Suggestions and questions are welcome and encouraged.
PUB DATE | WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | THEMES | LINKS TO THIS CONTEST | WINNER | LINKS TO RESULTS OF THIS CONTEST (usually published 2-4 Weeks later) |
October 17, 1993 | 33 | POST IMPRESSIONISM | Give us the opening lines of a big story from American history as it might have been written by someone whose work appears in The Washington Post. Maximum 100 words. You must choose one of three news stories: "Lincoln Assassinated," "Stock Market Crashes" or "Man Walks on Moon." | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Stephen Licht | Text file | Contest image |
July 17, 1994 | 73 | LUNACY | Tell us what Neil Armstrong should have said upon stepping onto the moon's surface, instead of what he did, the greatest gaffe in the history of Historic Sayings. | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Stuart Segal | Text file | Contest image |
April 9, 1995 | 108 | NEAR MISSES | Come up with the first drafts of great lines in history, entertainment or literature. | HIS CUL LIT | Text file | Contest image | Joseph Romm | Text file | Contest image |
November 19, 1995 | 140 | WHAT IF YOU GIVE IT A TRY? | Come up with "What-If" scenarios and logical outcomes. | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Russell Beland | Text file | Contest image |
September 29, 1996 | 185 | WONDERLUST | Come up with replacements for the Seven Wonders of the World. To qualify, an object must really exist, and be manmade and, in some way, awesome. | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Don Maclean | Text file | Contest image |
September 14, 1997 | 235 | ROOTS | Make up historical explanations--they should be vaguely plausible--for the etymology of any term you wish. The term should be the punch line. | HIS WOR | Text file | Sue Lin Chong | Text file |
March 15, 1998 | 261 | WHAT IF YOU GIVE IT A TRY II | Alter some crucial moment in history, and then tell us the likely outcome. | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Andrew B. Gibson | Text file | Contest image |
April 23, 2000 | 346 (XIII) | Greasy Kids Tough | Take any news event from history, recent or ancient, large or small, and rewrite it in 100 words or fewer as it might have appeared in KidsPost. | HIS | Text file | Mary Lou French | Text file |
November 26, 2000 | 377 (XLIV) | Week MMDCXLIV | Provide a headline (and, if necessary, the first line of the text) for any article that will appear in The Washington Post on this day in the year 2050. | HEA HIS | Text file | Contest image | Tom Witte | Text file | Contest image |
August 26, 2001 | 416 (LXXXIII) | Diff'rent Jokes | Describe how things might have been different if a famous person, living or dead, had had one of the provided conditions. | HIS | Text file | Drew Knoblauch | Text file |
February 1, 2004 | 543 | Read Our Leaps | Fill any readers of The Washington Post on Sunday, Feb. 29, 2032, on: (a) the day's lead news story; (b) the highest-flying company and its business; (c) the best-selling self-help book; and/or (d) the day's winning Style Invitational entry. | WAS BUS LIT STY HIS | Text file | Chris Doyle | Text file |
August 8, 2004 | 570 | Timeline Rhyme Lines | Produce colorful chronological couplets about some historical event. They must rhyme and be in good meter. | HIS POE | Text file | Russell Beland | Text file |
January 23, 2005 | 594 | History Loves Company | Name an appropriate corporate sponsor for some historical event or for someone's life story. | BUS HIS | Text file | Jim Getz Jennifer LaFleur | Text file |
April 24, 2005 | 607 | Contest Fodder Created! | Produce absurdly parochial views of historical events. | HIS | Text file | Anne Clark | Text file |
July 1, 2007 | 720 | The Course of Humor Events | Sum up a historical event in a two-line rhyme or other clever and pithy epigram. | POE HIS | Text file | Chris Doyle | Text file |
October 27, 2007 | 737 | No River, No Woods | Send us a funny parody of a well-known song, with lyrics that commemorate an occasion other than Christmas or Hanukkah. | POE HIS | Text file | Brendan Beary | Text file |
November 10, 2007 | 739 | Lies, All Lies | Give us some humorous fictional revelation about a current or past political figure. | HIS POL TRI | Text file | Joel Knanishu | Text file |
March 29, 2008 | 758 | Wrong Address | Using any of the words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in whatever order you like, create your own passage. | HIS WOR | Text file | Barry Koch | Text file |
June 21, 2008 | 770 | A Knack for Anachronism | Take a famous historical moment, literary passage, or movie scene and place it in an entirely different age. | HIS LIT MOV | Text file | Peter Metrinko | Text file |
November 8, 2008 | 790 | If Only! | Explain how the world would be different had some event not occurred. | POL HIS CUL | Text file | Contest image | Chris Doyle | Text file | Contest image |
February 7, 2009 | 803 | The Pepys Show | Write a humorous diary or journal entry for someone, famous or not, for any point in history. | HIS | Text file | Jeff Brechlin | Text file |
December 5, 2009 | 846 | Season's gratings | Write a brief (50 words or fewer) holiday letter from a personage from past or present, or from fiction. | HIS LIT | Text file | Peter Metrinko | Text file |
June 19, 2011 | 924 | Doomed to repeat it | Create "Unreal Facts" about history. | HIS TRI | Text file | Judy Blanchard | Text file |
October 16, 2011 | 941 | They don't say! | Give us a quote that a particular person, present or past, real or fictional, sooo wouldn't have said. | HIS | Text file | Larry Flynn | Text file |
November 13, 2011 | 945 | Laugh-baked ideas | Cleverly depict a person, event or phenomenon of the 21st century — real history as well as scenes from movies, books, videos, etc. — using edible materials, and send us a photo of your creation. | PIX HIS MOV LIT | Text file | Contest image | Alethea Dopart Kevin Dopart | Text file | Contest image |
November 10, 2013 | 1046 | Derive us crazy | Offer a bogus but funny explanation of how a particular expression originated. | HIS WOR | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Frank Osen | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version |
March 16, 2014 | 1064 | HistoRebuffs | Alter some moment in history and tell us -- in no more than about 50 words -- the likely outcome. | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Gary Crockett | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version (pub 4-13-14) Text file | Contest image | Post e-version (pub 4-27-14) |
April 26, 2015 | 1121 | The an(n)als of civilization | Briefly describe some "bad day in history" -- you may be creative in what you classify as such -- and sum it up with a humorous heading. (Conversational text) | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Chris Doyle | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version |
February 7, 2016 | 1161 | Give us four Pinocchios | Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past. (Conversational text) | HIS POL | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Jeff Shirley | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version |
January 8, 2017 | 1209 | Invented facts: A fictoid contest | Tell us a humorously untrue account of how a product or invention came to be, or got its name. (Conversational text) | HIS TRI | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Rob Huffman | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version |
January 22, 2017 | 1211 | The best tweets in history | Write a stupidly disparaging tweet (140 characters or fewer, including spaces) about some laudable figure of past or present, true or fictional. (Conversational text) | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Gary Crockett | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version |
April 2, 2017 | 1221 | Who's kidding whom? | Take two people from history, past or present, and tell what their child would be like | HIS | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Dave Matuskey | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version |
November 4, 2018 | 1304 | All the muse that's fit to print | Present a "what if" scenario and explain its effect. | HIS CUL | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Jesse Frankovich | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version |
July 14, 2019 | 1340 | Not-ables -- slightly alter a famous name | Slightly alter the name (make sure the original is obvious) of a famous personage -- past or present, real or fictional -- and describe the resulting nonpersonage, or offer a quote from that person, or both. | LET CUL HIS | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version | Jonathan Jensen | Text file | Contest image | Post e-version |