WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
---|---|---|---|
1619 | A So-So Contest | Give us jokes that are so [something] that [something]. | H |
1618 | Week 100! | ...which we celebrate with a centennial contest | H H |
1617 | Mess With Our Heads | Look at a headline and see a funnier meaning. | H H H |
1614 | The Tile Invitational XI | Make up new words with the letters we give you | H H |
1613 | What's the Worst That Could Happen? | After the election, we mean. And be funny about it. | T |
1612 | Asterisky Business | Put words in Horace's mouth: Tell us a joke that not everyone will get. | M H |
1609 | Saved! | Tell us funny ways to be thrifty in these parlous times | H H |
1608 | Stick It | An election bumper sticker contest | H |
1607 | Funny, Init? | Compare two people who have the same initials. | H |
1606 | The Cold New Trend | What would be an even sillier new fad than decorator refrigerator shelves? | H H |
1605 | Get Thee to a Punnery | Change a quote slightly and credit it to someone else. | H H |
1604 | Call Your Dog | Give us creative names for various pets | H |
1603 | Hu-boy, It's Limerixicon XXI | Write a limerick featuring a word beginning 'hu' or 'hy'. | 4 |
1601 | Stop, Hey, What's That Sound? | Tell us what these noise-words mean. | W H H H |
1599 | Picture This | It's our caption contest. | H H H |
1598 | Same Difference | We give you a random list of things, and you tell us how any two are alike or different. | H |
1594 | So Good! So Bad! So Ugly! | We bring back a classic contest | H H |
1593 | Qwerty Lashes | Write us something funny from just a few letters of the keyboard. | M H |
1591 | Our Typo Humor | More fun with headlines. | P I H H |
1589 | Wait Wait Right Here! | Write some 'Not My Job' questions a la the NPR quiz show. | T |
1588 | Colt Fusion | Because of our munificense and guilt, you get a full hundred foal names to 'breed' for 'grandfoals' | H |
1586 | Pun for the Roses | Our annual crazy-popular horse 'breeding' wordplay contest. | H H |
1585 | Bring Up the Rear | Move the last letter of a word to the front. | H H |
1584 | Seeds of Change | Make an anagram of a name-brand product. | H H |
1583 | A Thousand Words | Write a funny poem about the artwork of your choice. | H |
1581 | SOTU-Speak | Use words from Biden's State of the Union speech to write some lines for another oration. | T |
1580 | Hi, Anxiety! | Tell us some funny ways to stress yourself out. | H |
1579 | Captions Courageous | Write a description for any of six photos | H |
1578 | The Pepys Show | Give us a diary entry from anyone in history. | H |
1576 | Praise the Lurid! | Give us clickbait headlines for mundane stories. | H |
1575 | The Ughscars and the Phewlitzers | Give us an idea for a bad book or movie. | H 4 |
1573 | The Invitational Week 55: Tour de Fours — Be STUD-ly | Give us a new word or phrase containing 'DUST' in any order of letters. | T H |
1570 | The Invitational, Week 52: Replaying Around -- The 2023 retrospective, Part II | Enter or reenter our Week 26-50. | H H H H H |
1569 | Look Back in Inker -- Our 2023 retrospective, Part 1 | Enter or reenter our Week 1-25 contests. | H H H |
1568 | Nextra! Nextra! | Tell us the funny news events from 2024 | M H H |
1567 | Picture This | A caption contest | H H |
1566 | Well, the Good News Is ... | Put a positive spin on a bad-news headline | 3 |
1564 | "Air" "Quotes" | A new forefinger contest | T H H H |
1563 | The Perfect(ly Ridiculous) Gift | Offer up some products for people-who-have-everything catalogs. | M |
1561 | Let It Be a Lesson to Us | Tell us some things to be learned from Costco, the bathroom, TV shows, etc. | H H |
1560 | The 'Hole Story | Write us a funny 'Am I The Asshole' question | I H H |
1559 | As the Word Turns | 'Discover' new words by snaking through this random grid | H H |
1556 | Cross Us Up | Mirror a phrase, more or less | M |
1555 | Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us? | Give us "backronyms" | T |
1554 | U (Heart) TFG's BFFs | Reach out to beleaguered Trump supporters and bathe them in the warmth of your love, to help bind the nation’s wounds | H |
1551 | Ask Backwards XLII | We give the answers. You give the questions. | H H |
1550 | Holy Moly, It's Limerixicon XX | Write a limerick featuring a word beginning "ho-". | P H |
1549 | The Tile Invitational X | It's our 10th running of this coin-a-word game. | W M I H H |
1545 | Their Base Behavior | Tell humorously how some business or organization could alter its product or message to appeal to Trump’s cult. | P |
1544 | Same Difference | Tell us humorously how items on the list are alike, different, or otherwise linked. | H |
1543 | F Things Up | Neologisms by adding Fs or changing letters to F | H |
1542 | Your (B)ad Here | Tweak an ad slogan to use it for another product | H H H H H H |
1541 | Wrong enough for ya? | Fake facts about the weather | T H |
1540 | Picture This | It's caption contest time, with eight motley pictures to choose from. | P H H |
1539 | Get Real, Reel | Name a scene in a movie, a TV show, or literature, and tell us how it might be revised (perhaps less satisfyingly but far more realistically) | H H H |
1537 | A Crooning Achievement | Write a lyric for a politician to sing. | M |
1536 | Colt Following | Now that we have the winner and punners-up of our venerable foal-name contest, it's time for 'grandfoals'. | H H H |
1534 | Pun for the Roses | Our renowned horse name 'breeding' contest returns! | T M H |
1533 | The Very Last 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions' | Tell us a stupid question followed by a funny retort. | L H H |
1531 | The Worst New Contest Ever | Describe something that would be worse than a second Trump presidency | P |
1530 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret any headline by adding a 'bank head'. | T |
1528 | It's Our Birthday. Party Like It's 1993. | As the Invite turns 30, enter your choice of contests from our year of infancy | H |
1527 | Film Flim-Flam | Use all the letters in a movie title to make a new movie | H H H |
1524 | Picture This | A caption contest | H 3 |
1523 | Where in Hell ...? | Name a "circle" for some "evil", plus a suitable punishment | T M |
1522 | Questionable Journalism | Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer | L H 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 |
1511 | The inside word--our 'air quote' contest | Highlight part of a word, name or short phrase in “air quotes” to give the word a new meaning or description. | H |
1509 | MASH MASH: combine 2 one-word movies | Combine two single-word movie titles to make a new movie and describe it. | H H |
1508 | Tour de Fours XIX —Laughtime Achievement | Coin a word or phrase containing the letters E-L-D-N — consecutively but in any order — and describe it. | H H 3 |
1507 | All over the map! | Choose one of the contiguous 48 U.S. states or D.C. Then write a funny slogan for that state by “traveling a route” from that state into several others. Use the first letters of the states in your route as the first letters of the words in your slogan. | M H |
1506 | Let's go magnet-fishing with new words | From the provided list, write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. | T |
1505 | Munici-pals | Choose any two or more real U.S. or Canadian towns — they need to show up on a Google search — and come up with a joint endeavor they would undertake. | H H H |
1502 | It's Hi-time for Limerixicon XIX | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with “hi-. | T |
1501 | Try a little 'kindness' | Tell about an “act of kindness” that you or someone else does that, well, won’t be appreciated. | H |
1500 | These go to 15 | Make up a word or phrase whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 15 (no blanks!) and define it. | H H |
1499 | Picture This, a cartoon caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | P M H |
1497 | The if-word | Give us a "what if" scenario and its humorous result | W |
1496 | Same Difference -- compare two items on this list | Tell us humorously how any two (or more) items on the provided list are alike or different, or linked in some other way. | M H |
1493 | Frankly speaking with feghoots | Tell a feghoot -- a mini-story (a ridiculous one is fine) that ends in a groaner pun on a familiar expression, title, line from a song, etc. | I H |
1492 | Set us right -- conservative humor | Send us conservative-leaning humor in a Q&A joke format or a knock-knock joke. | H H 4 |
1491 | The add biz | Choose any word, name or phrase beginning with A throough E, then add any single letter of the alphabet to it -- one or more times -- and define the result or show how it would be used. | H |
1487 | Colt following -- now it's the grandfoals | Breed" any of the "foal" names provided in today's results (including the intro) and give the "grandfoal" a name that reflects both names. | H H H |
1485 | Switchcraft -- transpose two letters in a word | Switch the positions of two letters within a word, name, title or phrase, then describe the result. | H |
1484 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | H |
1483 | Pun for the Roses -- our famous foal-'breeding' contest | Breed" any two of the provided names and name the "foal". As in actual thoroughbred racing, a name may not exceed 18 characters including spaces. | H |
1482 | The Tile Invitational IX | Rearrange the letters of any of the letter sets provided to create a new term, then define or describe; you may use all seven letters, but also just six or five. | H |
1481 | Mess with our heads | Reinterpret some actual headline (or a major part of it), from any publication, print or online. | H |
1479 | It's a WordleVite! Write a prhase of 5-letter words | Write a phrase or sentence consisting of two to six five-letter words or names, then define it or say something funny about it. AND the Wordle part: once a letter is in the right, "green" place -- the same place as it is in the final word (like the P in "pouty" in the example provided) -- your subsequent words must keep those letters in their right places. | P |
1477 | Thinking outside the big box | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided items listed on walmart.com<\em>. | M |
1476 | Matchless humor -- show us some Googlenopes | Find us a Googlenope -- a phrase in quotation marks that generates the message "It looks like there aren't many matches for your search" -- or a Googleyup, a phrase that surprisingly does have hits. | H H |
1475 | Hail to the Commanders! | Write a song (set to any familiar tune) or shouted cheer for the Washington Commanders. OR: Write for any other D.C. institution, e.g., the Metro, the Senate, the National Zoo, The Washington Post. | M H |
1474 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine one side of a hyphenated word or phrase with one side of another such term -- either side can be the end or the beginning -- to create a new term. AND! Both halves of the term must come from the same issue of a newspaper (The Post or another one) or published the same day on its website, Feb. 3 through 14. | H H H H |
1473 | Sign right here | Write a funny message for the overhead highway sign. | H |
1469 | Post Mortems 2021, our obit poems | Write a poem of no longer than eight lines (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2021. | T |
1468 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1440 through 1464. | H H H |
1466 | Be invitationally correct | Give us a funny "correction" that a newspaper or magazine might offer. | H |
1463 | Fork over some (new) Spoonerisms | Write and original Q-A joke featuring a spoonerism. | H H |
1461 | It's the eponymy, stupid | Create an eponym -- a word based on the name of a well-known person -- define it, and perhaps use it in a humorous sentence. | H |
1458 | Do adjust your set: TV anagrams+ | Use all the letters of any TV show (including streamed ones), past or present, to create new show; or it can be an episode of the original. | H |
1457 | What is Ask Backwards XL? | You are on "Jeopardy!"; various answers are provided. You provide the questions. | H H H |
1455 | Good idea! Or not. | Cite a "good idea' and, with a small change of wording, a "bad idea". | H |
1453 | Haven't read it -- mis-subtitle a book | Choose any book title listed on Amazon and misinterpret it by adding a subtitle. | L |
1452 | As the Word Turns | Discover" a word or multiword term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions, up, down, back, forth, diagonally -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | H |
1449 | Let's have a get-together | Begin with a real name; append to it a word, name or expression so that they overlap; and finally define or "quote" the resulting phrase or name. | M H |
1447 | Give it to us straight | Take any sentence from an article or ad in any publication (print or online) dated July 29 through Aug. 9, 2021, and intepret it in “plain English". | L 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 |
1443 | The letters of the laws | Propose some law -- it doesn't have to be a serious issue -- and give it a name and an acronym, | T M H |
1442 | Same difference, or missing links | Choose any two (or more) items from the utterly random list above and say how they're different, alike or otherwise linked. | H |
1441 | \'Rick rolling: songs as limericks | Sum up or otherwise reflect a well-known song as a limerick. | M H |
1439 | Vowel Movement: The Musical | Choose a song title; remove all the vowels; then add back as many vowels as you like to create a new title, and describe the song. You might also provide a line or two of lyrics. | P |
1438 | Nothing but the untruth: Fake trivia about the law | Give us some bogus trivia about the law -- lawyers, courts, judges, police, odd laws, terminology, what have you. | H H |
1437 | One-offs: A 'typo' neologism contest | You're a fat-fingered typist: Change a word, name or phrase by either adding or substituting one letter that's adjacent (in any direction) to the original one on a regular QWERTY keyboard, or by doubling the correct letter. | L H H |
1436 | Haven't seen it: Fun with movie titles | Misinterpret a movie title in a supposed plot description. | H |
1434 | Go ahead, mate my bay: Grandfoals | Breed" any two of this week's inking foal names and name the "grandfoal. | M H |
1433 | Questionable Journalism | Choose any sentence (not a headline!) in an article or ad in The Washington Post or another publication dated April 22 through May 3, and write a question it might humorously answer. | 4 |
1429 | Forsoothsayers | Quote a line or so from any Shakespeare work, and exemplify it with a contemporary quote, real or imagined. | H H |
1428 | The Tile Invitational VIII | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | H H |
1427 | Rocky of ages, or Badenov for you? | State any historical event -- right up to 2021 -- in the provided "A, or B" format. | H |
1426 | Mess with our (or others') heads | Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. | T |
1425 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | 3 |
1424 | We Bee back -- a neologism contest | From any of the 30 provided Spelling Bee letter sets, coin a new term or phrase and describe it humorously. You must use the first letter in the set (anywhere in the word) plus any or all of the others, as often as you like. | H |
1423 | Muddled heads: Headline anagrams | Choose a headline (or part of a headline) in any print or online publication dated Feb. 11-22 and rearrange all its letters into an anagram. | H 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 |
1420 | Singing on the job -- a parody contest | Write a humorous "work song" for any job or profession. Set it to any well-known tune. | M |
1419 | Send us the bill -- 'joint legislation' | Combine two or more names from the provided list of the new members of Congress to “co-sponsor” a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. | H |
1418 | Tour de Fours XVII: Just Undo It | Coin a word or multi-word term containing the letters U-N-D-O -- consecutive but in any order -- and describe it. | M I H H H H H |
1415 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1360 through 1387, except for Weeks 1361-1363. | H |
1414 | Divining comedy: 2021 predictions | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2021. | P H H |
1410 | Legends of the fall -- more fictoids | Tell us some bogus trivia about autumn, or things that happen (or have happened) in autumn. | M H |
1409 | Skip a groove: Drop a letter or more from a song title | Drop one or more letters from somewhere in the middle of a song title and describe the new song, and/or quote some lyrics from it. | T |
1408 | Re-Organization | Slightly change the name of a nonprofit organization and describe it. | I H H H H |
1406 | The news could be verse | Write a poem based on a recent news article, in which the lines' first letters spell out the title or subject of the poem. | M |
1405 | Okay, once more around the track | Breed" any two of the provided foal names that got ink in Week 1400 and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | H |
1404 | Ask Backwards XXXIX | The answers are provided. You supply the questions. | H H H |
1402 | The fourteeners--a neologism contest | Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 14 (no blanks!), and define it. | I |
1401 | How hai? A joke-haiku contest | Write a joke (roughly) in the "It's so xxx" genre as a haiku. | P H |
1400 | Back on track with our classic 'foal' contest | Breed" any two of the provided names of the 100 horses nominated for the 2020 Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to humorously reflect the parents' names. | 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. | I H |
1396 | Hail Limerixicon XVII: Write a limerick featuring a 'ha-' word | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ha-". | H |
1392 | Picture this -- caption these cartoons | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. | H H |
1391 | No-covid zone -- a neologism contest | Coin a new word or phrase that lacks C, O, V, I and D and describe it. | H |
1390 | 'Same difference' for a new time | Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. | H |
1388 | Turning around a business | Create a business, product, organization or similar entity that contains a word, name or phrase and its anagram, and describe it. | T I H H H H |
1386 | Colt following: It's the grandfoals! | Breed" any two of the 70 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | H H |
1385 | Don't you want to see new places? | Change any place name slightly and describe the new place. | H H |
1383 | Questionable Journalism | Choose any sentence (not a headline) in an article or ad in The Washington Post or another publication dated May 7 through May 18, and write a question it might humorously answer. | H |
1382 | For us, it's still Post Time | Breed" any two names from the provided list of 100 of the 145 previous Kentucky Derby winners, from 1875 to 2019, and name the foal to humorously reflect the parents' names. | H H |
1381 | Let's be equinoxious with fictoids about spring | Tell us some untrue trivia about springtime or things that happen or happened in the spring. | I H |
1380 | Both sides now | Delete one or more letters (in a row) from a word or brief phrase to find another word, and define it. | H |
1379 | Your wish: A pun -- a star | Tell a joke, in your choice of form, whose punchline is a pun on a song title or lyric. | M |
1376 | Get thee to a funnery | Add a character (or more) to a Shakespeare play and supply some resulting dialogue. | H 3 |
1375 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. | H |
1374 | Versus' verses in a rap battle | Write a mini-"rap" between any two characters, real or fictional, as in the provided ERB example. | H |
1373 | Prime time for some Amazon reviews | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided Amazon-listed items. | H |
1371 | The Tile Invitational VII | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | P H |
1369 | Shoot us some oops | Tell us a concise original joke that revolves around a typo or misheard word. | H |
1368 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H 2 |
1367 | Pick me up at work, okay? | Give a pickup line from someone in a particular profession, or from a particular person or fictional character. | H H |
1366 | Tour de Fours XVI -- It's the LIAR club | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block L-I-A-R and describe it. | H H 4 |
1364 | Clue us in | Supply clever, funny clues for as many as 25 of the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H 3 |
1362 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1307 through 1333, except for Weeks 1309-1311. | H H H H 3 |
1361 | 2020 vision -- the year in preview | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2020. | H |
1360 | The lyin' in winter: Seasonal fictoids | Give us some untrue trivia about winter or things that occur in winter. | I H |
1357 | It's parody time! | Write a satirical song about anything in the news right now, set to a familiar tune. | T |
1356 | Ask Backwards 38 | Sixteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. | H H |
1355 | The inside word | Highlight part of a word, name or short phrase in "air quotes" to give the word a new meaning or description. | H H H |
1354 | As the Word turns 5: Taking our vowels | Discover" a word or multiword term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | T H |
1352 | Hee-rotica -- Steamy prose for unsteamy life | Write a short steamy scene (100 words would be considered long) about a non-steamy event. | H |
1349 | Revise and extend these remarks | Go to congress.gov/congressional-record and click on the PDF for any day's Congressional Record. Choose any sentence (or substantial part of one) and write a question that it could answer. | H H H |
1348 | Same difference | Explain humorously how any two or more of the provided items are alike, different or otherwise connected. | M |
1347 | Reologisms | Write a clever, funny definition for any of the provided Loser-concocted words and phrases, and/or show they'd be used. | H H H |
1346 | AZ if -- balancing acts | Think of a new word or two-word phrase that begins and ends -- either way -- with one of the provided "alphabetically balanced" pairs. | H H |
1344 | Well, that's just great -- It’s Limerixicon XVI | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "gr-". | H |
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. | P H |
1338 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H |
1337 | Lidder me this: anagram riddles | Write a Q&A joke (or an A followed by a Q, if you're into "Jeopardy!") in which the punchline contains an anagram or one or more relevant words or names. | H H |
1336 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | H |
1335 | Put it in bee-verse! Or . . . | Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes at least one of the provided words, used in Round 9 or later of this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee; OR: write a joke in Q&A form that uses at least one of the words. | H |
1333 | Check your (homo)phones | Invent a homophone--a word that sounds the same as an existing word but is spelled differently--and define it. | M H 3 |
1331 | Paste Imperfect | Choose a headline or sentence from The Post or another publication, print or online, dated May 9-20, 2019. Then change that headline or other text by: A. Deleting up to 40 consecutive characters from it (put brackets around the deleted text); B. Adding up to 40 consecutive characters from the same article or ad (write the additions in capital letters); or C. Both A and B, as long as the added text goes at the end of your headline or sentence. |
H H |
1330 | Spinoff x Time Is Now = Grandfoals Week! | Breed" any two of the 65 foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | P H |
1329 | Shakespeare + Thee: Tailgaters | Select any line from a work by Shakespeare (poetry or prose) and pair it with your own line to create a humorous rhyming couplet. | M |
1327 | Mess with our (or anyone's) heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline (or a big part of a headline) by writing a bank head, or subtitle. | H |
1326 | Foaling around | Breed" any two names from the provided list of 100 horses and name the foal to reflect both names. | H |
1325 | Stand up and jeer | Give us some original standup jokes that would have been good at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. | I H H 3 |
1324 | Chapter and worse | Tell or describe a Bible story, or another classical or folk tale, very briefly (75 words would be lengthy) in the voice of a particular author or other person. | H |
1323 | Selected shortened subjects | Delete one or more letters from the beginning or end (or both) of a movie title and describe the resulting movie. | H |
1322 | Back to the drawing board | Come up with an idea for an invention that still needs a bug ironed out. | W H H 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 |
1320 | Questionable journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in the Post or another publication, in print or online, dated Feb. 21-March 4, and pair it with a question it might answer. | H H H |
1319 | The Tile Invitational VI | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | H |
1318 | Love the tiny tail stain! | Create an anagram -- a phrase or sentence with the letters rearranged -- of any text (except merely someone's name), of any length. | H |
1316 | Lies, damn lies, with statistics | Tell us some bogus trivia using "statistics" or some bogus quantitative meaure. | T H 4 |
1315 | Clue us in -- our reverse crossword | Supply clever, funny clues for as many as 25 of the 74 words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H |
1314 | Bill Us Now -- 'joint legislation' | Combine two or more names from the provided list of the new members of Congress to “co-sponsor” a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose | W |
1313 | Dead Letters -- our obit poem contest | Write a poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2018. | L H |
1312 | Neologisms in TOUR de Fours XV | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block T-O-U-R and describe it. The letters may be in any order. | H H 4 |
1311 | Nextra! Nextra! The year in preview | Name some humorous event to happen in 2019. | H 2 |
1310 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1282 through Week 1306. | P H |
1308 | Picture this -- or these | This week you have two choices: (1) Write a caption for one or more of these pictures, or (2) explain what is wrong with the picture. You might also combine two pictures into one -- or all four into one. | T |
1307 | One-for-one for all | Replace one letter in an existing word, name or multi-word phrase with one different letter (in the same place in the word) and define or describe the result. | M H H H |
1306 | PolitiCaroling: A song parody contest | Write a song about something in the news lately -- political or otherwise -- using a Christmas, Hanukkah or New Year's tune. | H |
1305 | Hits and Googles | Find us either a Googlenope -- a phrase in quotation marks that generates no previous hits -- or a Googleyup, a phrase that surprisingly does have hits. | T |
1303 | Neologisms to di- for | Replace a digraph in an existing word or phrase with another digraph to make a new term. | I H H H H H 4 |
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 H H H H |
1300 | Botch office sensations | Add "13" to an existing movie title, and some humorous trouble to the plot. | H H |
1299 | OK, hivemind! A contest with new Scrabble words | Choose any two of the words in the provided list as the beginning and end of a humorous word chain of 6 to 14 words or phrases. | H |
1298 | It's IGH time for 3-word phrases | Make up some entity that might take a three-letter abbreviation of GHI, HGI, GGG, GHH, etc., and then humorously describe it. | H H |
1297 | A different type o' headline contest | Change a letter in an article or ad in the Post or another publication dated Sept. 13-24 by adding or subtracting one letter; substituting a letter; transposing two letters; or changing spacing or punctuation; and then add a "bank head. | H H 3 |
1295 | Really, now? A matter of degree. | Tell us an indication to some problem, followed by an even more dire sign. | H |
1293 | Constitutional unconvention | Humorously translate or explain some part of the U.S. Constitution. | H |
1291 | Film flam -- movie anagrams | Rearrange the letters of a title of a movie or play to make a new title, then describe the new work. | H |
1288 | Your results may vary | Write a funny disclaimer or warning for some product or service. | H |
1286 | Mind your P's and B's (and more) | Replace one or more P's in a word, name, or multi-word term with a B or with another letter and define or describe the results. | M H |
1285 | That is so wrong! | Supply a trivia question along with both the correct answer and a cleverly "wrong" guess. | H |
1284 | Same difference | Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. | H |
1282 | Picture This | Write a caption for one or more of the provided pictures. | H |
1280 | A la'ugh' a minute with 'air quotes' | Highlight part of a word, name or short phrase in "air quotes" to give it a new meaning or description. | H 4 |
1278 | Colt following: The 'grandfoals' | Breed" any two of the 68 foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names, in the style of today's inking entries. | H |
1277 | Come into Beeing with neologisms | From any of the 15 provided Spelling Bee letter sets, coin a new term of one or two words and define it humorously. You may also supply an especially clever or funny definition of a real term. | H |
1275 | That is the question | Choose a line from Shakespeare (or a significant part of a line) and pair it with a question that the line could humorously answer. | H H |
1274 | Heading for a foal -- our horse name 'breeding' contest | Your job is to "breed" any two names of the 360 horses nominated for this year's Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to reflect both names. | H H |
1273 | Restocking the Cabinet | Explain why a particular person -- or thing -- ought to fill a Cabinet post or other U.S. government position. | H |
1270 | The Style Invitational turns 5 x 5 | Write a witty poem, on any subject, in any of these forms: A. Five lines of five syllables each B. Five lines of five words each C. Five lines of iambic pentameter |
P |
1268 | Playing pinocchio | Tell us some humorously bogus trivia about the news media or the publishing or broadcasting industries. | I H H |
1266 | The Tile Invitational V | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | H |
1264 | A cry for Yelp: 'Review' any place | Write a humorous review, positive or negative, of anyplace (real of fictional) one might visit. | M |
1262 | Clue us in -- a backward crossword | Supply one or more creative clues for the provided filled-in crossword grid -- as many as 25 clues in all. | H |
1260 | What lies (are) ahead for 2018 | Jokingly predict some news event to happen in 2018. | H |
1259 | Beat the banned with euphemisms | Come up with creative euphemisms for the provided words, or for other words that might offend someone or other. | I H H |
1258 | The year in redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1230 through Week 1254. | H |
1257 | The year in redo, Part 1 | Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1203 through Week 1229, except for Weeks 1205 and 1206. | H |
1255 | Tour de Fours XIV: SANT is coming | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter-block S-A-N-T; the letters may be in any order, but there may be no other letters between them. | T H |
1252 | It's a med, med, med, med world | Invent a clever name for a new medical product, and specify the condition it would treat. | H |
1251 | Thanking outside the box | Tell us something to be thankful for. | H |
1249 | Ask Backwards 36 | Choose any of the 15 provided items and follow it with a question that it could humorously answer. | H |
1248 | C'mon, fess up! | Send us a brief "confession" -- there will be categories for true and just-kidding. | H |
1247 | Script tease | Offer a quote from a script whose title you've given a different plot. | P H |
1246 | Questionable journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in The Post or another publication, in print or online, dated Sept. 21-Oct. 2, and pair it with a question it might answer. | H |
1245 | Call us reprehensible . . . | Complain in a humorously missing-the-point way about something that has appeared in The Washington Post (in print or online) recently, or in another publication. | H |
1243 | We bid you: No T-R-U-M-P | Coin a new term, or choose an existing one, whose letters do not include a T, R, U, M, or P, and write a humorous definition. | H H H |
1242 | Generation Yux | Give us a "then/now" joke. | H |
1241 | Less taste, more fill-in | Give us a novel clue for any word or phrase in which the remaining letters in the provided crossword puzzle fit, across or down. | H |
1239 | MASH 3 | Combine two movie titles and describe the result. | H |
1238 | D-E-F Comedy Jam (or E-D-F, etc.) | Coin a threeword phrase (you may add an insignificant word or two) whose words begin with D, E and F — in any order — and describe it. | T 4 |
1237 | Our alliteracy campaign | Rewrite an existing headline from any publication, print or online — about something in the news from July 20 to 31, by using alliteration. | W 2 |
1236 | Portmanteaux faux | Explain--inaccurately but amusingly--how a real word is a combination of two or more words, with an illustrative sentence, as in the provided examples, or some other funny way. | P |
1235 | The Sound of Science | Write humorous lyrics on the subject of science or technology, set to a well-known tune. | M H |
1234 | It's incontestable | Four weeks from now, the Empress will have just placed her dainty imperial toe back on our glittering shores. Which means that for the first time since January 2002, almost 800 contests ago—back during the late reign of her predecessor, theCzar—the Invitational will skip two contests in a row. | H H |
1232 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | T H H H |
1231 | TankaWanka 3: Haiku Plus Tu | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. The poem must consist of five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables in that order. And at least two of the lines must rhyme. | T H |
1226 | Colt following: The 'grandfoals' | Breed" any two of the 61 foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect both parents names. | P |
1224 | We beg you to differ | Explain how any two (or more) items in the provided list are the same or different, or otherwise connected. | H |
1223 | Post again out to mislead public! | Write a humorously sensationalistic, misleading headline on an otherwise mundane article or ad published in The Post or elsewhere from April 13 to April 24. | H H H H |
1222 | Foaling around | Breed" any two of the provided racehorses nominated for this year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont; and name the foal to reflect both of them. | T |
1221 | Who's kidding whom? | Take two people from history, past or present, and tell what their child would be like | T H |
1216 | As the word turns | Create a word or multi-word term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | H H H |
1215 | A so-so contest (How so-so is it?) | Write a humorous exaggeration in the form "x is so y that . . . | H |
1213 | Punku | Write a haiku that incorporates a pun. | M |
1212 | The Tile Invitational IV | Give us a five-, six- or seven-letter word (or two words) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | M H 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. | M |
1210 | Send us the bill: Our 'joint legislation' game | Combine two or more names from the provided list of members of Congress to “co-sponsor” a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. | H |
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. | H |
1208 | A RIP-roaring year: Obit poems | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2016. | 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 |
1205 | Could we just have a do-over? Yes, we could. | Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1149 to 1201, except for Week 1152, last year's do-over. | H H H 3 |
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. | M H |
1203 | You've got the powers | Tell us what you would do if you had one or more of the six magical powers provided. | H |
1199 | We want some bad choices | Offer one or more funny Questions for Terrible People, as shown. | H H H |
1198 | Give it to us straight | Take any sentence from an article or ad in any publication dated Oct. 20 to Oct. 31 — or from an online article dated within that period — and translate it into “plain English". | L H H |
1196 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine either half of a hyphenated word or compound term with either half of another such term to create a new hyphenated term, and describe the result humorously. | W H H H 3 |
1194 | Nyetymologies: fake word origins | Provide a humorously untrue explanation for the derivation of a word. | W H |
1192 | Ask Backwards | The 15 provided phrases above are the answers. You provide the questions to as many as you’d like (up to 25 entries total). | W H |
1190 | You're workin' on a chain, gang | Create a chain of no more than 15 proper nouns — names of people (real or fictional), products, places, etc. — including one title of a work — in which each name relates somehow to the previous one. | H 2 |
1184 | Plan C -- a third candidate? | Explain why some novel person (or thing) should be president; you could also suggest a president-veep ticket. | 3 |
1183 | C'mon, be honest with us | Write something in roughly the form "If X were more honest, (then) Y. | P I H H |
1182 | Where in the wor(l)d? | (1) On What3words.com, find one or more humorously appropriate (or ironic) three-word codes at a particular place; or 2) find a three-word code, tell us where it is, and tell us what ought to be there. | 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. | M H |
1179 | Blasted alphabetical contests . . . | Coin a three-word phrase whose words begin with A, B and C -- in any order -- and describe it. | H |
1178 | A ______ of collective nouns | Propose one or more funny new names for groups of things. | H |
1175 | Good luck with 13 | Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 13, and define it. | T H H H |
1174 | Colt following -- It's time for the grandfoals | Breed" any two of the 57 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | H |
1171 | What's my (next) line? | Take a line from any song and pair it with your own second line to make a humorous rhyming couplet; the second line should match the rhythm of the first, rather than the second line of the song itself. | H H |
1170 | Derby or not Derby | Breed" any two of the provided racehorses nominated for this year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont; and name the foal to reflect both names. | H H H |
1169 | Be caustic by acrostic | Review or otherwise describe a movie, book, play or TV show (or Internet equivalent) with words whose first letters spell out the name of the work. | P H |
1168 | Asterisky business | Tell us an original joke whose punchline can't be understood without knowledge -- not necessarily scientific -- that most of us don't have (which you'll supply with a concise explanation). | H |
1167 | So what's to liken? | Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different, or connect them some other way. | P H |
1166 | Questionable journalism | Take a sentence (or most of a sentence) that appears in text (not a headline) in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com dated March 10-21 and make up a question that the sentence could answer | H |
1164 | 'Wait Wait' for us | Compose a multiple-choice question about a Ridiculous but True fact a la the NPR show 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me.' | H |
1163 | Put it in reverse | Spell a word, name or phrase backward and define the result in a way that relates to the original. | M |
1162 | An 8-year Re-Onion | Write a fictional Onion-type headline. | H 4 |
1161 | Give us four Pinocchios | Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past. | H H |
1158 | What have we here? | Tell us what one or more of these objects really are. | H |
1157 | Clue us in -- a backward crossword | Supply clever, funny clues to up to 25 of the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | W |
1155 | Vowel movement | Choose a title of a book, movie, play or TV show; drop all the vowels (including Y when it's used as a vowel); then add your choice of vowels -- as many as you like -- to create a new work; and describe it. | H |
1153 | Be three-paired | Choose two or more entities represented by a single three-letter combination from IAA through LZZ, found at the provided link, and say how they are alike or different or have some connection. | H H H 3 |
1150 | A deviant character | Change the name of person or animal -- real or fictional -- by adding or subtracting one letter; substituting one letter for another; or switching the positions of two nearby letters, and describing the results. | 2 |
1149 | Gestures of depreciation | Suggest ways to celebrate National Love Your Lawyer Day -- or a made-up "holiday" celebrating some other profession. | H |
1148 | It's TankaWanka II | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. The poem must consist of five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables in that order. And it must include at least one rhyme. | H |
1147 | It's E-Z find-a-word -- yours | Create a word or multi-word term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | H |
1146 | Stick it to us with a magnet | Suggest a new Style Invitational honorable-mention magnet. | H H |
1143 | Ask Backwards | Provided are 15 answers, separated by asterisks. You supply the questions. | H H H |
1142 | Two-faced tweets | Combine two well-known names into a Twitter handle, and write a tweet (no more than 140 characters and spaces) that that portmanteau person might write. | H |
1141 | Mess with our heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in the Post (print or online) Sept. 17-28 by writing a bankhead, or subtitle. | T H H |
1140 | You're giving us a bad name | Cite a REAL brand name, past or present, note its original use, and then say what sort of product, organization, etc., that name would be bad for. | I |
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 |
1137 | Be a published author! | Give us a spicy title for a boring book, real or imagined. | T H H |
1135 | The meter's running | Suggest actions in daily life that should require a time limit -- maximum or minimum -- and come with an appropriate penalty for running over (or under). | T |
1134 | The 'Sty'le Invitational Red'ux' | Put quotation marks around part of a word, name or phrase and define the result. | H H |
1132 | You and what army? Military fictoids | Give us some comically bogus trivia about the military, past or present, ours or theirs. | M L I H 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 H |
1128 | Drone for a loop | Give us some novel uses for a CICADA micro-drone, assuming that anyone can get one, and that it can have a micro-camera, micro-grips, etc. | M |
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. | I H H |
1126 | Picture this | Provide a humorous caption for any of the cartoons provided. | H H |
1125 | The song remains the sa | Supply a real song title that has the end or beginning -- or, what the heck, both -- chopped off and describe it. | T H |
1123 | The Tile Invitational III | Give us a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or two words) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided seven-letter sets. | 3 |
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. | H H H |
1120 | Celebrating our differences | Each of the provided 17 items appeared in a different Style Invitational compare/contrast contest from 1996 to 2014. Explain how any two of them are alike or different or otherwise linked. | H |
1119 | We want hue so bad | Invent a name for a color and describe it. | H |
1116 | Punning in place | Create a new term using only the letters in a place name. You don't have to use all the letters, but you can't use a letter more often than it appears in the word. | H |
1115 | Our type o' headline | Change a headline in an article or ad in the Washington Post and then add a "bank head" or subtitle. | H |
1113 | Our occasional parodies | Write a song celebrating someone's birthday or other personal occasion (rather than, say, a holiday), set to a familiar tune. | H H |
1112 | Some SHARP words | Coin a word or short term that includes all the letters S, H, A, R, and P. | H |
1111 | When you riff upon a store | Use a wordplay on a song title as a name or slogan for a real or imagined business. | H |
1109 | Fictoids of Columbia | Tell us some humorously untrue “facts” about Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. | M 2 |
1107 | Send us the bill | Combine two or more names from the list of members of Congress on this page to "cosponsor" a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. | H |
1106 | Show your resolve | Suggest a New Year's resolution that someone might make 100 or more years in the future. | M H |
1105 | A lit obit of fun | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2014. | M H |
1103 | Themes good enough for us | Suggest an existing song to be used as the theme for a TV series or program for comic effect. | I H |
1102 | Let's get Sirius | Suggest a new radio channel and describe it. | 4 |
1101 | The year in redo | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050. | H H H |
1100 | Pun and ink -- the feghoot | Contrive an elaborate scenario that ends in a novel groaner pun on a familiar expression, title, etc. | T H H |
1099 | Questionable journalism | Take a sentence (or most of a sentence) that appears in an article in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com dated Nov. 20 through Dec. 1 (in print, any article from those days' papers), and make up a question that the sentence could answer. | H |
1097 | Futz your sign | Select a line from one of the horoscopes appearing anytime from Nov. 6 through Nov. 17 in the Washington Post's daily Style or on washingtonpost.com and "clarify" it with a translation or extra "information". | P |
1096 | Picture this | Write a humorous caption for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. | H |
1095 | TankaWanka! | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. The poem must consist of five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables in that order. And it must include at least one rhyme. | T H |
1094 | TAXI's the fare for Tour de Fours XI | Coin a word or hyphenated term that contains the letter block T-A-X-I; the letters may be in any order, but there may be no other letters between them. | H |
1093 | You're only as rich as you fee | What are some really bad ideas for various businesses to make a few more bucks? | H |
1091 | Good idea! or not. | Come up with a good idea and, through a small change in wording, a bad idea. | H |
1090 | Talk undirty to us | Write a humorous poem in any form (no more than eight lines) that includes one or more of the provided words; the word must make sense in the poem in its TRUE meaning. | M |
1089 | It's E-Z Find-a-Word -- your own! | Create a word or multi-word term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | H H |
1087 | The core ridiculum | Come up with a comical class (any type of school) and provide a course catalog description. | H H |
1086 | Playing the dozens | 1. Start with any 12-letter word, name or multi-word phrase. 2. Add one letter OR drop one letter OR substitute another letter OR switch the position of two letters to create a new term, as in the examples given. 3. Define or describe the result humorously. |
H |
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 H |
1083 | Everybody get appy | Offer up an idea for either a humorously useful app or a humorously counterproductive one. | 4 |
1082 | Band on the pun | Alter the name of a music group or performer slightly -- not necessarily by just one letter, but enough so it's obvious what the original is -- and describe it in some way. | M H H H |
1081 | It's the stupidity, stupid | Write us stupid questions that will make us laugh. | T H H |
1079 | Little piddle riddle | Ask a question and answer it with a rhyme. | T T M |
1078 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine one side of any hyphenated word or compound term with one side of another word to make a new hyphenated term, and define it humorously. Both halves must appear in the same issue of The Post or another print newspaper, or in writing published the same day on washingtonpost.com or another online publication. | T H H |
1077 | Time marches Swiftly | Give us a novel Tom Swifty, playing on either an adverb or a verb (e.g., "We care about the little people, the BP chairman gushed"). | T H H 2 |
1076 | Dactyly fractyly | Send us some double dactyls that conform to Gene Weingarten's rules. | H |
1075 | Falsity is Job One | Send us some fictoids about cars and trucks and driving and stuff. | I H |
1073 | Bank shots: Mess with (y)our heads | Quote a headline appearing in the Washington Post, washington.com or another publication, print or headline, dated May 22 to June 1, and supply a "bank" headline that either misinterprets it, as in the examples above, or comments wryly on it. | H H |
1072 | The Tile Invitational | Come up with a 5-, 6-, or 7-letter term by scrambling any of the provided seven-letter ScrabbleGram sets, and define it. | P M I H |
1071 | A pair of threes | Choose two or three entities represented by a single three-letter combination at bit.ly/3letterabs and say how they are alike or different. | M H H |
1068 | An iffy proposition | Suggest some humorous action that you would take if you were in someone's position, more or less in the form "If I were _____ my first act would be _____. | H |
1066 | It's mating season | Breed" any two from the provided list of 100 of the 3-year-old racehorses nominated for this year's Triple Crown and name the foal to reflect both names. | H H |
1064 | HistoRebuffs | Alter some moment in history and tell us -- in no more than about 50 words -- the likely outcome. | H H H |
1063 | Same difference | Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different. | H H 4 |
1061 | Less taste, more fill-in | Give us a novel clue for any word or phrase in which the remaining letters in the provided crossword puzzle fit, across or down. | W H |
1060 | Picture this | Write a caption, or captions, for one or more of the provided cartoons. | 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. | 2 |
1056 | Weather or nuts | Coin a term relating to the weather, climate, etc. -- either literal or figurative -- and define it. | H H H |
1055 | Oh, K! | This week, to commemorate both Kevin Dopart and his 1K ink blots: Change a word, phrase or name by adding one or more K's, and define your new term. | H H |
1054 | Dead letters | Write a short, humorous poem commemorating someone (or maybe even something) who died in 2013. | M |
1053 | Questionable journalism | Quote an actual sentence, from The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, or another print or online publication dated between Dec. 26 and Jan. 6, and follow it with a question that the sentence might answer. | H 4 |
1052 | Clue us in | Come up with up to 25 creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms that appear in the provided grid. | H H |
1051 | Love the tiny tail stain! | Create an anagram -- a text with the letters rearranged -- of any text (except merely someone's name), of any length, referring to something or someone in the news. | M H |
1050 | Just redo it | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1000 through Week 1046. | H H H H |
1049 | Be rating | Come up with a new movie rating and describe it. | I H |
1048 | Ask Backwards | You supply the questions to as many of the provided answers as you like. | T |
1046 | Derive us crazy | Offer a bogus but funny explanation of how a particular expression originated. | H H |
1045 | Songs for the asking | Take a sentence, phrase or title from a song and provide a funny question it might answer. | H 3 |
1044 | Play it safe | Come up with a comically safety-conscious rule for the workplace or elsewhere. | M |
1043 | Rechanneling celebrity | Describe a TV reality show featuring a celebrity pursuing some unlikely endeavor. | T H |
1042 | Tour de Fours X: Go SANE | Create a new word or two-word term containing the letter block S-A-N-E -- in any order, but consecutively, and define it. | T H H |
1041 | What have you got to lose? | Answer a question, real or rhetorical, that appears in a song. | H H 2 |
1040 | IRS my case | Schedule A: Suggest a novel way for the government to determine taxes. Schedule B: Suggest a deduction that you'd like to take, or that some real or fictional person past or present might like to take. Schedule C: Suggest a cause you'd rather check off $3 for. |
M |
1039 | Shookespeare | Combine any of the words in Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy, in any order, to create a humorous sentence or longer passage. | H |
1035 | The Empy 500 | Explain what news Bob Staake is trying to tell in any of the provided drawings. | H H |
1034 | What's to like? | Supply an original joke of the form "I like my [your choice] the way I like my [something else of your choice]: [some clever, funny parallel]. | H |
1031 | The 'Sty'le Invitational | Choose any word, name, or short term; emphasize a key, suddenly pertinent part of it with quotation marks; then redefine the word. | H H H |
1027 | Built for two | Give humorous related names for any pair of features in a given building, organization, etc. | H H H 2 |
1026 | 'Might' makes ink | Give us a joke using any of the using any of the provided "you might be" templates. | H |
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 |
1021 | 'Gram theft | Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it. | T M I H H H |
1020 | Colt following | Breed any two of this week's winning foals and name the grandfoal. | H H |
1016 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses nominated for this year's Triple Crown races and give the foal a name humorously reflecting the names of the parents. | H H |
1015 | Faux re mi | Give us some humorously false trivia about music or musicians. | H |
1014 | Join now | Combine the beginning and end, or the beginnings and ends, of any two words in single Washington Post story or ad published March 21 to April 1 into a new word or two-word phrase, and define the result. | H |
1013 | Har monikers | Write a riddle that uses a pun of a person's name in the answer. | T |
1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | H H |
1008 | Switched reels | Re-arrange all the words in the title of a movie, and describe the resulting work. | L |
1007 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H H |
1006 | It's a ... a ... | Create a new superhero (or duo) and describe the superpower, or not-very-superpower. | H |
1004 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem about anyone who died in 2012. | H |
1003 | Just do it | Use a well-known advertising slogan for a different company, organization or product to humorous effect. | H H |
1001 | Make us ROFL | Give us a funny, original acronym. | M H H |
1000 | We now have 4 digits; you now have 7 letters | Choose any word, name or two-word term beginning anywhere from T through Z; then add one letter, drop one letter, substitute one letter for another, or transpose two adjacent letters, and define the result. | W T P H H |
999 | Drectrospective | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 946 through Week 995, except for Week 948. | H |
998 | Set the law on us | Suggest an odd law for a particular place in the world. | T H |
997 | Unworthy causes | Name a dubious charity and describe its mission. | T H H |
995 | Ask backwards | We give you the "answers" and you supply jokes in the form of a question. | 4 |
994 | Stick it to us | Suggest a slogan for one of our two new honorable-mention Loser Magnets for 2012-2013. | M H |
992 | Mittsterpiece Theatre | Suppose public-TV shows, past or present, were turned out onto the open market to make a living on commercial TV. Tell us what would happen. | H |
990 | Indecent relations | Pair two people, real or fictional, who have the same last name; say how they're alike or different, or something they might do (even in fantasy), as a pair. | H |
988 | A faster break | Suggest ways to make sports and other leisure activities more time-efficient or exciting. | P H |
987 | Bank shots | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com from Sept. 6 through Sept. 17 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H 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. | T H H H |
985 | What art art thou? | Tell us which Style Invitational contest any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons might be illustrating. | T |
983 | Limerixicon IX | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters "eq-" through "ez-". | T |
982 | The parody line | Set your own, humorous words to the tune of a well-known song--except that you must preserve one of the original lines. | H H |
981 | Feeling testy | Write a question that "ought to" be on a qualifying test for a particular job. | T H |
977 | Lost in Translation 2.0 | Translate a line of text from English into another language using Google Translate; then copy that result and translate it back into English. You may also make intermediate steps into one or more other languages. | H H |
976 | Join now! | Combine the beginning and end of any two words or names in this week's Style Invitational or Style Conversational columns to make a new term, and define it. | M H H |
975 | Gone mything | Debunk a "Sixth Myth" about one of more of the recent "5 Myths" topics provided. | H |
973 | A real triple crown | The horses in this week's list either produced no inking "foals" in Week 965, or ran in the Kentucky Derby but weren't on the initial list. "Breed" any two and name the foal. | T H |
971 | Double booking | Come up with a double book with a humorous connection; the first title must be an actual book, while the other may be your own fictitious title or a second real book. | H H |
969 | Colt following | Breed any two "foals" in today's results, and name the grandfoal. | H |
967 | Overlap dance II | Create a phrase that overlaps two terms, each of two words or more, and describe the result. | I H |
966 | Inkremental change | Start with any word or name, and create a series of words that change by one letter at a time, until you come up with a related word or name. | H |
965 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses in this year's Triple Crown races and name their foal. | H |
964 | The Grossery Bag? | Suggest a design and/or slogan to go on the side of the ardently desired Style Invitational Loser Bag. | M |
963 | The overlap dance | Send us a Before & After "person" whose name combines two people's names, real or fictional (okay, you can use animals' names, too), and describe the person in a funny way. | H |
962 | Questionable journalism | Take any sentence (or a major part of it) that appears in the Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com anytime from now through March 19 and supply a question it could answer. | M H |
961 | The end of our rhops | Write a funny passage or headline whose words all have the same number of letters. | H H |
960 | Raving reviews | Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. | H |
958 | All's Weller | Write a "wellerism," a sentence that starts with a quote, often a short proverb, and goes on to include some sort of wordplay on something in the quote. | H H 3 |
956 | Give us some bad ideas | Finish any of the provided "You know" phrases. | H H |
955 | Twits' twist | Create a phrase by combining a word or phrase with an anagram of that word or phrase, and define or describe it. | M H H |
953 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the crossword puzzle that's already run in The Post. | P M H H H |
952 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2011. | H |
949 | Analogies | Give us an analogy using "a is to b as x is to y." | I H H |
948 | Look back in Inker | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 891 through 945 (except for Week 896, which was the same contest for the previous year). | H H |
947 | Tour de Fours VIII: Neologisms | Come up with a new word or two-word term that includes the letter block N-O-E-L, in any order but with no other letters between them, and define it. | H 3 |
946 | Another round of Bierce | Write a clever definition of a word, name or multi-word term. | H |
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. | H |
944 | Uh, yeah, it's just you | Give us one or more "Is it just me" questions. | I H H |
943 | Ask backward XXIX | You are on "Jeopardy!" You supply the questions for as many of the provided answers as you like. | T 4 |
942 | Singular ideas | Give us an idea for a contest for which there's likely only one good entry. | H |
940 | Our type o' headline | Change a headline by one letter, or switch two letters, or change spacing or punctuation, in a headline (or most of a headline) appearing on an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com from Oct. 7 through Oct. 17, and elaborate on it in a "bank" headline (subhead). | M H |
939 | MASH 2: The Retread | Combine two movie titles and describe the result. | T M H |
935 | The 400 blows | Write a humorous poem--choose your form--about the Virginia earthquake, Hurricane Irene or another well-known natural event. | N |
934 | Same difference | Explain how any two items in the provided list are similar or different. | H H H |
931 | Limerixicon 8 | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters ea- through -el. | P H |
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. | L 2 |
928 | Play feature | Use the title of a movie as the answer to a riddle or other question. | H |
926 | Outrageous fortunes | Come up with a fortune cookie line that you'd like to see. | H |
925 | A remeaning task | Redefine a word in the dictionary beginning with I through O. | H 3 |
923 | Chemical Wordfare | Create a new chemical element or other chemical term. | M I H |
922 | A Banner Week | Write entirely new, humorous lyrics to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner”; they can be on any subject. | M |
921 | Give Us Willies | Write an original Little Willie poem, perhaps reflecting our current era. This is a venerable four-line genre in which Master W. does some nasty thing and doesn't tend to learn to be a Good Boy by poem's end. | M H |
920 | Sarchiasm | Write an original chiasmus, in which the elements of a phrase are inverted for comedic effect. | H |
919 | Good Luck With 13 | Alter a 13-letter word, phrase or name by one letter (add a letter, drop a letter, switch two letters somewhere in the word, or substitute one letter for another) and describe the result. | H H |
918 | Colt Following | Breed any two "foals" in today's results, or one foal with one of the real horse names used in today's entries--and name the "grandfoal." The name may not exceed 18 characters, including spaces, and your entry shouldn't remotely duplicate any of today's results. | H |
917 | Wryku | Write a haiku--a sentiment that can be broken into three lines with exactly five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third--on any subject that's been in the news in the last couple of weeks. | 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 H H |
915 | Picture this | Write a caption for any of the cartoons pictured here. | T |
914 | Foaling around | Breed any two of 100 of the almost 400 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races, and name the foal. | T H H 3 |
913 | Bring up the rear | Move the last letter of an existing word or name to the front of the word, and define the new term. | H |
912 | Pair-a-phrase | Lift a word that appears inside a longer word; pair it with the original word to create a phrase; and define it. | H H |
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. | H 2 |
910 | Your ad here | Slightly alter an advertising slogan so that someone else could use it. | M H |
909 | Reprizing | Suggest humorous uses for one or more of the items above, alone or in combination. | P |
908 | Recast away | Fire an actor or actress from a movie or TV show, past or present, and offer a replacement for the role. | P |
907 | Naming rite | Come up with a creative, somehow fitting sponsor for some public facility or part of one. | H |
906 | Your mug here | Give us a new design for the Loser Mug. | 2 |
905 | Anticdotes | Give us an untrue anecdote responding to one of these past Editor's Query topics. | P H |
904 | We move on back | Move the first letter in a word or name to the end of that word and define the resulting word. | M H 3 |
902 | What's the good news? | Take any sentence, or substantive part of a sentence, or a headline from an article or ad in The Washington Post or washingtonpost.com from Jan. 7 to Jan. 18 and make it sound upbeat (or not so bad). | H |
901 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2010. | M |
900 | Dear us! | Submit a "Dear Blank" letter to us instead. | M |
899 | Clue us in | Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. | H H H |
897 | Catch their drift | Take any sentence from an article or ad in The Washington Post or washingtonpost.com from Dec. 3 to Dec. 13 and translate it into "plain English. | M H |
896 | Other people's business | Describe what might happen if any of the above institutions (a) were run by an institution of your choice or (b) ran an institution of your choice. | H H H |
895 | Picture this | Supply a caption for any of these cartoons. | H |
894 | Look Back in Inker | Enter any Style Invitational from Week 841 through Week 890 (except for Week 844). | H H H |
893 | Give us a hint | Write a humorously witty story in 25 words or fewer. | W |
892 | Get a move on | Change the location of something for humorous effect. Provide an explanation if you wish. | M H H |
890 | Double-teaming | Combine the names of any two pro sports teams -- even from different sports -- and describe the result. | H |
888 | It's the eponymy, stupid | Coin a word or expression based on the name of a well-known person, define it, and perhaps use it in a sentence | W H H H H |
886 | Look both ways | Give us a new term that's a palindrome and define it. | H H 2 |
885 | Mess with our heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from Sept. 10 through Sept. 20 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head. | H H H |
884 | Rekindling the spork | Combine two devices or other products to make a new one. | T 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 |
881 | What's in a name? | Take the name of a person or institution. Find within it a hidden message. | H |
880 | Our greatest hit | Start with a real word or multi-word term or name that begins with Q, R or S; add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter with another, or transpose two adjacent letters; and define the new word. | T H |
879 | Say Venn | Express some sentiment in the form of a Venn diagram. | H H |
878 | Safety in blunders | Tell us a way to make the nation more secure. | T |
877 | Quipped from the headlines | Write a rhyming couplet about some matter in the news. | H |
876 | Oilies but goodies | Write lyrics somehow related to the oil spill, set to an existing tune. | P |
875 | Fail Us | Give us a funny Learn From My Fail-type lesson, 30 words or fewer, true or not, in your own words or attributed to a famous personage. | I H H |
874 | Stat Us | Write a funny Facebook status line. | M H 3 |
873 | Back to Square 1A | Replace the shaded letters in this grid with your own letters to come up with a different word or phrase -- either an existing word or one you make up -- and define it humorously. | H H H H |
872 | Har Monikers | Combine the first parts of each word in a famous person's or character's name -- in order -- and define it or use it in a sentence that somehow refers to its source. | M H |
871 | Remarquees | Change a movie title by one letter (or number, if the title includes a number) and describe the new film. | I H |
870 | Let's play Nopardy | Describe any of the above phrases in the form of a question. | H |
869 | Clue us in | Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. | H H |
868 | Count the ways | Give us some musings of a technical wonk. | W H H |
867 | Back in the saddle | Breed any two of the foals in today's results -- OR one foal with one of the actual horses used in today's entries, and name the grandfoal. | H H |
866 | Natalie Portmanteau | Begin with a real name; append to it a word, name or expression so that they overlap; and finally define (humorously, of course) the resulting phrase. | H H |
865 | No Googlenopes left | Come up with a humorous Googlenope. | H H |
864 | Oonerspisms | Spoonerize a single word or a name by transposing different part of the word (more than two adjacent letters), and define the resultant new term. | M H H |
863 | It's Post time | Breed any two of 100 of the almost 400 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races, and name the foal. | T H 4 |
862 | Be cheerful | Send us a cheer or fight song for any pro sports team or any national team. | H |
859 | Can't goods | Cast a joke in one of the forms listed above. | H H |
857 | All FED Up | Create a brand-new word or phrase that contains a block of three successive letters in the alphabet -- but the series must go backward through the alphabet. | 3 |
856 | Titled Puerility | Here are some untitled book covers. For any of them, tell us a title and synopsis of a book that will never be published. | W |
855 | The news could be verse | Sum up an article (or even an ad!) in any Washington Post print or online edition from Feb. 6 through Feb. 15 in verse. | H H |
854 | What's not to liken? | Produce one or more similes in any of the following categories. | T |
853 | It's easy as DEF | Create a brand-new word or phrase that contains a block of three successive letters in the alphabet; the series must go forward in the alphabet, not backward. | M |
852 | Small, Let's get | Write a rhopalic sentence (or fanciful newspaper headline) in which each successive word is one letter shorter. | W |
851 | Going to the shrink | Downsize the title of a book, movie or play to make it smaller or less momentous and describe it. | H |
850 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2009. | H H |
847 | Questionable journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from Dec. 11 through Dec. 21 and come up with a question it might answer. | P H H 3 |
846 | Season's gratings | Write a brief (50 words or fewer) holiday letter from a personage from past or present, or from fiction. | M |
845 | Reologisms | Write a description for any of 50 genuine Loser-created neologisms. | T H |
844 | Healthy choice | Enter any Style Invitational from Week 790 through Week 840, except for Week 793 and Week 798. | H |
842 | Ask backwards | Here are your 12 possible answers. Tell us your joke in the form of a question, please. | H |
841 | Food for naught | Alter the name of a food or dish slightly and describe the result. | T P |
840 | Frittering away the neurons | Give us some more colorfully useful phrases; they don't have to be in the X'ing-the-Y form. | L |
839 | Overlap Dance | Overlap two words that share two or more consecutive letters -- anywhere in the word, not just at the beginning or end -- into a single longer word, and define it. AND your portmanteau word must begin with a letter from A through D. | H |
838 | Picture This | Provide a caption for any of these pictures. | 4 |
836 | Other People's Business | Describe what might happen if any of the above institutions (a) were run by an institution of your choice or (b) ran an institution of your choice. | H H |
835 | Tour de Fours VI | Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order -- the letters T, H, R, and E. | H |
834 | Fractured Compounds | Combine two full words within any single article appearing in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com into a hyphenated compound word, and define or otherwise describe the result. | H H |
833 | Our Greatest Hit | Start with a real word or multi-word term or name that begins with M, N, O, or P; add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter or transpose two adjacent letters; and define the new word. | H |
832 | Clue Us In | You supply one or more clues for the words in a filled-in grid. | H H H H 4 |
831 | A Big To-Do | Name a "bucket list" item for a well-known real or fictional character. | T H |
830 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from Aug. 14 through Aug. 24 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H |
826 | The Inside Word | Take any word -- this may include the name of a person or place -- put a portion of it in quotation marks, and redefine the word. | H |
825 | Disinstrumentals | Write some words to music that has no words. | T H |
824 | Jestinations | Give us a slogan for any city or town. | H |
822 | For Real Folks | Suggest some attractions for a Festival of Real American Folklife. | H H |
820 | Be Mister Language Person | Supply a Mister Language Person-type question and answer. | I H H |
817 | Flopflip | Reverse the first half and second half of a word or name and define the result. | H |
816 | Googillions | Come up with an original phrase that generates at least 1 million listings on a Google search. | M |
812 | Rx-Related Humor | Offer up some entirely false medical or psychological "fact. | H |
811 | Rock-Bottom Lines | Tell us a sign that the economy couldn't get worse. | H |
810 | What Kind of Foal Am I? | Breed any two of the more than 400 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races and provide an appropriate name for their foal. | H |
809 | Unkindest Cutlines | Supply cutlines, or captions, for any of these newspaper photos. | H |
807 | Pretty Graphic Expressions | Express some insight as an equation or other mathematical expression. | T |
804 | Our Type o' Joke | Change a headline by one letter, or switch two letters, in a headline (or most of a headline) appearing on an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com between Feb. 14 and 23, and elaborate on it in a "bank" headline (subhead) or a brief first sentence of an article that would run under it. | H |
803 | The Pepys Show | Write a humorous diary or journal entry for someone, famous or not, for any point in history. | T H |
802 | Dreck TV | Suggest a new cable TV channel, with a description or example of its programming. | H |
798 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem commemorating someone who died in 2008. | H |
796 | Sincerest Flattery | Make up a pun on a familiar name of a real of fictional person and provide a fitting description or quote. | L |
795 | Stimulate Us | Tell us what the government ought to be spending our money on. | H |
794 | Ripped Off From the Headlines | Send us some Onion-type headlines. | H H |
785 | The Ballad Box | Write a short, humorous song somehow relating to the presidential campaign, set to a familiar tune. | H |
783 | The Shill Game | Name a celebrity or fictional character to endorse a real product or company. | H |
776 | An Act of Sunny Side | Note the silver lining in some otherwise disappointing turn of events. | 2 |
772 | Make It Simile, Stupid | Translate a sentence or two of literature or other good writing so that "Los Angeles residents under 40" can appreciate it. | 3 |
748 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about a well-known personage who died in 2007. | H |
739 | Lies, All Lies | Give us some humorous fictional revelation about a current or past political figure. | 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 |
719 | We Har the World | Come up with a creative name for a sports team for a town or city anywhere outside the United States. | H |
718 | Put Our Heads Together | Create a new, funny headline from the words of any headlines appearing anywhere in a single day's Washington Post (or on washingtonpost.com) | P |
717 | Pitch Us a No-Hitter | Send us some genuine Googlenopes. A Googlenope is a phrase or very brief sentence that, entered into the Google search engine with quotation marks around it, produces no hits. | H |
713 | Painings | Name and interpret any of the provided paintings by Fred Dawson. | 2 |
702 | Unreal Facts | Come up with a comically false factoid. | 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 |
663 | Worth at Least a Dozen Words | Interpret any of the provided cartoons as you see fit in a caption. | H |
652 | Ask Backward | You are on "Jeopardy!" Above are the answers. You supply the questions. | H |
638 | The Little Bummer Boy | Come up with an idea (and title, if you like) for an original Christmas movie or TV special that provides an antidote to all the sap, and give us a brief synopsis. | H |
577 | Teledubbies | Slightly change the title of a TV show, past or present, and describe it. | H |
558 | Set Us Right | Send us conservative-leaning humor in any of the provided genres. | H |