Have you ever won a silly contest?

climbingsingle

Did you guess how many jelly beans were in a jar or something? 

When I was 11, I won a contest while we were on vacation in Myrtle Beach. I was the first to correctly recite all the words the Gilligan's Island theme. My prize was a Newport t-shirt. Seriously. It looks exactly like this. And shockingly, my parents let me wear it. But hey, I was alive with pleasure. 

carrie0924

Lol.

When I was maybe 13 or 14, my dentist's office had a contest. They had a really nice, very large stuffed cow. Super high quality, not a cheap stuffed animal. It was a naming contest. My entry was "Bessie." A couple months after I entered, I had forgotten all about it. I happened to be sick and out of school for an entire week, and my mom got the call from the dentist's office notifying her that I won while I was kinda starting to recover, but still too sick to go to school, but bored from being on the couch for a week straight, sleeping in front of the tv. She told me she had a surprise for me, loaded me into the car, and drove me to the shopping center where the dentist's office was. She told me to wait in the car, and a few minutes later she returned with this giant, stuffed cow! That certainly was the highlight of my week!

novella1186

My dog won the city's "cutest pet" contest, for this photo. The photo with her name and my name were in the local newspaper lol which was slightly embarrassing cuz I was like 25 at the time. She won a gift certificate to the local pet store, but I used it to go buy food to donate to the animal shelter because she already has far too many toys. 

OliveOilsMom

A local radio morning show "Camps Out" for Hunger for a week in a parking lot in Philly.  All listeners are encouraged to come and bring canned goods.  The single largest donation of the day by an individual gets to win that day's prize.  My friend and I conspired to win the u2 day.  So we purchased a bunch of groceries and emptied our cabinets.  We donated 578 pounds of canned goods and won that day's prize!  We ended up being flown to San Diego to see u2 on the 2nd night of their tour, it included airfare and a hotel.  We were in San Diego for a grand total of 23 1/2 hours. 

The best part is the the morning show still camps out for hunger every year and their food drive is one of the largest for a variety of food banks in the area.  In fact, this week is their "Camp Out".

[Deleted User]

There was a "guess how many are in this jar" contest at a HS friend's Halloween party.  I guessed closest to the number of candy corns in the jar.  I won the jar of candy corn.  I don't like candy corn. 

I named all 50 states in alphabetical order faster than anyone else in the contest.  I think I won a donut.

I won a Spirograph in a drawing once, and a cook book about a year ago from my employer.  It was left over from a company gift they gave out in 2008 (before I worked for the company).  I know because I found the "holiday" letter tucked into the front of the book.

[Deleted User]

I have a good story for this one! In 2009 I was at a bar with some friends, and they had some Labatt Blue girls there doing giveaways and handing out Labatt Blue Light samples or something.  We had to stand in line and basically pick a key out of a bucket and unlock this little house thing they had to win some random prizes.

I got the winning key (after one of my friend's boyfriend totally switched places with me), and won like these weird virtual glasses that you can watch TV or movies on.  They were worth like $200 but totally wouldn't use them so sold them and made some cash.  It got me entered into a grand prize trip.  

I think like 2 months later, I got an email from Labatt, telling me I was one of the grand prize winners! Totally thought it was a scam, but it was a legit!  There were 50 winners chosen from across the country.

It was a weekend for 2 worth, for this massive party weekend at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont. Everything paid for, got Labatt Blue jackets and other stuff in a gift bag, $100 gift card each for the resort, 2 activities to chose from (mostly outside stuff or spa) and then the last big night was a party at a mansion in the mountains.  The band Halestorm showed up to play! It was pretty crazy! Wish I would have taken a friend rather than my now ex who was an a-hole the whole weekend.  Still was pretty amazing!

flutteringinfl

I'm Jewish, so the year I turned 13, I went to a couple dozen Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. Back then (and maybe still now) most of them had hula hoop contests, and I was crazy good at hula hooping, so I always won whatever silly Oriental Trading Company toy prize.

I also "won" a coloring contest in like, kindergarten or first grade. I put it in quotes because I pretty much cheated by having my babysitter do the coloring.

ElcaB

On our honeymoon I won one of the "Crazy Games." All of the participants kayaked around the pool for time and I won first place. My prize was a white "Excellence" polo shirt. Whoopa-dee-do!

wandajune6

When I was in 3rd grade I won the holiday card design contest thrown by my after school program. The program was run by a local organization that used the after school program to support an orphanage. My card was sold as part of their annual holiday card fundraiser.

I won a $500 Spa Finder gift card several years ago from a drawing (not exactly the same thing). My gramma's favorite salon excepted their cards so I made it her 85th birthday gift from my sister and me.

arrippa

No, I don't think I have ever won anything. I tend to have bad luck with contests.

luckya23

I won a look a like costume contest with my dog!  We were hippies, although everyone kept calling him a rasta dog!

 

Kauris

When I was in my early 20s, there was a radio station at a bar we were at, I won musical chairs by default when they figured out the girl who really won wasn't  21 and kicked her out. That won me tickets to see Bowling for Soup play, where they announced a grand prize winner. I ended up winning that too and we got to go backstage with the band and an all expenses paid ski trip to CO.

charlieyankee03

In first grade I won a costume contest at school for Halloween. I dressed up as a black cat and my mom took one of those blue air filters for your home a/c unit and put pictures of fish and flora in it to look like a fish tank I could carry around. I think I won a plaque or something for that.

In third grade I won a drawing contest for my hometown's fire department during fire safety week. I drew a drawing of a mouse changing the batteries in a smoke detector and got to ride on the fire truck during one of the random parades that year. 

At some point when I was under 10, my dentist office also gave away giant stuffed animals, like @carrie0924's. He gave the animal to the best behaved kid that month though. I won a giant green and blue dinosaur. I used to sit on it's tail and slide down the stairs.

Haven't won anything else in a long time. Apparently I peaked early.

NowIamMrsKlein

When I was little, Probably around 5, I won a Cake Walk at the local school. Basically musical chairs but the winner gets to choose a cake from a bunch of donated ones.

Anyways. There was this table of all these gorgeous cakes that had been donated by local bakeries, and some amazing pies from some grandmas etc. And my parents were like. Sweet. This is Awesome. Andrea go pick out your favorite cake! And what do I do? Pick this lopsided, Betty Crocker cake with the icing sliding off that looks like it was baked by a 5 year old. Because it had sprinkles on it. And what 5 year old doesnt live for sprinkles??? Apparently the cake was inedible. 

My parents have never let me live it down. Im sure my dad will bring it up at my wedding. 

jenna8984

Man you guy have won some awesome stuff (including your newport shirt, climbing!)

My second day at my company was their Christmas party so they raffled off 3 items and out of 75 people, I won a $50 gift card. I was like this job rules! But nothing that I actually had to DO to win.

I met a guy a few weeks ago at a party who had just won a car in a golf tournament. He literally got to walk into a Subaru dealership and had $26,000 credit toward anything he wanted. So jealous!

littlemushroom

In second grade, I won the local paper's contest for writing the best letter to Santa Claus asking him to stop smoking. I won the board game Mouse Trap and had my letter printed in the paper.

On our honeymoon, I participated in the Minute to Win It game show and won my event. I had to balance pencils on the back of my hand and flip them into the air and catch them with the same hand. You started with 2 pencils and worked up to 12 pencils. I won by catching 10 and the guy I was going against had only caught 4. I won a camera holder shaped like a backpack that you could clip to your belt. He got a highlighter for participating.

cupcait927

I won a contest in 5th grade for the best D.A.R.E. poster. I remember getting this giant box in the middle over the summer between 5th and 6th grade and finding the biggest teddy bear inside with a letter saying that I had won. 10 year old me was pretty psyched.

The last thing I won was 2 bottles of wine as a door prize at a wine tasting event last summer. Now that's my kind of prize.

lovegood90

Aw man, I'm that person who never wins anything! I think the last thing I won was a free donut in those "roll up the rim to win" contests from Tim Hortons, haha.

Inkdancer

I won a poetry contest in high school for a depressing-ass poem I wrote about my single mom.

I also regularly win the foot-in-mouth award.

climbingsingle

That Newport shirt was pretty much the last thing I won. 

theartistformerlyknownas

I won a box of Jelly Belly jelly beans when I was a kid, but have no idea why. I was constantly mailing away for magazine contests (3-2-1- CONTACT!) but they didn't say which one I actually won.

I also won Keith Urban concert tickets calling in to the radio station!

Aray82

Nothing that official, but I'm the current reigning champion of birthing oranges into mugs for all the baby showers in my circle. It's gotten me some nice lotions and candles. Too bad it's not a professional sport coz DH and I would be set!

Inkdancer

Aray82 said:

Nothing that official, but I'm the current reigning champion of birthing oranges into mugs for all the baby showers in my circle. It's gotten me some nice lotions and candles. Too bad it's not a professional sport coz DH and I would be set!

Um... what???

All I can picture is a bunch of women squeezing oranges out from between their thighs, and it's not pretty...

SBmini

When I was probably 8 I won an apple crumb pie from Baker Square for being the closest to guess the correct number of jelly beans in a jar. I use this all the time for personal trivia.

jenna8984

Inkdancer said:

Aray82 said:

Nothing that official, but I'm the current reigning champion of birthing oranges into mugs for all the baby showers in my circle. It's gotten me some nice lotions and candles. Too bad it's not a professional sport coz DH and I would be set!

Um... what???

All I can picture is a bunch of women squeezing oranges out from between their thighs, and it's not pretty...

Yup definitely never heard of this game....

futuremrsr2015

FI and I won KISS tickets when we bought our kitchen appliances and I won a 40" tv at a staff Christmas party one year.  Other than that it was always little things like picture frames or gift cards.

VulgarGirl

I won a jello shot contest at a lesbian bar once. I was the only one to get the jello shot out of the container without using my hands.

I got a tank top and $10 to spend at the bar. And a ton of phone numbers. 

teddygirl9

The only thing that I can remember winning was from this weekend, at a christmas party. For some reason the dj liked my dancing and gave me a $25 restaurant gift card. I think he had 4 to give away. There was like, 12 people on the dance floor, so pretty good odds!

LadyMillil

lovegood90 said:

Aw man, I'm that person who never wins anything! I think the last thing I won was a free donut in those "roll up the rim to win" contests from Tim Hortons, haha.

I never win in roll up the rim. I did guess the number of jellybeans in a jar once. And I am forbidden from playing any non-athletic games at the family reunions because I always win. I am the family champion for everything but shoe-kicking, badminton and horseshoes.

ETA: I also grew the biggest pumpkin in my county during grade 8. The prize was $50.

NowIamMrsKlein

LadyMillil said:

lovegood90 said:

Aw man, I'm that person who never wins anything! I think the last thing I won was a free donut in those "roll up the rim to win" contests from Tim Hortons, haha.

I never win in roll up the rim. I did guess the number of jellybeans in a jar once. And I am forbidden from playing any non-athletic games at the family reunions because I always win. I am the family champion for everything but shoe-kicking, badminton and horseshoes.

I never win roll up the rim either! Not even a free friggen muffin. Although I haven't had a Timmies in a long time since I prefer Starbucks, but when there was only a Timmies in town i never won. And my parents would basically always win their next coffee. Drove me nuts.

kat1114

When I was a kid, I did beauty pageants and won quite a few. I feel like those are silly contests. Although, it was nothing like you see on Toddlers & Tiaras.