-> ''"Welcome to Whose Line is it Anyway; the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter. That's right, the points are kinda like Canada."''
-->-- '''Drew Carey''', ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''

The PanelShow format has been around for a long time - it's cheap to make and easy to film. But when it's aimed towards being funny or entertaining, the points cease to matter. What may have started as a quite a serious point system falls to the wayside, or maybe they don't care about points in the first place but liked the format. Add to this gracious editing which removes answers to questions or entire questions, and the viewer will have a hard time figuring out how that team is winning when they haven't answered a single question yet.

** Like [[Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou HIGNFY]] above, at least some of the apparent randomness of the points is due to editing down two hours of material into a half-hour broadcast - if someone gets forfeits or right answers during this time, their points gained in the half hour can vary wildly from those shown at the end (most recently a panelist ended up with a score of -15 despite seemingly getting no forfeits at all), but of course, they can't change the points for the edit. It becomes clearer in the extended editions, but one presumes that even more is lost from the original recorded length.

** Like ''Series/{{HIGNFY}}'' above, at least some of the apparent randomness of the points is due to editing down two hours of material into a half-hour broadcast - if someone gets forfeits or right answers during this time, their points gained in the half hour can vary wildly from those shown at the end (most recently a panelist ended up with a score of -15 despite seemingly getting no forfeits at all), but of course, they can't change the points for the edit. It becomes clearer in the extended editions, but one presumes that even more is lost from the original recorded length.

* Many old-school video games like ''VideoGame/PacMan'' give no rewards for points beyond a spot on a high scores screen, but don't say the points don't matter to [[SeriousBusiness hardcore fans]].

* ''Radio/TheNewsQuiz'' works similarly to HIGNFY, its SoundToScreenAdaptation. Former host Simon Hoggart used to regularly offer "two points to ''somebody''" or "two points to Jeremy for getting the right answer, and a bonus point to Alan for telling us what it was", and often ended with "And thanks to my unique scoring system, the winner is..." Before him was Barry Took, who gave points to Richard Ingrams if it looked like he might have once known the answer, or at least once known ''an'' answer. Current chair Sandi Toksvig deducts points for height jokes (although [[HypocriticalHumour she herself will make them about Andy Hamilton]])

** "A billion points to everybody. One ''billion''. [[Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire Feel the heat, Regis.]]"

** It's worth pointing out that early videos had a sticker point system with films normally coming in under 70 sin points; mainly for for plot inconsistencies, bad editing, etc. As the show has evolved the point system (and the iconic *din*) has become more of a joke in true keeping with this trope.