What Is Bad Trivia?
Bad Trivia is a Sunday Improv original — a competitive dueling game where two contestants face off on trivia questions, but there's a catch: correct answers are banned. If you say something that's actually true, you lose points. The only way to win is to come up with the funniest, most absurd wrong answer you can think of — and you have to do it fast.
The host reads the question, the contestants race to buzz in, and whoever buzzes first has to deliver their answer immediately. No pausing, no strategizing, no Googling. Just pure wrong energy.
How It Works at Sunday Improv
- Two contestants come up on stage — we usually run three rounds with different pairs, so six players get to play in total
- The host reads a trivia question — something like "Why does the word 'diet' contain the word 'die'?"
- First person to buzz in gets to answer — but the answer has to be wrong. If you accidentally say something true, you lose points
- The host awards completely arbitrary points based on how funny the answer is. The points mean nothing. Nobody keeps track. It's beautiful
- If someone can't answer after buzzing, the other contestant gets their shot
In the age of fake news, why do game shows make people tell the truth? What's the fun in that? We fixed the problem.
What Gets You Points (and What Doesn't)
The scoring in Bad Trivia is entirely made up and changes every round. You might get seven points for a decent answer or a million points for one that catches the host off guard. The only consistent rule is that correct answers get you negative points — or at least a deeply disappointed look from the host.
The best answers tend to be the ones that come out so fast that even the person saying them looks surprised. When someone buzzed in and answered "Why do dogs tilt their heads?" with "How many points am I going to get if I bite her neck?" — that kind of unhinged speed is what wins this game.
Tips for Players
- Buzz first, think second. The game rewards speed over cleverness. If you wait to craft the perfect answer, someone else will buzz in with something dumber and win.
- Don't accidentally be right. This is harder than it sounds. Your brain wants to answer trivia correctly — that's what years of school did to you. Fight the instinct. Don't listen to your teachers. Listen to an unhinged improv comedy host. If the answer that pops into your head might actually be true, throw it out and say something else.
- Go absurd. The further you get from reality, the safer you are from accidentally being correct and the more likely you are to get a laugh. "It goes to the fifth dimension" is always better than a reasonable guess.
- Commit to the bit. If your wrong answer has a setup, run with it. Some of the best moments come from contestants who start with a wrong answer and then keep building on it until it becomes a whole thing.
- Don't overthink the points. They're fake. They're arbitrary. The host might give you half a point or five thousand. Just focus on being funny and let the scoring chaos happen around you.
Example Questions
To give you a feel for the vibe, here are some questions from a recent show: "Why do we say 'heads up' when we actually mean duck?" ... "What are escalators thinking about when nobody's riding them?" ... "What do ATMs think about at 3 AM?" ... "Why do dentists ask you questions when their hands are already inside your mouth?"
The questions are deliberately weird. They're designed to give you a running start toward a wrong answer — all you have to do is not trip over the truth on the way there.
Why It's a Hit
Bad Trivia takes something everyone knows how to do — answer a question — and flips it on its head. The format is dead simple, which means new players can jump in without any improv experience, but the speed pressure and wrong-answers-only rule create genuine chaos every single time. It's competitive enough to get people fired up and silly enough that nobody cares who wins. And the host's arbitrary scoring keeps everyone on their toes — you never know if your answer is worth two points or sixty-nine.
Want to try it live? Join us every Sunday at 3 PM EST at Soapstone NYC in Meta Horizon Worlds. It's free, it's 18+, and Bad Trivia is in regular rotation.