Solution:
Let ci,j denote the number of students correctly answering questions i and j (1≤i<j≤10), and let wi,j denote the number of students getting both questions wrong. An individual student answers k questions correctly and 10−k questions incorrectly. This student answers (2k) pairs of questions correctly and (210−k) pairs of questions incorrectly. Now observe that
(2k)+(210−k)=k2−10k+45=(k−5)2+20≥20
Therefore,
1≤i<j≤10∑ci,j+wi,j≥20n
Now if the performance is not laughable, then ci,j≤56 and wi,j≤56 for all 1≤i<j≤10. Observe that there are 2(210)=90 of these variables. Hence, in a boring performance,
20n≤1≤i<j≤10∑ci,j+wi,j≤90⋅56=5040
or n≤252. In particular this implies that if n≥253, the performance is laughable. This is the best bound because (510)=252, and if each of 252 students correctly answers a different 5-element subset of the 10 questions, then ci,j=wi,j=56 for all 1≤i<j≤10.