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Overview
Funk And Wagnalls (more commonly known as "FaW") is a small group of people sharing common interests in movies, games, and activities. Originally set up by Alex, Chris, and Doug, it has now grown to encompass at least nine official members as well as many others who attend or have previously attended engroupments.
The main source of humour within FaW comes from it's large supply of in jokes, most of which were developed during the first year of the group's history. As such there are some things which can make perfect sense to one member and completely baffle another. The purpose of this Wiki is primarily to give an in-depth description of the running jokes and their origins, but also to explain some of the history behind the group.
Members
While the bulk of FaW members is listed below, a full list can be found here detailing each member and their history within the group.
- Founding Members
- Regular Members
History
Although pre-dating the official formation of the group by a year, it cannot be denied that FaW really started back in the time between September 2004 and July 2005. At this time, five students rented a small house on the outskirts of Coventry and spent most of their time there playing the greatest six-player Halo known to man. The group consisted of Alex, Chris, Little Chris, Craig, and Doug, with the addition of a significant appearance from John who slept on the lounge floor from October to Decemeber 2004.
Over the summer break the group lost two members from the household due to difficult circumstances with their University courses. When starting back in the following September, FaW was officially founded by the three remaining members - Alex, Chris, and Doug - while trying to think up a name for their Xbox Live gamertag. "Funk and Wagnalls" has stuck ever since, carrying through with the group as it gained new members.
During the second year at Tile Hill, the remaining rent for the house had to be made up by two other newcomers. The first, Dave, became a friend of the group but never truly became involved in its activities. However Arafat, the other person, was extemely annoying and shall not be discussed any further except to say she left and we were happy to have a spare room.
After the second year at Tile Hill, the three founding members split off to carry on their studies, although remained in contact while keeping the group going. Alex and Chris both finished the final year of their course, while Doug took a further course in Bristol. During this time two additional members were recruited through the FaW channel. The group meets up approximately once every two months to carry on the traditions set in Tile Hill. Future plans for the group include finding a suitable location for Site B, where the origins of the group can revived.
A timeline of significant events is available here.
Legendary Anecdotes
FaW are doers of great deeds, and whenever great deeds are done, a legend will arise. These legends speak of many universes, deeds done across this world and far into the virtual. Legends of courage, of cowardice and sometimes, of stupidity. The legends show many of the unique ways that the personalities of the members of FaW interact, and transcend everyday life by being extraordinary in some way. Mostly these stories matter to the people in them, but as these tales of valour are brought up often, studying them is helpful for joining in the story telling. Whether they are yours or not, click here to read them.
Engroupments
During times of national emergency, when women cower over their children and grown men weep into their cereal, a signal is sent unto the ether by bald spectacle wearing men in white coats. This signal gets distorted by the emergency which the nation is experiencing to such an extent that it is unwittingly sent to another dimension... this dimension. The signal sadly loses much of its information and what is left is often corrupt but unto the minds of a number of young swarthy males does it arrive. It is something akin to a subconscious Bat-Signal acting to draw the group together so that they may fulfill prophecies of great justice and awesome. These gatherings have become known as "engroupments" and tales of derring-do are documented so that others may bear witness to all that has been achieved. A full list lies here.
Expeditions
Being young and virile brings with it many trappings. None know this more than FaW. One vice that must be satiated at every blue moon is wanderlust. This desire to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations may not be entirely unique to the group but FaW trips are often awesome. As such they are worthy of their own title. Expeditions are engroupings of members occurring away from the residence of a FaW member involving at least one overnight stay. A full list can be found here.
Signature Series
Funk and Wagnalls is an extremely complex and many layered beast. Those that do understand it, do not understand it. The best way to get close to this higher plain of thought is by watching the signature series, however should you lack the time or DVD collection for this you can read a full summary here. Think of this as a FaW primer - the list of fundamental TV series and movies that have contributed to the FaW lexicon and mentality.
Signature Games
While the activites of the group originate mostly from movie watching, doing so is often a fairly short task (with the exception of a LotR-athon) and so there is much time in-between which needs to be killed. This is were the games library comes into it's own to propel the group through until that next movie watching occasion. As the group face off against each other in epic space battles, military warfare, and tales of magic and heroism, the fates of entire nations are decided by the click of a mouse or the press of a key. A working list of these fantasy worlds and futuristic battlefields can be found in the list of signature games.
Projects and Quests
FaW has many attempted many projects over the years, and completed at least some of them. While it should be noted that first and foremost all contribution should be put into the single purpose of creating the sky-pirate ship, there are other projects which detract from this main goal. Although the impossible seems insignificant to such a group, there are occasions when the unattainable is sought after. Some things were never meant to be, others have come and passed. However all of these have become quests for the members of FaW and every waking minute is spent in search of them - always reaching for that thing.
A full list of the previous and ongoing projects and quests can be found here.
Wank and Fugnalls
Light and Dark.
Good and Evil.
Jedi and Sith.
Chunky and Smooth.
There's always an opposite, something that balances the universe. In the case of Funk and Wagnalls, it's the appropriately named black and grey suited nemeses Wank and Fugnalls. Working in secret and causing us grief, they are always up to something and the something they are up to is always bad for us.
By reading this page you may incur their wrath. You have been warned. Be Aware.
Websites
The very first incarnation which the group had on the web was known as the "Funk and Wagnells channel" (with "Wagnalls" spelt incorrectly due to Doug). It was born from the idea that if Chris and Doug combined their DVD collections then they would have enough footage to start their own TV channel. As the description for the page states, "This group is the theoretical first step - the planning stages".
It is only recently that FaW has had a dedicated website for group activities. Launched on 15th March 2007, the site had a basic blogging system, forum (better known as the "FaWrums"), and a list of approved series and games. This allowed members to organise meetings both online and in real life, and provided a centralised way for them to reminisce about it afterwards.
Although the site had provided many features previously unavailable to the group, there were also some limitations in its functionality. This lead to the development of version two of the site, which went live on 14th June 2007. Developed from scratch, the improved content delivery systems allowed for much more flexibility with the journal posts. Although an events and review system were prototyped, they never made it to the deployment stage because of constantly changing needs. Unfortunately the site was also prone to many bugs, most notably the suspected apostrophe attack.
To correct these errors, the website was in the process of an upgrade to version three which focused on making everything more reliable and easy to use. It was at this time that an attack was made on the database which forced a premature upgrade and required a lot of changes to security measures. Because of this, version three was never fully implemented beyond the enhancements to the journal system.
Related Sites
A spin-off site was launched during the second year of FaW to form an online space for the "Wouldn't it be awesome if..." society. The original plan for this sub-group was that each week a member would say "wouldn't it be awesome if" and then follow it by their own suggestion. The group would then carry out this activity for the week before swapping to a new one. This was inspired during an early morning session watching Braveheart, when we were thinking how good it would be to be Scottish and to run around mountains with swords all day. The idea has failed to grow beyond this (despite many worthy suggestions), however a trip was eventually made in the name of the Society to hike around the Peak District in the snow. While still a good outing, this turned out to be much less awesome for Doug than he had imagined it to be.
Locations
Places are important. This list is all about the places that matter to FaW. If you were going to make a movie full of explosions or perhaps a high quality TV show, these are the sets you need to build because these are the places we occupy/have occupied/will occupy the most. Some may lack in grandeur and cleanliness, but were it not for their existence, FaW wouldn't exist and we would have been sleeping, drinking and, worst of all, watching movies, in the streets.
Terminology and In-Jokes
FaW exists in no small part due to the strength and long-lasting appeal of its in-jokes and group-specific terminology. Like most tribes it has its own dialect, which in this case is based on the many influences of the FaW lifestyle. The major contributors to the lexicon are TV and movies; finding an appropriate location (or in many cases an inappropriate location) for classic lines earns major kudos within the group and results in all kinds of hilarity. The many different and expanding influences on the group, mean that certain phrases will be in or out of fashion during different engroupments or periods of time, and may vanish completely after that.
Interestingly, hilarity often ensues regardless of whether the quote is said correctly or a complete quotational failure. It is for these failures that Alex is most famous for - hence the large section devoted to Alexisms, which are a collection of his misquotes and misunderstandings.
A list of all known terminology and in-jokes can be found here.
