What is Buzzword Bingo?

Buzzword Bingo is a game involving business jargon.

How Does Buzzword Bingo Work?

Buzzword Bingo is a lot like regular bingo, in which a caller draws random numbers and players vie to be the first to match them in a row, column or diagonal on their cards. The difference in Buzzword Bingo, of course, is that the business school professors and the CEOs are the unwitting callers, and rather than numbers, everybody’s waiting to see what overused jargon is going to come out of their mouths and in what order.

Sample Buzzword Bingo game card, courtesy InvestingAnswers:

Buzzword Bingo

Why Does Buzzword Bingo Matter?

Anybody’s who has ever sat through business school classes or listened to earnings calls knows that the resident wise guy will usually try to get a game of Buzzword Bingo going. The kicker is finding out which classmates or soon-to-be-fired-coworkers have the least amount of impulse control -- they’ll be the ones gleefully screaming “Bingo!” during an earnings call.