| WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1601 | Stop, Hey, What's That Sound? | Tell us what these noise-words mean. | H |
| 1520 | Nextra! Nextra! | Read All About it. Predict the big news events of 2023 | H |
| 1518 | The final Post edition | Some all-time favorite entries | H |
| 1488 | Let's recycle! | Come up with humorous uses for ANY product or combination of products listed at RepurposeMaterials.com, including but no restricted to the provided list. | H |
| 1478 | It's a small, small world | Write a humorous poem, eight lines max, using only words from the provided list of 1,000 most common English words. | I |
| 1477 | Thinking outside the big box | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided items listed on walmart.com<\em>. | H H |
| 1473 | Sign right here | Write a funny message for the overhead highway sign. | H H |
| 1465 | Put your '22 cents in for our annual pre-timeline | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2022. | H |
| 1462 | Time for a new career? | Tell what would happen if any two people switched professions or other roles. | H |
| 1457 | What is Ask Backwards XL? | You are on "Jeopardy!"; various answers are provided. You provide the questions. | H |
| 1444 | It's a whole new all-game | Slightly change the name of a sport, sports event or similar pastime to create a new one, and briefly describe it. | H |
| 1435 | Who needs Peeps when we have CICADAS? | Create a witty visual artwork that includes at least one real cicada or cicada casing (the body-shaped shell from which the insect emerges) and send us a photo of it. | H |
| 1431 | The On-Our-Way-Back Machine | Tell us how (in some funny way) things will be different as we emerge from the pandemic. | H |
| 1425 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | H |
| 1422 | The Collaboratory | Think of a book, movie or song title. Then pair its creator, star, singer, etc., with an unrelated "collaborator" to produce a wordplay on the title. | H |
| 1411 | Back end of a Bulwer | Write a humorously awful final sentence or two to an imaginary novel. | H |
| 1399 | The lie-zy days of summer | Tell us some bogus trivia about the summer or things that happen or have happened in the summer. | 4 |
| 1398 | This is the year that is | Describe the year 2020 in a novel, colorful metaphor or simile. You may also offer an original graphic. | H H |
| 1397 | Trope springs eternal | Use any of the four provided standard settings -- (a) desert island, (b) bartender at a bar, (c) desert, (d) psychiatrist next to a couch -- and describe a cartoon that includes your choice of characters, along with a caption. | H |
| 1395 | Add nauseam: A plus-one contest | Add a "plus one" to some familiar numerical grouping, true or fictional | I H H H |
| 1393 | Second chance (acned conches?) for anagrams | Describe any of the provided anagram businesses, or offer its slogan. | 3 |
| 1361 | 2020 vision -- the year in preview | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2020. | H |
| 1345 | The confaketionary -- food fictoids | Tell us some comically false "fact" about food, drink or dining. | H |
| 1321 | Pumping Prime: Amazon reviews | Send us a humorous "review" (like the provided samples from our earlier contests) for any of the provided items. | H |
| 1316 | Lies, damn lies, with statistics | Tell us some bogus trivia using "statistics" or some bogus quantitative meaure. | H |
| 1311 | Nextra! Nextra! The year in preview | Name some humorous event to happen in 2019. | H H H |
| 1304 | All the muse that's fit to print | Present a "what if" scenario and explain its effect. | H |
| 1302 | Ask Backwards 37 | Fifteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. Do one or more, up to a total of 25 A&Q's. | H |
| 1295 | Really, now? A matter of degree. | Tell us an indication to some problem, followed by an even more dire sign. | 4 |
| 1285 | That is so wrong! | Supply a trivia question along with both the correct answer and a cleverly "wrong" guess. | H 3 |
| 1282 | Picture This | Write a caption for one or more of the provided pictures. | H |
| 1260 | What lies (are) ahead for 2018 | Jokingly predict some news event to happen in 2018. | H |
| 1256 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Provide a funny caption for any of the provided cartoons. | H |
| 1251 | Thanking outside the box | Tell us something to be thankful for. | H |
| 1248 | C'mon, fess up! | Send us a brief "confession" -- there will be categories for true and just-kidding. | H |
| 1232 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H |
| 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. | H |
| 1206 | Do-over the do-over -- enter any of the year's contests | Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1149 to 1202, except for Week 1152, last year's do-over. | H H |
| 1204 | Well, at least . . . | Note some good news for the coming year to comfort -- or "comfort" -- those who are depressed about the change of presidential administration. | H H 2 |
| 1197 | Picture This -- It's a Bob Staake caption contest | Write a caption for any of the cartoons provided. | H H H |
| 1180 | Strip search! | Find a line of text from any comic strip or panel that appears on the Post's comics pages or on washingtonpost.com/comics, dated anywhere between June 16 and June 27, and either (a) supply a question that the original line could answer, or (b) follow it with your own line of dialogue or reply. | H |
| 1162 | An 8-year Re-Onion | Write a fictional Onion-type headline. | H H |
| 1143 | Ask Backwards | Provided are 15 answers, separated by asterisks. You supply the questions. | H |
| 1139 | A little sixty-four play | Fashion an entry by selecting one element from each of the provided menu groups. Make sure you indicate the combination you chose (e.g., 2-C-iii). | H |
| 1131 | One man's trash | Suggest a humorous way to reuse one or more of the items listed above -- or anything else advertised on RepurposedMaterialsinc.com. | H |
| 1130 | Yux Redux: Play on a foreign phrase | Make a word play on a foreign phrase or term (or English phrase using foreign words) and describe it. | H |
| 1127 | From the creators of . . . | Think up a spinoff of a real TV series, past or present, and furnish a description or bit of dialogue. | H H |
| 1126 | Picture this | Provide a humorous caption for any of the cartoons provided. | H H |
| 1110 | The mama of all humor | Write a [Someone’s] Mama joke for some well-known figure, past or present, real or fictional. | H |
| 1109 | Fictoids of Columbia | Tell us some humorously untrue “facts” about Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. | H H H |
| 1106 | Show your resolve | Suggest a New Year's resolution that someone might make 100 or more years in the future. | H |
| 1102 | Let's get Sirius | Suggest a new radio channel and describe it. | H |
| 1096 | Picture this | Write a humorous caption for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. | H 4 |
| 1085 | Eww-venirs: Ideas for gift shops | Suggest a humorous--but NOT horribly tasteless--tchotchke, T-shirt, etc., from a real or imagined gift shop at a particular tourist site. | H H |
| 1081 | It's the stupidity, stupid | Write us stupid questions that will make us laugh. | H |
| 1063 | Same difference | Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different. | H |
| 1059 | With parens like these . . . | Add some words in parentheses to a well-known song title to make it funnier in some way. | H |
| 1058 | Eastwood Ho | Create a good-bad-ugly progression. | H |
| 1057 | Sportin' lie | Give us some fake sports trivia. | H |
| 1050 | Just redo it | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1000 through Week 1046. | T H |
| 1044 | Play it safe | Come up with a comically safety-conscious rule for the workplace or elsewhere. | H H |
| 1035 | The Empy 500 | Explain what news Bob Staake is trying to tell in any of the provided drawings. | H H |
| 1026 | 'Might' makes ink | Give us a joke using any of the using any of the provided "you might be" templates. | 2 |
| 1024 | Gorey thoughts | Send us some edgy rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. The pairs are AB, CD, EF, GH, IJ, KL, MN, OP, QR, ST, UV, WX, and YZ. | H |
| 1023 | Hai there, Martians! | Write one or more humorous haiku that will greet the Martians or share a little nugget of what life is like on Earth. | H |
| 1022 | What's the diff? | Explain how any two of the provided items are alike or different. | H H |
| 1019 | What a turnoff | Tell us some creative things that children and families could do during Screen-Free Week. | W 4 |
| 1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | H |
| 1010 | Picture this | Write a caption for any of the five provided cartoons. | H |
| 1002 | Wring out the OED | Make up a false definition for any of the listed OED words. | H |
| 998 | Set the law on us | Suggest an odd law for a particular place in the world. | 3 |
| 997 | Unworthy causes | Name a dubious charity and describe its mission. | H |
| 994 | Stick it to us | Suggest a slogan for one of our two new honorable-mention Loser Magnets for 2012-2013. | H |
| 986 | Hear here! | Give us a sentence or short dialogue that would be a lot funnier if a word in it were mistaken for a homophone of that word. | 2 |
| 979 | The madding crowd | Suggest funny, original ways to tick people off. | H |
| 960 | Raving reviews | Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. | 4 |
| 956 | Give us some bad ideas | Finish any of the provided "You know" phrases. | H H |
| 954 | Bring on the 'fight' jokes | Tell us an original joke ending with “And then the fight started.” | H |
| 946 | Another round of Bierce | Write a clever definition of a word, name or multi-word term. | H |
| 937 | Staake it to him | Write a caption for any of the five pages or details pictured from some of Bob's more than 50 picture books. | 3 |
| 930 | We WANT stupid complaints! | Complain comically unreasonably about some innocuous thing appearing in the print Post or on washingtonpost.com over the next week or the previous few days. | H |
| 926 | Outrageous fortunes | Come up with a fortune cookie line that you'd like to see. | H |
| 916 | Bank shots | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from April 22 through May 2 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H |
| 915 | Picture this | Write a caption for any of the cartoons pictured here. | 3 |
| 911 | Help! | Create a short humorous dialogue -- or a monologue featuring one party -- of a phone call to 911, or a call for help to someone else. | 3 |
| 895 | Picture this | Supply a caption for any of these cartoons. | H |
| 883 | Same difference | Choose any two items from the list above and explain why they are alike or are different from each other. | H H |
| 878 | Safety in blunders | Tell us a way to make the nation more secure. | H |
| 831 | A Big To-Do | Name a "bucket list" item for a well-known real or fictional character. | H |
| 818 | Name the Day | Cite an actual holiday or one of those silly commemorative days, weeks or months for which you can find previous evidence, and supply a snarky description or slogan. | H |
| 812 | Rx-Related Humor | Offer up some entirely false medical or psychological "fact. | H H |
| 811 | Rock-Bottom Lines | Tell us a sign that the economy couldn't get worse. | H |
| 806 | DQ Very Much | Give us a phrase or sentence that would nip a potential relationship in the bud (or elsewhere). | 3 |
| 805 | Brand Eccchs | Give us an original name in any of the above categories (not an actual badly named product). | H |
| 794 | Ripped Off From the Headlines | Send us some Onion-type headlines. | H H H |
| 789 | Doctrine in The House? | State a humorous, original "doctrine" for a person or other entity. | H |
| 788 | The Back End of a Bulwer | Give us a comically terrible ending of a novel. | H H 3 |
| 786 | Top of the Staake | So get your thoughts provoked for No. Umpteen of our cartoon caption contest. | H H |
| 764 | Can You Up Chuck? | Come up with entirely new and funny Chuck Norris Facts. | H H |
| 751 | Strike Gold | Slightly change the name of an existing or former TV show to create a program that can scab the writers' strike. | L |
| 745 | Hurry Up and Slow Down! | Suggest particular ways that would slow life down, or ways that would speed it up. | H |
| 743 | Picture This | Write a caption for any of these Bob Staake cartoons. | H |
| 741 | Well, What Do You Know? | Tell us what Major Life Lessons can be derived from any of these venues or situations. | 4 |
| 740 | Give Us a Hint | Offer clues in various situations that something isn't working out well. | H |
| 738 | So What's To Liken? | Take any two items from the utterly random list above and explain how they are different or how they are similar. | H |
| 727 | We Get a C-Section | Tell us some pros and cons of moving The Style Invitational to the Saturday Style section; or write us up some free promo-ad copying announcing the move. | H H |
| 721 | Know Your Market | For any of the provided photos, supply two captions: one that would appeal to The Style Invitational and one that would appeal to the Harrisburg Patriot-News. | H |
| 715 | Your Mug Here | Send us an idea for a slogan for the back of the new Loser T-shirt. | H H |
| 714 | Amalgamated Steal | Merge two or more company or product names into a new, ORIGINAL company or product. | H |
| 711 | Join Now! | Hyphenate the beginning and end of any two multi-syllabic words appearing anywhere in the April 29 or May 6 Style or Sunday Arts section, and then define the compound. | H |
| 709 | A Return Engagement | Come up with some novel change to the tax code: a tax on something ought to be taxed, a credit for something that should be rewarded, what the $3 should go to instead of presidential campaigns, etc. | H |
| 706 | Questionable Journalism | Take any sentence that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from March 24 through April 2 and come up with a question it could answer. | H |
| 702 | Unreal Facts | Come up with a comically false factoid. | H |
| 698 | Let's Get Personnel | Send us some humorously creative questions that a job interviewer would ask an applicant, or some questions it might be fun to ask the interviewer. | H |
| 697 | We Beg You To Differ | Take any two items from the truly random provided list and explain why they are different or why they are similar. | H |
| 690 | Funnies: How Time Flies | Pull Billy of "The Family Circus" -- or any of his comic strip neighbors in The Washington Post -- out of his time warp to a different age, era or place, and provide a short storyline or dialogue or caption. | H H |
| 689 | Busted Play | Come up with a more objectionable or stupid toy than a working fart-powered toy rocket. | H H |
| 688 | Making Short Work | Write a humorous six-word story. | H H |
| 686 | It's Baaaaack! | Explain why you, or anyone else in particular, ought to have this fine oil-on-panel by Fred Dawson of Beltsville, or what it might be used for. | W P L H |
| 685 | Thank it Over | Tell us some things to be thankful for. | H H 4 |
| 680 | Rendered Speechless | Provide dialogue to fill the balloons in any of these cartoons. | T H |
| 679 | Ask Backwards | Here are the answers. You supply the questions to as many as you dare. | M H |
| 675 | Cut Us Some Slack | Come up with humorous ways to be lazy. | W H |
| 672 | Just Sign This | Write a funny message for an overhead highway sign. | H H 2 |
| 670 | A Test of Character | Change a word or phrase by only one letter -- substitute one letter for another, add a letter or transpose two letters -- and explain how they are different or similar. | H 2 |
| 668 | Cut From the Chase | Write an original John-Bunnell-style wrap-up to a crime story -- or one for a more minor transgression. | H |
| 661 | Name Any Good Movies Lately? | Give us a funny new title for an existing movie. | H |
| 658 | Not in the Cards | Send us ideas for cards that would likely be ruled "FBN" (Funny, But No) by Hallmark but F&YYY by the Empress. | H |
| 652 | Ask Backward | You are on "Jeopardy!" Above are the answers. You supply the questions. | H 3 |
| 648 | Caller IDiot | Name a product or company and supply a stupid question to ask the consumer hotline person. | H H |
| 646 | Warped Perspectives | Tell us how two different types of people, animals, organizations, etc., would interpret any of the provided cartoons. | H H |
| 644 | Winter Limp Picks | Brighten up the Winter Olympics with some new events and rules. Alternatively, you can suggest a commercial or ad campaign that could be tied in with the Winter Games or one of its sports. | H |
| 641 | Dreck of All Trades | Come up with a business that combines two or more disparate products or services, and tell us its name and/or something else funny about it. | H |
| 640 | Whassa Motto Wid You? | Give us a slogan or motto for any of the states, the District or the U.S. Territories. | H |
| 639 | What's the Small Idea? | Do you have a senseless idea for improving the day-to-day lives of everyday Americans? | H H |
| 633 | Your Secret Here! | Send us some original secrets (they don't have to be true). | W H |
| 631 | Picture This | What's going on in any of these cartoons? | H H |
| 625 | Haven't Seen It | Make up a new plot for an existing movie title. | H H |
| 620 | Keep the Empress Employed | Suggest some original, creative ways that The Post could increase its circulation. | W |
| 615 | Airy Persiflage | Write some jokes you'd like to hear in an airport announcement. | H |
| 614 | In-Stock Characters | Pitch us an idea for a summer movie featuring two or more of the provided characters. | H 2 |
| 612 | Oh, and One More Thing | What was the thing that didn't make the cut on any list? | H |
| 610 | MASH | Find two well-known movies, plays, or TV shows whose title have a significant word in common, combine their titles, and describe the hybrid. | H |
| 608 | Comeback Next Week | Come up with original snide retorts to various rude questions or comments. | H |
| 607 | Contest Fodder Created! | Produce absurdly parochial views of historical events. | H H H H |
| 602 | Take a Letter -- Again | Take a word, term or name that begins with A, B, C or D; either add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter, or transpose two letters; and define the new word. | H |
| 601 | Anticdotes | Give us an untrue anecdote in response to one of the provided Editor's Query topics. | H |
| 599 | So What's the News? | Tell us what the illustrated events are. | H |
| 597 | Eccchsibits | Come up with some alternative museums and exhibits for the nation's capital. | H |
| 593 | Take This, Job, and . . . | Come up with some entertainingly awful things that a Job's comforter might offer. A Job's comforter is someone who seems to be offering sympathy but instead just makes the person feel worse, either intentionally or unintentionally. | H |
| 589 | Hyphen the Terrible (New Edition!) | Combine the beginning of any multi-syllabic word in this week's Invitational with the end of any other multi-syllabic word in this column (or in this week's Web supplement) to coin a new word, and then define it. | H |
| 587 | The B-List | Come up with an In-Out list for 2005, or other pairings. | H |
| 584 | Deliver Us a Post | Come up with some new Cabinet or other positions that the president could establish, and describe the job responsibilities. | 4 |
| 581 | Evil Things in Store | Think of evil or just plain stupid practices that the staff of a retail or other establishment might perpetrate. | H H H H |
| 576 | Well, Excuuuuse Us! | Come up with new excuses for any common human shortcoming or imperfection. | H H |
| 575 | T Hee Hee | Come up with new ideas for both front and back of the Loser T-shirts. | H H H |
| 567 | A Running Gag | Explain how any of the provided bizarre cartoons by Bob Staake relates to the current presidential campaign. | H |
| 560 | The 97.5-Meter Dash | Suggest some time- and cost-saving measures so the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens will open on time. | H |
| 559 | Your Slogan Here | Come up with a clever slogan or sign for a business. | 2 |
| 558 | Set Us Right | Send us conservative-leaning humor in any of the provided genres. | H |
| 557 | Oh, for Namesakes! | Take two people, real or fictional, who share some element of their names and explain the difference between them. | H H |
| 553 | Picture This | Tell us what's going on in one or more of the provided cartoons. | H H H |
| 547 | Give Us a Bad Name | Take an existing product or business name and pair it with an incompatible one. | H |
| 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. | H 3 |
| 536 | And the Horse He Rodin On | Come up with some words we can stick in the back of The Inker. | H |
| 535 | Picture This | Can you tell us what astonishing news Bob Staake is trying to pass on with cartoons? | 3 |
| 531 | Your Cynic Duties | Come up with a saying that sounds as if it's going to be inspirational, but winds up being cynical, misanthropic or sad. | H H |
| 527 | Rite of First Defusal | Come up with witty or bizarre things to say to defuse the tension in awkward moments. | H |
| 526 | Conventional Wisdumb | Answer any of the provided questions. | W |
| 524 | Around Things Moving | Take the title of any book or movie, rearrange the words, and explain what the new book or movie is about. | H |
| 523 | Hard to Overstate | Propose ways to make modern life just a little bit harder than it needs to be. | H |
| 520 | I, Object | These items were ordered by well-known people. Who ordered them, and why? | 3 |
| 519 | Hey, Baby, What's Your Sector? | Come up with pickup lines that could be heard only in Washington. | H H H |
| 518 | Say, Kids, What Time Is It? | Fill in the blanks in the following sentence: "You know it's time to ------ when ------. | H |
| 517 | Insert Joke Here | Slip a single bogus sentence into next year's State of the Union address, figuring the Prez will probably just read it right off the teleprompter. | H |
| 506 | The Battle of All Mottoes | Provide a slogan for any federal department agency, department, office, etc. | H H |
| 504 | Life Is Snort | Write a schmaltzy last line of a "Life Is Short. | H H |
| 502 | Picture This | Who are these people? What are they doing? | H |
| 496 | The Style Invitational: The First Dreckade | Submit new entries to any of the old contests listed, and try to beat The Very Best of the Past 10 Years. | H H |
| 492 | Cheap Tricks | Come up with extreme cost-conserving measures for these difficult economic times. | H |
| 483 | Obitter Fate | Give us an obit headline for some famous person, currently living or dead. | H |
| 480 | In No Uncertain Terminations | Come up with a way to stop any unwanted overture in its tracks. | 2 |
| 473 | Offensive Line | Find what's offensive in any of the provided cartoons, and explain. | H H |
| 472 | Water Stupid Idea | Propose bad ideas for saving water in the continuing drought. | H H 3 |
| 468 | Ism This Stupid? | Take any common prefix and attach it to any well-known "ism" and define the new term. | H |
| 464 | Cursive Writing | Come up with a new curse for this millennium. | W H |
| 453 | Haiku 2 U2 | Write a haiku summarizing the career of any American politician, living or dead. A haiku is generally defined as a nonrhyming poem, of three lines. The first and last lines are five syllables; the middle line is seven. | H |
| 444 | Advice Squad | Take any letter from today's advice columns and answer it in the voice of someone famous, living or dead. | H 2 |
| 441 | Spit the Difference | Take any two nouns that appear on the front page of today's Washington Post and explain how the nouns differ from each other. | H |
| 440 | Picture This | What is going on in these cartoons? | H H |
| 437 | The Telegraph Poll | Tell us the beginning of a joke that badly telegraphs the punch line. | H 3 |
| 429 | Shark Instruments | Tell us what would be a sign that any current institution--TV show, newspaper feature, magazine, business, etc.--has jumped the shark. | H H H |
| 428 | No Rest for the Query | Answer any of the provided supposedly unanswerable questions in the voice of any famous person, living or dead. | H |
| 427 | Skinned | Come up with events that have a smaller chance of happening than the Redskins winning the Super Bowl. | H |
| 419 | Don't Spare the Rodney | Come up with indications that one might not be getting no respect. | H |
| 418 | Xtreme Invitational | Come up with signs you are overdoing it any in any of the provided categories. | H |
| 413 | Bland Ambition | Come up with one or more items from an underachiever's list of midlife resolutions. | H |
| 412 | Painful Climaxes | Come up with statements that start really dramatically, but leave you sorta flat at the end. | 5 |
| 411 | X's and Oaths | Take any oath, pledge, declaration or slogan and update it. | H |
| 407 | Adverbiage | Come up with a witticism or a joke by making a pun out of an adverb. Unlike Tom Swiftlys, your adverb must modify not a verb but an adjective. | 2 |
| 403 | Cry, Uncle! | Write the beginnings of an obituary that will provide the details of what happened to the Style Invitational Uncle. | H H |
| 402 | Spitting the Difference | Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. | 2 |
| 401 | A Matter of Degree | Describe a sign of some modest change in a situation and pair it with a sign of an extreme change in that same situation. | H 5 |
| 399 | IT PAYS TO BE GENDEROUS | Write a short film description that could persuade a woman that the guy movie he wants to see is really close to being a gal movie, or vice versa. | H H |
| 394 | Life in the Blurbs | Come up with a blurb used to sell a real or imagined book or movie that would be likely to have the opposite of the intended effect. | H |
| 387 | By Jingo | Come up with a joke that could be written and understood only by a Washingtonian. | H |
| 382 | Pickup Schticks | Write inept pickup lines, by either sex, to either sex. | H |
| 380 | The New-Name Offense | Propose changes for the names of places and things that need it, either because there is something wrong with their name, or because another name would be so much more descriptive. | H |
| 376 | Apply Yourself | Supply bad openings to college application biographies. | H |
| 372 | Trial Balloons | Fill in the balloons. | 3 |
| 351 | Dubya Fun | Take any well-known statement, expression, slogan, etc., and rewrite it the way Dubya might have said it. | H |
| 346 | 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. | 2 |
| 340 | ASK BACKWARDS 12 | You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 339 | Campaignful Developments | Come up with signs that a presidential campaign might be in trouble. | H 3 |
| 336 | THE "STY"LE INVITATIONAL | Choose any word and emphasize a single part of it, as though you were saying the word out loud with "air quotes" around the key part. Then redefine the word. You cannot alter the spelling of the word. | H H D |
| 335 | A LOVER'S SPAT | Come up with some inept "sweet nothings"--graceless terms of endearment. | H |
| 332 | AUTHORS IN SEARCH OF A CHARACTER | Come up with a three- or four-panel cartoon about any of the winning characters from Week 332. | W |
| 330 | NERD PLANET FROM THE SUN | Come up with comments from the Nerd Side even less interesting than the observation that the 21st century doesn't really start until 2001. | H |
| 325 | THE BURMA ROAD | Propose welcoming doggerel for states or cities patterned after Burma Shave signs. | 4 |
| 324 | A PREQUEL OPPORTUNITY OFFERING | Come up with a "prequel" to some classic film or work of literature. You must produce a title and a brief plot summary, which of course must take place prior to the main action of the original work. | 5 |
| 323 | THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD INVITATIONAL | Come up with not-quite-ready inventions, past or present. | H 3 |
| 322 | YOU NAME IT | Take a well known pair or group of names, extend one of them in some manner, and explain how the group dynamic changes. | H H |
| 321 | INTERPRET THIS | Take any of the provided cartoons and come up with a matched pair of interpretations for what is happening. | W |
| 317 | PICK US A WINNER | Come up with flawed contest ideas, and the single, obvious, too-good-to-beat entry. | H |
| 314 | IT'S THE LIST YOU CAN DO | Start with the name of a famous person, living or dead, real or fictional, either a full name or partial name. Progress through a series of other names or phrases. Each name or phrase must be related to the prior item either by being a homophone or a definition. Eventually, arrive at a name or a phrase that is an appropriate pairing with the original name. | H |
| 311 | A JERRY-BUILT CONTEST | Find cleverly disguised threats to public morality or hallowed American values that may be secretly lurking out there in our culture. | H 5 |
| 309 | A STINKING PILE OF THESES | Write an all-purpose first line or paragraph for any doctoral dissertation, designed to impress the heck out of academics. | H |
| 302 | UNSTATED TRUTHS | Come up with lines that you'll never hear the provided people say. | H H H H |
| 301 | PICTURE THIS | What is happening in these cartoons? | H H |
| 292 | PAYING THE BILL | Propose appropriate punishments for President Clinton. | W H |
| 288 | PICTURE THIS | What is happening in these pictures? | H |
| 285 | ELEVENIS, ANYTWO? | Take a common phrase containing a specific number, add or subtract one, and explain the revised phrase. | H |
| 284 | ASK BACKWARDS MCLXVII | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H H |
| 280 | EXPRESSING IT NICELY | Come up with colorful expressions for any of the six provided activities, to make them sound a little less tawdry. | 7 |
| 278 | THE STALE INVITATIONAL | Begin with a word. Add, subtract or change a single letter only, and then provide a new definition. | H |
| 277 | LIFE IN THE BLURBS | Come up a simple plot summary to help attract the modern audience to any classic work of fiction. It must be literally true and defensible. | 2 |
| 273 | UNSEENS WE'D LIKE TO SEE | Provide examples of any of the provided categories of things that will never happen. | H |
| 265 | A SPORK OF GENIUS | Come up with new products like the spork: combinations of two existing products that work together in some special way. Name the device and explain its function. | H |
| 264 | ASK BACKWARDS | You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. What are the questions? | H H |
| 263 | THE GAME OF THE NAME | Propose a bad name for the provided categories. | H |
| 261 | WHAT IF YOU GIVE IT A TRY II | Alter some crucial moment in history, and then tell us the likely outcome. | H H |
| 260 | IT'S A SNAP | Come up with replacements for the two hackneyed answers: "Is the Pope Catholic?" and "When Hell freezes over. | 4 |
| 258 | IT'S A BIRD. IT'S A PAIN. | Choose one or more of the provided super powers and tell us what you would do with it. | H H |
| 250 | OH, GREAT | Complete the sentence "Wouldn't it be great if . . . | H |
| 249 | BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS | Supply a silver lining for any scourge or social ill facing America or the world. | H H H |
| 246 | OUR OWN DEVICES | What do these contraptions do? Tell us in 50 words or fewer. | H 4 |
| 242 | SACRED COW PIES | Take cheap shots at sacred institutions only, places and things that are so noble and wholesome they are beyond reproach, from among the items provided. | H |
| 240 | ADDING INSULT | Come up with elegant insults directed at any famous person, living or dead, such as the real encomiums above. | H |
| 238 | CHALK IT UP TO STUPIDITY | Propose apologies for yourself in the style of Bart Simpson writing on his blackboard. | H H |
| 227 | WILD PITCHES | Come up worthy successors to Joe Camel. Name the product, and describe the totally inappropriate cartoon character that would be created to represent it. | H H |
| 224 | DRAWING CONCLUSIONS | What is wrong with these pictures? | H |
| 220 | RSVP | Provide an answer to any of the dumb questions from Week 217. | H 4 |
| 218 | CALLING THE TOON | Who are these people? What are they doing? | H |
| 217 | NO QUESTION ABOUT IT | Come up with truly stupid questions. | H |
| 214 | ASK BACKWARDS IX | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are your answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 213 | A SIN OF THE TIMES | Submit campaign or other political practices that would be illegal and/or unethical. | H H |
| 212 | DUMB AS THE POST | Come up with even stupider crimes than those committed by Montgomery County's "gentleman burglars. | H H H 6 |
| 211 | GIVE US THE BACKS OFF YOUR SHIRTS | Design the back of the fourth Style Invitational T-shirt, with anything that captures the transcendent indignity of this contest. | H H |
| 210 | RANDOM MEMO | Supply embarrassing "While You Were Out" phone messages that might be left for famous people, in plain sight, while they are away from their desks. | W |
| 209 | WE NEED SOME SEASONING | Come up with the first signs of spring in Washington. | H H |
| 207 | TIED TO BE FIT | Each of the eight provided items is related, in some fashion, to one or more of the provided individuals. You make the connections. | H 4 |
| 199 | WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? | Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. | H |
| 198 | YOU MUST BE MAD II | Come up with proposals designed to infuriate special interest groups. | H H |
| 196 | YOU MUST BE MAD | Come up with a contemporary Scene We'd Like to See. | W H |
| 195 | THE MARTHIAN CHRONICLES | Come up with items for Martha Stewart's December-January calendar of projects. | H |
| 194 | ADVICE SQUAD | Answer any of the provided questions unwisely. | W |
| 191 | GOING THROUGH A PHRASE | Come up with phrase for an American English phrasebook that would provide no practical help whatsoever to a foreigner trying to get along in the United States. | 5 |
| 187 | RACE TO THE FINISH LINE | In 75 words or fewer, continue in a productive fashion the story line of the provided real first lines of famous literary works. | H H |
| 186 | CALLING THE TOON | Who are these people? What are they doing? | H |
| 183 | COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG II | Create hawkers' rhymes for modern-day occupations like lobbyists, lawyers, talk show hosts, actuaries, etc., at a maximum of four lines. It must contain at least one rhyme. | 2 |
| 182 | CAN YOU STOP THIS? | Come up with a conversation stopper, a line likely to end all further discourse, perhaps even empty a room. | H |
| 181 | YOU CAN TAKE IT TO DEBUNK | Take a common slogan or saying and prove it wrong with at least one example. | H |
| 180 | WHEN IN DOUBT, PUN | Take any headline in today's Post and improve it by somehow turning it into a pun. | H |
| 178 | DEEP THROATS | Come up with Deep Thoughts, in the style of Jack Handey of "Saturday Night Live." A Deep Thought is a short, simple, seemingly inspirational observation that winds up being cynical, ironic, or just plain weird. | H H |
| 177 | SOUNDS LIKE TROUBLE | Tell us what any of the provided sounds are. | W H H |
| 175 | FOSSIL FOOLS | What would aliens mistakenly conclude about us from any of the provided items? | W H |
| 174 | THE EDGE OF MIGHT | Complete any of the four provided "you might" phrases. | H |
| 173 | DEAD RECKONING | Propose a question that might be asked by a living celebrity to a famous dead person. You must name the living person, name the dead person, and tell us the question. | 4 |
| 170 | THE ELEMENTS OF SMILE | Why are these people smiling? | H H |
| 169 | DIFF'RENT JOKES | Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. | H |
| 157 | WARNING SIGNS | Complete any of these "you might be about to" warning sentences. | H H H |
| 156 | HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE | Create new word by combining the first half of a hyphenated word with the second half of a hyphenated word. Both words must appear in the same story anywhere in today's Washington Post. Each entry must provide a definition for the newly created word. | H |
| 153 | STUMP US | Complete this sentence, "I should be elected President of the United States because. . ." and launch your campaign. | H H |
| 150 | TRIAL BALLOONS | What are the people saying? | H H |
| 143 | IT'S MY PARODY (& I'LL TRY IF I WANT TO) | Rewrite any common jingle or theme song in the style of famous writer. | 2 |
| 140 | WHAT IF YOU GIVE IT A TRY? | Come up with "What-If" scenarios and logical outcomes. | 5 |
| 138 | LIST BUT NOT LEAST | Come up with Top-10-style lists for any of the above four subjects. | H H |
| 137 | VELVIS LIVES | Come up with a title and/or art gallery blurb for this velvet Elvis painting. | H |
| 117 | GIVE 'EM HELOISE | Come up with a tribute to Heloise, that queen of inanely creative recycling. | H 5 |
| 112 | POOP FICTION | Come up with the opening lines of a book so bad it will compel you to stop reading immediately; maximum 50 words. | H |
| 111 | ASK BACKWARDS V | Here are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 110 | DO NOT INHALE THIS PAGE | Come up with absurd warning labels that might be found on common products. | H |
| 106 | DRAWING CONCLUSIONS | Who are these people, and what are they doing? | H H |