| WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1613 | What's the Worst That Could Happen? | After the election, we mean. And be funny about it. | H H |
| 1609 | Saved! | Tell us funny ways to be thrifty in these parlous times | 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 | 2 |
| 1602 | We Got Game | Tell us some funny ways to 'improve' a sport. | H |
| 1601 | Stop, Hey, What's That Sound? | Tell us what these noise-words mean. | 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 H |
| 1597 | The Farce of July | Give us new ways to celebrate Independence Day. | H H H |
| 1596 | History for the tl;dr Crowd | Sum up an event for the 21st-century reader in a rhyming couplet. | H |
| 1590 | All You Need Is Ink | Take a line from a Beatles song and rhyme it with your own. | H |
| 1587 | The Trite Stuff | Replace some well-worn phrases with better ones. | H |
| 1586 | Pun for the Roses | Our annual crazy-popular horse 'breeding' wordplay contest. | H |
| 1582 | You're Workin' on a Chain, Gang | A classic connection game. | H |
| 1581 | SOTU-Speak | Use words from Biden's State of the Union speech to write some lines for another oration. | H H |
| 1580 | Hi, Anxiety! | Tell us some funny ways to stress yourself out. | H H |
| 1577 | Why the #$%#$% Not? | The Washington Post is looking for some bold ideas -- Let's show it some! | 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 |
| 1574 | Oh, Grandpa, Stop! | Turn a 'dad joke' into a less-tame 'grandpa joke' | H |
| 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. | H H |
| 1570 | The Invitational, Week 52: Replaying Around -- The 2023 retrospective, Part II | Enter or reenter our Week 26-50. | H |
| 1569 | Look Back in Inker -- Our 2023 retrospective, Part 1 | Enter or reenter our Week 1-25 contests. | T H |
| 1568 | Nextra! Nextra! | Tell us the funny news events from 2024 | H 4 |
| 1566 | Well, the Good News Is ... | Put a positive spin on a bad-news headline | H |
| 1563 | The Perfect(ly Ridiculous) Gift | Offer up some products for people-who-have-everything catalogs. | H H H |
| 1561 | Let It Be a Lesson to Us | Tell us some things to be learned from Costco, the bathroom, TV shows, etc. | H |
| 1560 | The 'Hole Story | Write us a funny 'Am I The Asshole' question | H |
| 1557 | Tailgating On the Highway | Pair a Dylan line with your own rhyming one | I |
| 1555 | Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us? | Give us "backronyms" | H |
| 1552 | A Mirthday Party | Link two people who share a birthday | H H |
| 1551 | Ask Backwards XLII | We give the answers. You give the questions. | H |
| 1548 | Poll-ish Jokes | Come up with a ridiculous reader poll. | 4 |
| 1547 | Alphabettering | Write a funny sentence containing all 26 letters. | H |
| 1542 | Your (B)ad Here | Tweak an ad slogan to use it for another product | 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 |
| 1530 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret any headline by adding a 'bank head'. | 2 |
| 1529 | Hello, Dall-E! | Our new contest partners you and a machine. | H |
| 1526 | Poke Us Till We Giggle | Write a "poke", or a joke recast as a rhyming poem | 3 |
| 1525 | Arty Har-har | Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work | H H |
| 1524 | Picture This | A caption contest | H H |
| 1522 | Questionable Journalism | Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer | H |
| 1521 | Send Us the Bill | Our "Joint Legislation" contest | T |
| 1520 | Nextra! Nextra! | Read All About it. Predict the big news events of 2023 | L H H H |
| 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. | H H |
| 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 |
| 1497 | The if-word | Give us a "what if" scenario and its humorous result | H |
| 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 |
| 1489 | Let's movie things around | Rearrange the words of a movie title to create a new movie, then describe it | 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 |
| 1486 | No can do: Signs of incompetence | Give us a clue that someone was incompetent in a given field. | T |
| 1484 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | H |
| 1477 | Thinking outside the big box | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided items listed on walmart.com<\em>. | H |
| 1473 | Sign right here | Write a funny message for the overhead highway sign. | H |
| 1472 | Phony money -- tell us fake financial trivia | Tell us some fake trivia about money or the financial system. | H H |
| 1471 | Tour de Fours XVIII: B-I-D-E with us | Coin a word or phrase containing the letters B-I-D-E -- consecutively but in any order, and describe it. | H |
| 1468 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1440 through 1464. | H |
| 1465 | Put your '22 cents in for our annual pre-timeline | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2022. | H |
| 1464 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | H H |
| 1463 | Fork over some (new) Spoonerisms | Write and original Q-A joke featuring a spoonerism. | 4 |
| 1462 | Time for a new career? | Tell what would happen if any two people switched professions or other roles. | 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 |
| 1453 | Haven't read it -- mis-subtitle a book | Choose any book title listed on Amazon and misinterpret it by adding a subtitle. | H |
| 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 |
| 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". | H 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, | 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. | 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. | H |
| 1434 | Go ahead, mate my bay: Grandfoals | Breed" any two of this week's inking foal names and name the "grandfoal. | H 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. | W T |
| 1432 | Turn tale and run with it | Offer a new angle on a folk tale, nursery rhyme, children's song, etc., with a short poem, mini-story (under 100 words) or song parody. | 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 |
| 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. | H H |
| 1416 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1388 through 1412. | 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. | H |
| 1411 | Back end of a Bulwer | Write a humorously awful final sentence or two to an imaginary novel. | H |
| 1407 | Your ad space (or space ad) here | Come up with an idea for promoting some commercial product or service (a) in space, (b) in a prison, (c) at a kindergarten, (d) by a football team or (e) in the White House. | H H |
| 1401 | How hai? A joke-haiku contest | Write a joke (roughly) in the "It's so xxx" genre as a haiku. | 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 |
| 1394 | Two movies, one line | Cite a real or coined line, or give a description, that could work for two different movies, plays or TV shows. | H |
| 1393 | Second chance (acned conches?) for anagrams | Describe any of the provided anagram businesses, or offer its slogan. | 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. | H |
| 1375 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. | H |
| 1373 | Prime time for some Amazon reviews | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided Amazon-listed items. | 3 |
| 1369 | Shoot us some oops | Tell us a concise original joke that revolves around a typo or misheard word. | 3 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 1363 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1334 through Week 1359. | H H |
| 1362 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1307 through 1333, except for Weeks 1309-1311. | M |
| 1361 | 2020 vision -- the year in preview | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2020. | H H H H |
| 1359 | Back up in the air (quotes) | Write a sentence or two and highlight an "air quote" that spans two or more words (and two sentences if you like). | H |
| 1356 | Ask Backwards 38 | Sixteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. | 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. | H |
| 1353 | What's playing at the retroplex | Change a movie title to its "opposite" by reversing one or more words; then describe the new movie. | H 3 |
| 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 H |
| 1348 | Same difference | Explain humorously how any two or more of the provided items are alike, different or otherwise connected. | W |
| 1345 | The confaketionary -- food fictoids | Tell us some comically false "fact" about food, drink or dining. | H |
| 1336 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | H |
| 1334 | Mull 'er over: A search for collision | Combine any two words, names, abbreviations, etc., from anywhere in the redacted Mueller report, in a two-word or hyphenated phrase and define it. | 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. | 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. | 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. | L |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 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 | H 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 |
| 1311 | Nextra! Nextra! The year in preview | Name some humorous event to happen in 2019. | H H |
| 1309 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1255 through Week 1281. | 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. | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 H 3 |
| 1289 | Fake gnus: bogus animal trivia | Tell us a fictoid -- a humorously false "fact" -- about the nonhuman animal kingdom. | H |
| 1288 | Your results may vary | Write a funny disclaimer or warning for some product or service. | 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 |
| 1253 | Fashion x fiction: More fake trivia | Tell us some totally bogus trivia about clothing or fashion. | H |