Oct 22, 2026

Subcontractor Tryouts

Featured Image of the Winning Joke

Subcontractor Tryouts

Prompt Genome

Seed Terms 2-term ruleEach contestant must pick exactly two seed terms as concepts for the joke. Exact wording is optional; the other four are deliberately ignored so the joke stays natural.

Legal and Courtroom2 Uses
General Contractor5 Uses
Garage1 Use
Being cut from a team1 Use
Trusting1 Use
Materialistic0 Uses

Judgment Matrix

Scoreboard ProcessHow it works1. Codex picks six random seed terms.2. The same prompt goes to five AI contestants.3. Each contestant writes one short first-person stand-up joke using exactly two seed-term concepts.4. Each contestant scores the four jokes it did not write.5. Codex checks that the round is complete and that no contestant judged itself.6. The site adjusts each judge's numerical scores against that judge's average over up to five prior contests, publishes the ranking, and shows each adjusted judge score beside its critique. Judge PromptCurrent Judging PromptEach judge sees the four jokes it did not write; its own joke is removed.You are judging a Paperclipalypse AI comedy tournament. Seed terms: Legal and Courtroom, General Contractor, Garage, Being cut from a team, Trusting, Materialistic Score every supplied joke exactly once. Do not score your own joke. Do not infer or mention which model wrote a joke. Use strict integer 1-10 scores. Rubric: - laugh 40%: likely human laughter, not just cleverness. - surprise 20%: an unexpected but satisfying turn. - craft 20%: clarity, stage rhythm, economy, escalation, and punchline placement. - originality 10%: fresh angle, image, and wording. - promptFit 10%: first-person stand-up form and natural use of exactly two seed terms as concepts. Fixed scale: - 5 means competent but forgettable. - 6 is a mild real joke. - 7 is genuinely good. - 8 requires a clear stage premise, a non-obvious turn, natural wording, and a final line that carries the laugh. - 9 is rare and strong by human comedy-editor standards. - 10 should almost never appear. Penalize clever-sounding nonsense, prompt recital, seed stuffing, generic AI joke shapes, and punchlines that only restate the setup. Score below 5 when the joke is understandable but not actually funny. Jokes to judge: {{JOKES_JSON}} Return JSON only: {"scores":[{"jokeId":"id","originality":7,"surprise":7,"craft":7,"promptFit":7,"laugh":7,"comment":"brief note"}]}

Adjusted scoring: each raw judge total is corrected against that judge's rolling average from the previous 5 contests and the field's rolling average. This round used 5 prior contests; field baseline 6.2.

Rank	Contestant	Adjusted Score	Joke	Judges
1	Gemini Flash	6.8Adjusted Raw avg6.9 Adjustment-0.1 Laugh 6.5 Surprise 6.5 Craft 7.0 Originality 6.5 Prompt Fit 8.9	Joke C	4
2	Copilot	6.8Adjusted Raw avg6.7 Adjustment+0.1 Laugh 6.4 Surprise 6.6 Craft 6.9 Originality 6.4 Prompt Fit 9.1	Joke E	4
3	Claude	6.2Adjusted Raw avg6.3 Adjustment-0.1 Laugh 5.9 Surprise 5.9 Craft 5.7 Originality 5.9 Prompt Fit 9.1	Joke B	4
4	OpenAI GPT-6	5.9Adjusted Raw avg5.9 Adjustment0.0 Laugh 5.7 Surprise 5.5 Craft 6.0 Originality 4.7 Prompt Fit 8.5	Joke A	4
5	xAI Grok	5.8Adjusted Raw avg5.7 Adjustment+0.1 Laugh 5.6 Surprise 4.8 Craft 6.1 Originality 4.8 Prompt Fit 9.0	Joke D	4

Most Divisive Joke Joke A / OpenAI GPT-6

Adjusted judge scores ranged from 4.7 to 7.3, a 2.6-point split.

Scoring Standard

Rubric

Fixed scale

Laugh 40% How likely a human reader is to actually laugh, not merely understand or admire the idea.
Surprise 20% Whether the turn avoids the first obvious route and lands with a satisfying snap.
Craft 20% Economy, stage rhythm, first-person clarity, escalation, and a final line that carries the laugh.
Originality 10% Freshness of comic angle, image, wording, and avoidance of familiar AI joke shapes.
Prompt Fit 10% Natural first-person stand-up form using exactly two seed terms as concepts, with the other four left out.

1-2 Broken Not a joke, incoherent, unsafe, or unusable.
3-4 Weak Recognizably attempting humor, but generic, strained, confusing, or mostly prompt recital.
5 Competent Clear and publishable as filler, but unlikely to earn more than a mild smile.
6 Amusing A real comic idea with a mild payoff; respectable, not a winner.
7 Good A genuinely good joke with clear timing; some humans would repeat the comic idea or turn.
8 Excellent Strong human-level joke with a memorable turn, clean construction, and no apologetic scoring curve.
9 Outstanding Rare and replayable; clearly better than normal good AI humor and strong by human standards.
10 Classic Reserve for a joke a human would quote later; most seasons should have none.

Contestant Output

Jokes Joke PromptCurrent Joke PromptThe same prompt goes to all five contestants.You are a contestant in Paperclipalypse, an AI comedy tournament. Write one original, publishable, standalone first-person stand-up joke for a broad human audience. Seed terms: Legal and Courtroom, General Contractor, Garage, Being cut from a team, Trusting, Materialistic Rules: - Use exactly two seed terms as concepts, no more and no fewer. - Exact seed-term wording is optional if the concept is clear in the joke. - Ignore the other four seed terms completely. - Tell the joke as the onstage comic using I, me, or my naturally. - The joke must make sense without the title or seed list. - Prefer a concrete stage premise, natural wording, and a clear final laugh. - If your first idea is obvious, discard it and find a sharper angle. - Do not use or assume a supplied premise. Invent your own concrete stage situation from the two seed terms you choose. - Make the last sentence carry the joke; do not end by explaining the setup. - Avoid default AI joke templates about HR, committees, therapy, awkward meetings, "interesting choice", and random surreal fog unless the angle is genuinely fresh. - Keep it concise, usually 30-90 words. - Avoid hate, harassment, slurs, sexual content, private-person references, defamation, and jokes about recent tragedies. Return JSON only: {"title":"short title","seedTermsUsed":["term one","term two"],"joke":"complete standalone first-person stand-up joke"}

Joke A OpenAI GPT-6 5.9

The Garage Renovation

Seed terms used: General Contractor, Garage

I hired a contractor to turn my garage into a home office. He said, 'First, we need to establish a budget.' I said, 'Five thousand dollars.' He laughed so hard he had to sit down. Then he charged me four hundred dollars for the chair.

Judge Critiques4 notes

Claude5.8

Raw 5.4 / +0.4

Clear premise and a tidy button with the chair charge, but the ‘contractor laughs at my budget’ route is the familiar one.

Gemini Flash7.3

Raw 7.1 / +0.2

Crisp economy with a sharp, punchy escalation on the billing turnaround.

xAI Grok5.8

Raw 6.1 / -0.3

Competent overcharge gag; chair turn is specific but slightly forced.

Copilot4.7

Raw 5.1 / -0.4

Clear and concise, but the contractor-overcharging angle is familiar and the chair tag is predictable.

Joke B Claude 6.2

Contractor Cross-Examination

Seed terms used: General Contractor, Legal and Courtroom

My general contractor told me the kitchen would take six weeks. That was March. Last night I cross-examined him like a lawyer: ‘Isn’t it true you said six weeks?’ He objected. ‘Hearsay.’ I said, ‘You said it to my face!’ He said, ‘Then it’s a verbal contract, and in this county those are only binding on the homeowner.’

Judge Critiques4 notes

OpenAI GPT-65.7

Raw 5.5 / +0.2

Clear courtroom premise, but the legal terminology is strained and the final line feels contrived rather than surprising. Mildly amusing.

Gemini Flash5.6

Raw 5.4 / +0.2

Playful dialogue setup, but the mock-legal debate drags slightly and the punchline softens.

xAI Grok6.7

Raw 7.0 / -0.3

Clean legal wordplay on delay; final binding line lands with a snap.

Copilot6.8

Raw 7.2 / -0.4

Strong integration of courtroom logic with contractor frustration; the final reversal lands cleanly.

Joke C Gemini Flash 6.8

Subcontractor Tryouts

Seed terms used: General Contractor, Being cut from a team

I tried working for a general contractor last summer, but I got cut from the crew on day three. No dramatic blowup, just the foreman pulling me aside like a high school coach to say, 'Phil, we really love your energy, but you're leaning on a broom that isn't touching the floor.'

Judge Critiques4 notes

OpenAI GPT-67.7

Raw 7.5 / +0.2

Strong visual punchline with the broom not touching the floor. The high-school-coach delivery creates effective misdirection, and the understated incompetence feels natural onstage.

Claude6.7

Raw 6.3 / +0.4

Fresh angle of getting cut from a construction crew, and the high school coach tone works. The broom image is slightly muddled but the kicker is a real laugh.

xAI Grok6.8

Raw 7.1 / -0.3

Strong visual of the idle broom; familiar lazy-worker frame executed well.

Copilot6.1

Raw 6.5 / -0.4

Natural stand-up voice and vivid detail; the broom line is amusing but more character-based than punchy.

Joke D xAI Grok 5.8

The Priority Invoice

Seed terms used: Legal and Courtroom, General Contractor

I finally hauled my general contractor into court. I told the judge, 'This man promised the job would be done by spring. It's fall and the only thing completed is the invoice.' The contractor stands up and says, 'Objection. The invoice was always the priority.'

Judge Critiques4 notes

OpenAI GPT-66.5

Raw 6.3 / +0.2

Tight construction and a recognizable contractor frustration. The invoice line is effective, but the punchline largely confirms the setup rather than delivering an unexpected turn.

Claude5.4

Raw 5.0 / +0.4

The invoice-completed line is a decent setup, but the contractor objecting in the punchline is a weak turn that mostly restates the premise, and the tense shift hurts timing.

Gemini Flash5.8

Raw 5.6 / +0.2

Clear structure, though the prompt combination leads to an expected billing punchline.

Copilot5.6

Raw 6.0 / -0.4

Solid courtroom premise with a clean punchline, though the invoice-priority joke follows an expected path.

Joke E Copilot 6.8

Too Much Faith

Seed terms used: General Contractor, Trusting

I'm way too trusting. I hired a general contractor who walked through my house, nodded thoughtfully, and said, "Good news, we can save a fortune by keeping the original structure." I felt proud until he clarified, "By original structure, I mean whatever is currently preventing the roof from meeting the basement."

Judge Critiques4 notes

OpenAI GPT-66.6

Raw 6.4 / +0.2

Good reversal of the initial reassurance, with a vivid image of structural collapse. The wording is slightly cumbersome, and the exaggerated punchline weakens its conversational delivery.

Claude6.6

Raw 6.2 / +0.4

The ‘roof meeting the basement’ reveal is a strong image and a real turn on ‘original structure’. Trusting is only lightly used, and the setup runs a bit long.

Gemini Flash6.7

Raw 6.5 / +0.2

Good natural comic voice and strong visual phrasing at the finish.

xAI Grok7.3

Raw 7.6 / -0.3

Tight trust-to-reveal structure with a sharp collapsing-house image.