WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
---|---|---|---|
1608 | Stick It | An election bumper sticker contest | T M H |
1607 | Funny, Init? | Compare two people who have the same initials. | M H H 4 |
1606 | The Cold New Trend | What would be an even sillier new fad than decorator refrigerator shelves? | H H H |
1605 | Get Thee to a Punnery | Change a quote slightly and credit it to someone else. | H H H 4 |
1603 | Hu-boy, It's Limerixicon XXI | Write a limerick featuring a word beginning 'hu' or 'hy'. | T H |
1602 | We Got Game | Tell us some funny ways to 'improve' a sport. | H H H |
1601 | Stop, Hey, What's That Sound? | Tell us what these noise-words mean. | H H 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. | 4 |
1597 | The Farce of July | Give us new ways to celebrate Independence Day. | 3 |
1596 | History for the tl;dr Crowd | Sum up an event for the 21st-century reader in a rhyming couplet. | H H H H H H |
1595 | Ebenezer Screwed | Write us a funny comic strip on a certain sensitive subject | H |
1594 | So Good! So Bad! So Ugly! | We bring back a classic contest | H H H A |
1593 | Qwerty Lashes | Write us something funny from just a few letters of the keyboard. | 4 |
1591 | Our Typo Humor | More fun with headlines. | W H H H 3 |
1590 | All You Need Is Ink | Take a line from a Beatles song and rhyme it with your own. | H |
1589 | Wait Wait Right Here! | Write some 'Not My Job' questions a la the NPR quiz show. | H H H |
1588 | Colt Fusion | Because of our munificense and guilt, you get a full hundred foal names to 'breed' for 'grandfoals' | M H |
1587 | The Trite Stuff | Replace some well-worn phrases with better ones. | M H H H H H H |
1586 | Pun for the Roses | Our annual crazy-popular horse 'breeding' wordplay contest. | 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. | M H H H |
1582 | You're Workin' on a Chain, Gang | A classic connection game. | H 3 |
1581 | SOTU-Speak | Use words from Biden's State of the Union speech to write some lines for another oration. | H |
1580 | Hi, Anxiety! | Tell us some funny ways to stress yourself out. | T H H |
1579 | Captions Courageous | Write a description for any of six photos | H H H H 3 |
1578 | The Pepys Show | Give us a diary entry from anyone in history. | 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 H |
1575 | The Ughscars and the Phewlitzers | Give us an idea for a bad book or movie. | H H H |
1574 | Oh, Grandpa, Stop! | Turn a 'dad joke' into a less-tame 'grandpa joke' | H H 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 |
1572 | S Is for Smartass | Presenting the Devil's Alphabet Soup | H |
1570 | The Invitational, Week 52: Replaying Around -- The 2023 retrospective, Part II | Enter or reenter our Week 26-50. | T H |
1569 | Look Back in Inker -- Our 2023 retrospective, Part 1 | Enter or reenter our Week 1-25 contests. | H H |
1568 | Nextra! Nextra! | Tell us the funny news events from 2024 | H 2 |
1567 | Picture This | A caption contest | H H H |
1566 | Well, the Good News Is ... | Put a positive spin on a bad-news headline | T M H |
1565 | Oh, For Namesakes! | Compare two people who share part of a name. | H H 2 |
1564 | "Air" "Quotes" | A new forefinger contest | W H H |
1563 | The Perfect(ly Ridiculous) Gift | Offer up some products for people-who-have-everything catalogs. | H H H |
1562 | Rhyme and Rhyme Again | Write a funny "monorhyme", a poem whose lines all rhyme on the same sound. | T H H |
1560 | The 'Hole Story | Write us a funny 'Am I The Asshole' question | T H |
1559 | As the Word Turns | 'Discover' new words by snaking through this random grid | H H |
1557 | Tailgating On the Highway | Pair a Dylan line with your own rhyming one | M H |
1556 | Cross Us Up | Mirror a phrase, more or less | H |
1555 | Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us? | Give us "backronyms" | H H |
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 H H H |
1553 | Doody and Muldoon | Write a Muldoon, a four-line poem that features at least two body parts and a place name, and at least one rhyme. | H |
1552 | A Mirthday Party | Link two people who share a birthday | H H H H H H 4 |
1551 | Ask Backwards XLII | We give the answers. You give the questions. | T H H H 3 |
1550 | Holy Moly, It's Limerixicon XX | Write a limerick featuring a word beginning "ho-". | M H |
1546 | Put It in Bee-verse | Write a funny poem using a spelling bee word | M |
1545 | Their Base Behavior | Tell humorously how some business or organization could alter its product or message to appeal to Trump’s cult. | T H H H H H H H |
1544 | Same Difference | Tell us humorously how items on the list are alike, different, or otherwise linked. | H H H H |
1543 | F Things Up | Neologisms by adding Fs or changing letters to F | M H |
1542 | Your (B)ad Here | Tweak an ad slogan to use it for another product | H H |
1541 | Wrong enough for ya? | Fake facts about the weather | H H |
1540 | Picture This | It's caption contest time, with eight motley pictures to choose from. | W H H 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 |
1538 | Rhymes Against Humanity | Write a four-line poem about people in the news, using either of two poetic forms | H |
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 |
1535 | The Poops Diorama | Make some funny art with toilet paper and send us a photo. | W I H H H |
1534 | Pun for the Roses | Our renowned horse name 'breeding' contest returns! | H |
1533 | The Very Last 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions' | Tell us a stupid question followed by a funny retort. | H H H H |
1532 | We Bee Back With Neologisms | Make up words using letter sets from the NYT Spelling Bee game | H H 2 |
1531 | The Worst New Contest Ever | Describe something that would be worse than a second Trump presidency | M H H |
1530 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret any headline by adding a 'bank head'. | H H H H |
1529 | Hello, Dall-E! | Our new contest partners you and a machine. | 3 |
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 | M H H |
1527 | Film Flim-Flam | Use all the letters in a movie title to make a new movie | H |
1525 | Arty Har-har | Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work | T H |
1524 | Picture This | A caption contest | T H 4 |
1523 | Where in Hell ...? | Name a "circle" for some "evil", plus a suitable punishment | H H H H |
1522 | Questionable Journalism | Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer | H H H |
1521 | Send Us the Bill | Our "Joint Legislation" contest | H H |
1520 | Nextra! Nextra! | Read All About it. Predict the big news events of 2023 | M H H 2 |
1518 | The final Post edition | Some all-time favorite entries | H |
1513 | You're such a card | Come up with a greeting card rhyme for an un-greeting-card occasion. | T H 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. | T M H H H |
1510 | Only U (or A, E, I or O) | Write a humorous univocalic poem — one that uses only one of the vowels A, E, I, O or U | H |
1509 | MASH MASH: combine 2 one-word movies | Combine two single-word movie titles to make a new movie and describe it. | T |
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 |
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. | T H H |
1504 | All set — anagram all 100 Scrabble tiles | Write a Scrabblegram — an anagram of all 100 tiles in an English-language Scrabble set (your choice for the two blanks). Any punctuation is fine. | H H 3 |
1502 | It's Hi-time for Limerixicon XIX | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with “hi-. | M |
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. | T H H |
1499 | Picture This, a cartoon caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | H |
1498 | V for Verses -- misuse a word in a poem | Write a short (eight lines or fewer), humorous poem that uses one or more words in other than their actual meanings. | H H |
1497 | The if-word | Give us a "what if" scenario and its humorous result | H |
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. | W H H H |
1494 | Put it in bee-verse | Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes at least one of the words used in Round 4 or later of this year's bee; OR: write a joke in Q&A form that uses at least one of the words. | H H 2 |
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. | M 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 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. | M H |
1490 | It's parody time -- sing the news | Write a satiric song about anything in the news these days. | M H |
1489 | Let's movie things around | Rearrange the words of a movie title to create a new movie, then describe it | T 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. | M H H H 3 |
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 H |
1486 | No can do: Signs of incompetence | Give us a clue that someone was incompetent in a given field. | M 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 3 |
1484 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | 4 |
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 H |
1480 | Oh, you don't really mean that | Define" inaccurately and humorously any of the provided words. | M H |
1477 | Thinking outside the big box | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided items listed on walmart.com<\em>. | H |
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 H 3 |
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. | 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 |
1472 | Phony money -- tell us fake financial trivia | Tell us some fake trivia about money or the financial system. | T |
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 H |
1470 | Your add here -- a prefix feast | Add a "prefix" -- by which we mean at least one syllable of any kind (but not multiple words) -- to the beginning of any word in well-known phrase, name, book title, etc., and describe the result. | T 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 H |
1468 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1440 through 1464. | H H |
1467 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1413 through 1439, except for Weeks 1414-1416. | L H |
1466 | Be invitationally correct | Give us a funny "correction" that a newspaper or magazine might offer. | 4 |
1465 | Put your '22 cents in for our annual pre-timeline | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2022. | H H |
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 |
1460 | These new words are on fleek | From the provided list, write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. | H 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 H |
1457 | What is Ask Backwards XL? | You are on "Jeopardy!"; various answers are provided. You provide the questions. | T H H |
1456 | The hunting of the snark | Ask an insulting rhetorical question in the form (or a variation) of "Is that your _______ or _______? | H |
1455 | Good idea! Or not. | Cite a "good idea' and, with a small change of wording, a "bad idea". | H H |
1454 | Punku 3 -- haiku with a pun | Create a haiku containing a pun or similar wordplay. | T 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 |
1451 | Could have said it worse ourselves | Give us a humorously bad "first draft" of a famous line from history, literature or entertainment. | T H |
1450 | Putting the 'anoid' in humanoid | Humorously describe some aspect of our current society as a space alien and/or future anthropologist might interpret it. | 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. | H H H |
1448 | Hear, hear -- it's Limerixicon XVIII | Supply a humerous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with "he-". | H 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". | M H 3 |
1446 | Clue us in -- and we spill the beans | Write novel clues for as many as 25 answers in the provided grid, across or down, first substituting your own letters for any covered ones. | 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, | W 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. | M H H 4 |
1441 | \'Rick rolling: songs as limericks | Sum up or otherwise reflect a well-known song as a limerick. | T 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. | W H |
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 |
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 |
1436 | Haven't seen it: Fun with movie titles | Misinterpret a movie title in a supposed plot description. | H H |
1435 | Who needs Peeps when we have CICADAS? | Create a witty visual artwork that includes at least one real cicada or cicada casing (the body-shaped shell from which the insect emerges) and send us a photo of it. | W H H 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. | L H 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 |
1430 | Back to racing speed with the 'foals' | Breed" any two of the provided names of the 100 horses nominated for the 2021 Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to humorously play off both parents' names. | H H |
1429 | Forsoothsayers | Quote a line or so from any Shakespeare work, and exemplify it with a contemporary quote, real or imagined. | 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 |
1427 | Rocky of ages, or Badenov for you? | State any historical event -- right up to 2021 -- in the provided "A, or B" format. | H H 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. | M H |
1425 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | H H |
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 2 |
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 |
1421 | Alternaugural Address '21 | Write a humorous passage -- a "quote", an observation, a joke, a dialogue, a poem, anything -- using only words that appear in Biden's inaugural address. | L H H |
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. | H H |
1416 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1388 through 1412. | 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. | T H H H |
1414 | Divining comedy: 2021 predictions | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2021. | T H H H 3 |
1413 | We're finna give you some new words | Write a poem of eight lines or fewer featuring one or more of the provided terms. The terms must be used as they're defined in the new m-w.com listing. | P |
1412 | Jumble bells -- anagram a song line | Rearrange all the letters in a song title, or a line (or more if you dare!) from a song. Optional: Offer a parody of the original tune (or a few lines of it) that refers to the new title. | H |
1411 | Back end of a Bulwer | Write a humorously awful final sentence or two to an imaginary novel. | M |
1410 | Legends of the fall -- more fictoids | Tell us some bogus trivia about autumn, or things that happen (or have happened) in autumn. | T 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. | W M H H H |
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. | T H |
1404 | Ask Backwards XXXIX | The answers are provided. You supply the questions. | T H |
1403 | Who was that masked man? | Current a short listing for a current or past TV show that has a coronavirus story line, or one reflecting some other issue in the news right now. | 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. | 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. | H H |
1398 | This is the year that is | Describe the year 2020 in a novel, colorful metaphor or simile. You may also offer an original graphic. | H |
1397 | Trope springs eternal | Use any of the four provided standard settings -- (a) desert island, (b) bartender at a bar, (c) desert, (d) psychiatrist next to a couch -- and describe a cartoon that includes your choice of characters, along with a caption. | T |
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 |
1395 | Add nauseam: A plus-one contest | Add a "plus one" to some familiar numerical grouping, true or fictional | M |
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. | T M H H |
1393 | Second chance (acned conches?) for anagrams | Describe any of the provided anagram businesses, or offer its slogan. | H |
1392 | Picture this -- caption these cartoons | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. | 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 H 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. | W H H |
1384 | Of course there are stupid questions! | Give us stupid questions, especially ones reflecting Our Current Situation. | W |
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 2 |
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. | H 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. | W 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. | H H |
1377 | Make your own March Madness | Think of some sport, game, art project or other activity that you can conjure up using various items that you might find around the house. | T H H 3 |
1376 | Get thee to a funnery | Add a character (or more) to a Shakespeare play and supply some resulting dialogue. | H |
1375 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. | T |
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 H |
1373 | Prime time for some Amazon reviews | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided Amazon-listed items. | M H H H |
1372 | Trash talking, 1880-style | Write a quatrain or -- heck -- two of Balliol rhyme about some person. | T 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. | T M |
1370 | What's in a name? | Write something about a well-known person, real or fictional, using only the letters in that person's name. | H |
1369 | Shoot us some oops | Tell us a concise original joke that revolves around a typo or misheard word. | T |
1368 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | 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 |
1364 | Clue us in | Supply clever, funny clues for as many as 25 of the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | T H H |
1363 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1334 through Week 1359. | T |
1362 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1307 through 1333, except for Weeks 1309-1311. | W |
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. | 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 |
1358 | What to your wondering eyes will appear? | Write a humorous passage -- a "quote", an observation, a joke, a dialogue, a poem, anything -- using only words that appear in "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (a.k.a "The Night Before Christmas"). | H H |
1356 | Ask Backwards 38 | Sixteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. | 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. | 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. | T H 4 2 |
1351 | What concept will you be for Halloween? | Give us a creative, clever idea for a timely Halloween costume (for one or more people) or an idea for a party or other activity. You may even send us a photo of an actual new costume you've created this year. | T |
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 H |
1348 | Same difference | Explain humorously how any two or more of the provided items are alike, different or otherwise connected. | M H |
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 |
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 |
1345 | The confaketionary -- food fictoids | Tell us some comically false "fact" about food, drink or dining. | H 3 |
1342 | MRGRS: Mash 2 abbrevs. | Combine two acronyms or other abbreviations, whether of entities or expressions, into one big one, and describe it, offer a slogan for the new organization, etc. | H H H |
1341 | Portmanteautapping from E to R | Coin a portmanteau word beginning with E through R, in which the words overlap by at least two letters, and describe it. | T 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. | 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 2 |
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 |
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 H H H H |
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 |
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 H |
1328 | Hooked on 'classic': a do-over | Summarize a book or play by any author, or retell a scene (or even a moment) from one, in the style of some other person. | P H |
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 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. | T |
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. | H 4 |
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. | T 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 H 4 |
1317 | Punku 2: Haiku with puns | Create a haiku containing a pun or similar wordplay. | M H H |
1316 | Lies, damn lies, with statistics | Tell us some bogus trivia using "statistics" or some bogus quantitative meaure. | H H 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. | T 4 |
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 | T H H |
1313 | Dead Letters -- our obit poem contest | Write a poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2018. | 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 H |
1310 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1282 through Week 1306. | M H |
1309 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1255 through Week 1281. | M H |
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. | 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. | H |
1304 | All the muse that's fit to print | Present a "what if" scenario and explain its effect. | H |
1303 | Neologisms to di- for | Replace a digraph in an existing word or phrase with another digraph to make a new term. | T H H |
1301 | Tell us a Fib(onacci) | Write a humorous poem of 20 syllables divided among six lines like this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. And a least two -- any two -- of the lines must rhyme. | H |
1300 | Botch office sensations | Add "13" to an existing movie title, and some humorous trouble to the plot. | M 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. | W 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 |
1296 | A, we're Adorbs: New-word poems | Use one or more of these words new to M-W.com in a humorous poem of eight lines max. | 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. | M 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 |
1290 | Bobbing for Witte words | Come up with both an object/situation and a neologism for it. | H H |
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 H H H |
1285 | That is so wrong! | Supply a trivia question along with both the correct answer and a cleverly "wrong" guess. | M H |
1282 | Picture This | Write a caption for one or more of the provided pictures. | H 2 |
1281 | We only have (googly) eyes for you | Send us a photo of something that you have made funny by pasting googly eyes on it; funny titles and captions are optional. | H H 3 |
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. | T M H H H H H |
1279 | Just do it -- the 'real' way | List some "accurate" directions for using some product or completing some task. | H H H H |
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. | M 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. | T H |
1276 | What 4? A limerick contest | Use a limerick using one of the provided lines as Line 5. | M |
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 |
1272 | The hex files: creative curses | Come up with a creative curse. | H |
1271 | Yodel Doyle's praises with a D-O-Y-L-E neologism | Coin a new word or phrase that contains the letters D, O, Y, L and E. | H H 3 |
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 |
I H |
1269 | Mess with our (or other) heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in The Post (print or online) or another publication and dated March 1-12 by writing a bank head. | H |
1268 | Playing pinocchio | Tell us some humorously bogus trivia about the news media or the publishing or broadcasting industries. | T H |
1267 | Jingle bungle | Suggest an ill-advised spokesman (dead or alive, or fictional), along with a humorously noooo slogan or jingle. | 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. | 2 |
1265 | Parody for the course | Write a song relating to a class or course of instruction, or to school in general. | M |
1264 | A cry for Yelp: 'Review' any place | Write a humorous review, positive or negative, of anyplace (real of fictional) one might visit. | H 2 |
1263 | Playing the short game | Using the three-letter Olympic national abbreviations and/or the abbreviation for any college, tell what would happen if one abbreviated team played another. | H |
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. | T H H |
1261 | Post mortems -- our annual obit poem contest | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2017. | H |
1260 | What lies (are) ahead for 2018 | Jokingly predict some news event to happen in 2018. | T 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. | H H 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 H |
1256 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Provide a funny caption for any of the provided cartoons. | M H |
1254 | Inkorporation--a change-one-letter contest | Change the name of a present or past business, store or agency (not just a product) by adding one letter, deleting one letter, transposing two letters or substituting one letter for another. | M |
1253 | Fashion x fiction: More fake trivia | Tell us some totally bogus trivia about clothing or fashion. | 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 H H 2 |
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. | M |
1248 | C'mon, fess up! | Send us a brief "confession" -- there will be categories for true and just-kidding. | T H H |
1247 | Script tease | Offer a quote from a script whose title you've given a different plot. | 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 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 H |
1244 | Primed for product reviews | Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. | M H H H |
1242 | Generation Yux | Give us a "then/now" joke. | H 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 H |
1239 | MASH 3 | Combine two movie titles and describe the result. | H H |
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. | H H |
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. | H H 2 |
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 |
1233 | Not | The Loser Community gets a week off (actually two) from writing contest entries and will have to find something else to do during staff meetings, sermons, romantic breakups, etc. | 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. | H |
1230 | What in creation . . . ? | Supply a brief monologue or dialogue about a Creator's specifications or planning for some living being. | M |
1229 | Gorey bits from A to Z | Send us one of more edgy rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. | T H H H |
1227 | Celebrate ortho-diversity! | Name and describe a new life form -- and no letter in the term may be used twice. | H H H H H 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. | M H |
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. | M |
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 |
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. | H |
1221 | Who's kidding whom? | Take two people from history, past or present, and tell what their child would be like | H H |
1220 | O pedantry, O pedantry | Give us some humorous pedantry. | W H H |
1219 | Cast your Bred upon us | Write a Lik the Bred verse about someone in the news lately. | M |
1218 | Mess with our -- or anyone else's -- heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in the Post (print or online or another publication dated March 9-20) by writing a bankhead, or subtitle. | H |
1217 | Mergers you wrote: Combine two businesses with puns | Give a clever name for a combination of two or more businesses. | M 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 |
1215 | A so-so contest (How so-so is it?) | Write a humorous exaggeration in the form "x is so y that . . . | H H |
1213 | Punku | Write a haiku that incorporates a pun. | H |
1211 | The best tweets in history | Write a stupidly disparaging tweet (140 characters or fewer, including spaces) about some laudable figure of past or present, true or fictional. | H H 3 |
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 H |
1208 | A RIP-roaring year: Obit poems | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2016. | M H H |
1207 | Clue us in -- a reverse crossword | Supply clever, funny clues to up to 25 of the 72 words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | 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. | T H H 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. | T H |
1204 | Well, at least . . . | Note some good news for the coming year to comfort -- or "comfort" -- those who are depressed about the change of presidential administration. | W 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 H |
1201 | Tour de Fours XIII: What's there to NOVE? | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block N-O-V-E. | L |
1200 | The definitive dozen | Supply a word, name or multi-word term along with a wry definition or description; together, the term and description must total exactly 12 words. | T H H H H H 2 |
1199 | We want some bad choices | Offer one or more funny Questions for Terrible People, as shown. | 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". | W 3 |
1197 | Picture This -- It's a Bob Staake caption contest | Write a caption for any of the cartoons provided. | T 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. | H H H |
1194 | Nyetymologies: fake word origins | Provide a humorously untrue explanation for the derivation of a word. | H |
1193 | Poedtry | Write a Poed, which consists of four lines: The first line contains six one-syllable words. The second line contains three two-syllable words. The third line contains two three-syllable words. The fourth line contains one six-syllable word (or a name totaling six syllables. And at least two of the lines must rhyme. | H 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). | T M H |
1191 | Mess with our heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in The Post (print or online) and dated Sept. 1-12 by writing a bank head, or subtitle | H 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. | L |
1189 | Gee, it's Limerixicon XIII! | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ge". | H H |
1188 | Just short words, one more time | Explain some concept or philosophy entirely in words of one syllable. | H H |
1187 | Just drop it, okay? | Drop the last letter from an existing word, phrase or name and define the result. | H |
1185 | The Rorschach of the crowd | Interpret one of more of the provided genuine inkblots. You may look at them upside down or sideways. | H |
1183 | C'mon, be honest with us | Write something in roughly the form "If X were more honest, (then) Y. | M H H H |
1177 | The ballad box | Write a song related to this year's elections, set to a familiar tune. | T |
1175 | Good luck with 13 | Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 13, and define it. | 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. | T |
1173 | Tinker with the recipe | Slightly change the name of a food or brand of food (or something else in the food industry) and describe it, or write a slogan, jingle, etc. | H |
1172 | Pieces of 'Pie' | Write a short passage -- an observation, a joke, a dialogue, a poem, anything -- using only words that appear in the song "American Pie". | 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 |
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 |
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. | H 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). | M 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. | H H H 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 | T P |
1165 | B all you can B | Change a word, phrase or name by adding one or more B's, and/or by replacing one or more letters with B's, and define your new term. | H 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 H H 4 |
1163 | Put it in reverse | Spell a word, name or phrase backward and define the result in a way that relates to the original. | H H 3 |
1162 | An 8-year Re-Onion | Write a fictional Onion-type headline. | T H |
1161 | Give us four Pinocchios | Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past. | H |
1160 | A remeaning task | Redefine an existing word or two-word term beginning with P through Z. | H |
1159 | It's all in the game | Come up with a funny/ridiculous board-type game and describe it. | M H H |
1158 | What have we here? | Tell us what one or more of these objects really are. | H 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. | T H H |
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. | M I 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. | T H |
1152 | Oops? You do it again. | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1098 through Week 1148, except for Week 1101, last year's do-over. | H H H |
1151 | To [a glass], snarkly | Write a short, snarky (but witty) note to one of the provided glassbowls. | H |
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. | H H |
1149 | Gestures of depreciation | Suggest ways to celebrate National Love Your Lawyer Day -- or a made-up "holiday" celebrating some other profession. | H 3 |
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. | T H H 3 |
1146 | Stick it to us with a magnet | Suggest a new Style Invitational honorable-mention magnet. | H 3 |
1145 | A DICEy situation | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block D-I-C-E. | H H |
1144 | Someone else's business | Name a real brand, along with something else it would be a better name for. | 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. | T 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. | M |
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. | T H |
1138 | Show us your touché | Offer an elegantly snide (and original) insult of anyone living or dead. | T H H H 4 |
1137 | Be a published author! | Give us a spicy title for a boring book, real or imagined. | H H |
1136 | Gaah! It's Limerixicon XII | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ga-". | T 4 |
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). | H H |
1134 | The 'Sty'le Invitational Red'ux' | Put quotation marks around part of a word, name or phrase and define the result. | 4 |
1133 | Are 'hew ready? A contest for clerihews | A clerihew is a humorous four-line rhyming poem about a person whose name is mentioned in the first line; in fact, the name must be at the end of that line (or constitute the whole line) so that it has to rhyme with something. The rhyme structure (and we don't want "lazy" rhymes) is AABB: the first line rhymes with the second, the third with the fourth. | M H H |
1132 | You and what army? Military fictoids | Give us some comically bogus trivia about the military, past or present, ours or theirs. | H 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 H H 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 |
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. | H H H |
1127 | From the creators of . . . | Think up a spinoff of a real TV series, past or present, and furnish a description or bit of dialogue. | H 3 |
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. | T |
1122 | Colt Following: 'Grandfoals' | Breed" any two of the 65 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect the parents' names. | T H |
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 3 |
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 H H |
1119 | We want hue so bad | Invent a name for a color and describe it. | M H |
1118 | Breed 'em and weep | Breed any two of the provided 100 racehorses nominated for this year's Triple Crown events and name the foal the reflect both names. | M 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 |
1114 | Awww together now | Write us a humorous headline -- from the past, present, or future -- that puts an optimistic perspective on some otherwise not-so-promising news. | H H H H 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. | T M |
1112 | Some SHARP words | Coin a word or short term that includes all the letters S, H, A, R, and P. | H H 2 |
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. | M H |
1110 | The mama of all humor | Write a [Someone’s] Mama joke for some well-known figure, past or present, real or fictional. | H H H |
1109 | Fictoids of Columbia | Tell us some humorously untrue “facts” about Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. | H H |
1108 | Hearts of dorkness | Write a humorous Valentine's Day sentiment to someone (or to some organization), either real or fictional -- either from you or from someone else you name. Plus an all-new option: We'll also be willing to run at least one really funny, clever, well-executed graphic. | H H H |
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. | H 4 |
1105 | A lit obit of fun | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2014. | H H |
1104 | A pair of threes | Choose two or three entities represented by a single three-letter combination beginning with E- through H- — see the links at bit.ly/abbrevs-e-h — and say how they are alike or different. | H |
1102 | Let's get Sirius | Suggest a new radio channel and describe it. | H H H |
1101 | The year in redo | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050. | W M 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. | W |
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 |
1098 | Prime time for some Amazon reviews | Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. | T M H 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". | T H 4 |
1096 | Picture this | Write a humorous caption for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. | H 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. | H 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 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 |
1092 | Are we having funds yet? | Suggest a humorous fundraising "challenge" for any organization. | H |
1091 | Good idea! or not. | Come up with a good idea and, through a small change in wording, a bad idea. | M 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. | H |
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. |
M H H 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. | M |
1084 | Limerixicon XI: Fi-, fo-, go! | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "Fl-" through "fo-". | T H |
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. | H |
1079 | Little piddle riddle | Ask a question and answer it with a rhyme. | H H |
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. | H H 2 |
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"). | H H |
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. | M |
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. | M L H H 2 |
1070 | Colt following -- our grandfoals contest | Breed" any two of the foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect the parents' names. | T |
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. | M H H H |
1065 | The ands have it | Slightly alter ANY well-known phrase in the form "A-and-B" -- it doesn't have to be Latinate/Anglo-Saxon -- and define it. | H |
1064 | HistoRebuffs | Alter some moment in history and tell us -- in no more than about 50 words -- the likely outcome. | H H |
1063 | Same difference | Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different. | T M |
1062 | Scanning the headlines | Write a rhyming poem about something currently in the news. | T |
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. | H |
1060 | Picture this | Write a caption, or captions, for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H 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. | M |
1057 | Sportin' lie | Give us some fake sports trivia. | H |
1056 | Weather or nuts | Coin a term relating to the weather, climate, etc. -- either literal or figurative -- and define it. | T 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. | I H |
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. | T L H |
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. | M 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. | W T H H |
1050 | Just redo it | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1000 through Week 1046. | H |
1049 | Be rating | Come up with a new movie rating and describe it. | T H |
1047 | Bank shots | Quote a headline appearing in The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com or another publication, print or online, dated Nov. 14 to Nov. 25, and supply a humorous "bank" headline that either misinterprets it or comments wryly on it. | T H |
1046 | Derive us crazy | Offer a bogus but funny explanation of how a particular expression originated. | T P I |
1045 | Songs for the asking | Take a sentence, phrase or title from a song and provide a funny question it might answer. | H H H |
1044 | Play it safe | Come up with a comically safety-conscious rule for the workplace or elsewhere. | H 4 |
1041 | What have you got to lose? | Answer a question, real or rhetorical, that appears in a song. | H |
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. |
H |
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 H 2 |
1038 | It's like this, see | Answer a simple question with a ridiculously argued answer citing various connections and parallels. | H |
1037 | Outrage us | Find something offensive about an inoffensive name of a product, organization, place, etc. | T H H |
1036 | Just for liffs | Use a real place name, from anywhere in the world, as a new term. | M |
1035 | The Empy 500 | Explain what news Bob Staake is trying to tell in any of the provided drawings. | H H 3 |
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 H |
1033 | LimeriXicon | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "fa-". | M H |
1032 | Hid stuff | Explain the symbolism "obviously" evident in any well-known site, artwork, etc., in 75 words or fewer. | 2 |
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. | M H |
1028 | Joint Legislation | Combine the names of two or more of the First Congress senators and/or representatives to create "joint legislation". | H H |
1027 | Built for two | Give humorous related names for any pair of features in a given building, organization, etc. | H |
1026 | 'Might' makes ink | Give us a joke using any of the using any of the provided "you might be" templates. | H H |
1025 | In so many words | Create an original backronym for a name or other term, especially one that's been in the news lately. | 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 H |
1023 | Hai there, Martians! | Write one or more humorous haiku that will greet the Martians or share a little nugget of what life is like on Earth. | H H |
1022 | What's the diff? | Explain how any two of the provided items are alike or different. | H |
1021 | 'Gram theft | Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it. | T |
1020 | Colt following | Breed any two of this week's winning foals and name the grandfoal. | H |
1019 | What a turnoff | Tell us some creative things that children and families could do during Screen-Free Week. | H H H H |
1018 | Reologisms | Write a clever, funny definition for any of the Loser-concocted neologisms from Week 1014 as well as from Week 1000 that deserve better definitions than their creators offered at the time. | M 4 |
1017 | Vowel play | Write a "univocalic" newspaper headline -- one that uses only one vowel throughout. | 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 |
1015 | Faux re mi | Give us some humorously false trivia about music or musicians. | M |
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. | 4 |
1013 | Har monikers | Write a riddle that uses a pun of a person's name in the answer. | H H |
1012 | The news at 5 | Write a limerick about a recent news event. | W H H |
1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | H H H H H H H |
1010 | Picture this | Write a caption for any of the five provided cartoons. | M H H |
1009 | What's in a name? | Write something about some person, real or fictional, using only the letters in the person's name. | H 2 |
1008 | Switched reels | Re-arrange all the words in the title of a movie, and describe the resulting work. | M |
1006 | It's a ... a ... | Create a new superhero (or duo) and describe the superpower, or not-very-superpower. | H |
1005 | Send us the bill | Name a piece of legislation "cosponsored" by two or more of the 98 new House and Senate members provided. | H 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 |
1002 | Wring out the OED | Make up a false definition for any of the listed OED words. | T |
1001 | Make us ROFL | Give us a funny, original acronym. | H 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. | H |
999 | Drectrospective | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 946 through Week 995, except for Week 948. | H H 3 |
998 | Set the law on us | Suggest an odd law for a particular place in the world. | M H |
997 | Unworthy causes | Name a dubious charity and describe its mission. | H |
996 | A Life-Time opportunity | Combine two magazines or journals and describe the result, supply a marketing pitch, or suggest a story or two that it might publish. | I |
995 | Ask backwards | We give you the "answers" and you supply jokes in the form of a question. | M H H H H 3 |
994 | Stick it to us | Suggest a slogan for one of our two new honorable-mention Loser Magnets for 2012-2013. | H |
993 | Versus, verses | Write a short "rap battle" between any two characters, real or fictional. | M H 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 |
991 | Tour de Fours IX | Create a new word or two-word term containing the letter block V, O, T, and E and define it. | M |
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 H H H 3 |
989 | On the double | Come up with a double or multiple profession, and explain how each job complements the other(s). | 3 |
988 | A faster break | Suggest ways to make sports and other leisure activities more time-efficient or exciting. | M 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 |
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. | H H H H 3 |
984 | Another brilliant contest | Write something whose words begin with consecutive letters of the alphabet. | L H H |
983 | Limerixicon IX | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters "eq-" through "ez-". | M H H |
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 |
981 | Feeling testy | Write a question that "ought to" be on a qualifying test for a particular job. | H |
980 | Def jam | Supply a humorous definition for any of the provided Loser-penned neologisms. | M H |
978 | A reason to rhyme the news | Write a short verse about something that's been in the news recently. | M |
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. | W M H |
975 | Gone mything | Debunk a "Sixth Myth" about one of more of the recent "5 Myths" topics provided. | H H |
974 | Eat our dust! | Write a limerick humorously describing a book, play, movie, or TV show. | M H 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. | W H |
972 | Trends and neighbors | Choose any two items on the provided list and explain how they are alike or different. | M H 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. | I H |
970 | Couple it | Take a line from any well-known poem and pair it with your own second line to make a humorous couplet. | M H |
969 | Colt following | Breed any two "foals" in today's results, and name the grandfoal. | T |
968 | Take us for grants | Come up with a proposal to the National Science Foundation or other research-funding organization for a study based on a stupid hypothesis. | H |
967 | Overlap dance II | Create a phrase that overlaps two terms, each of two words or more, and describe the result. | 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 H 4 |
965 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses in this year's Triple Crown races and name their foal. | 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 H 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. | H H H |
961 | The end of our rhops | Write a funny passage or headline whose words all have the same number of letters. | H |
960 | Raving reviews | Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. | T H H |
959 | Out of network | Move a current or former TV program (or type of programming) to a different network and explain what would change. | T P H 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 H |
957 | Fearful Symmetry | Write a clever passage whose successive words are one letter longer until the middle of the passage, and then become one letter shorter. | H 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. | T |
954 | Bring on the 'fight' jokes | Tell us an original joke ending with “And then the fight started.” | 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. | T H |
952 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2011. | P H |
951 | Say that again | Double a word, or use a word and its homophone, to make a phrase, and define it. | I H H |
949 | Analogies | Give us an analogy using "a is to b as x is to y." | H 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 |
946 | Another round of Bierce | Write a clever definition of a word, name or multi-word term. | H H 2 |
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. | W M H 2 |
944 | Uh, yeah, it's just you | Give us one or more "Is it just me" questions. | H H |
943 | Ask backward XXIX | You are on "Jeopardy!" You supply the questions for as many of the provided answers as you like. | H |
942 | Singular ideas | Give us an idea for a contest for which there's likely only one good entry. | H |
941 | They don't say! | Give us a quote that a particular person, present or past, real or fictional, sooo wouldn't have said. | H 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). | W |
939 | MASH 2: The Retread | Combine two movie titles and describe the result. | P |
938 | Free and Lear | Write a limerick using the first two lines of any of Edward Lear's 115 limericks plus your own remaining three lines. | I H |
937 | Staake it to him | Write a caption for any of the five pages or details pictured from some of Bob's more than 50 picture books. | T M H H |
936 | Hoho contendere | Slightly alter a well-known foreign-language term and define it. | M H |
934 | Same difference | Explain how any two items in the provided list are similar or different. | H |
932 | We'll call them your-mama jokes | Tell us an original "your mama" joke. | M H |
931 | Limerixicon 8 | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters ea- through -el. | T M H 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. | T |
928 | Play feature | Use the title of a movie as the answer to a riddle or other question. | T H H |
927 | Drive-By Shoutings | Write a very short four-line “poem” promoting a product or company, or offering advice to drivers; the poem must rhyme, in ABAB or ABCB rhyme scheme. A fifth, non-rhyming line may state the product name or a conclusion. | M L |
926 | Outrageous fortunes | Come up with a fortune cookie line that you'd like to see. | H H |
925 | A remeaning task | Redefine a word in the dictionary beginning with I through O. | M 3 |
924 | Doomed to repeat it | Create "Unreal Facts" about history. | P M H H |
923 | Chemical Wordfare | Create a new chemical element or other chemical term. | T |
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. | W T H 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 |
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 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. | T 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. | T M H H |
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. | H |
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 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. | I H 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 H |
910 | Your ad here | Slightly alter an advertising slogan so that someone else could use it. | T H |
909 | Reprizing | Suggest humorous uses for one or more of the items above, alone or in combination. | W T H H |
908 | Recast away | Fire an actor or actress from a movie or TV show, past or present, and offer a replacement for the role. | H H H |
907 | Naming rite | Come up with a creative, somehow fitting sponsor for some public facility or part of one. | I H H H H H 2 |
906 | Your mug here | Give us a new design for the Loser Mug. | H H |
905 | Anticdotes | Give us an untrue anecdote responding to one of these past Editor's Query topics. | H 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. | H H H H H H H H H |
903 | Bill us now | Combine the names of two or more members of Congress as co-sponsors of a bill. | H |
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. | H |
900 | Dear us! | Submit a "Dear Blank" letter to us instead. | M I H H |
899 | Clue us in | Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. | W T H H H |
898 | Pre-current events | Predict some humorous news event that would happen in 2011. | H H 3 |
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 H H 4 |
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 H H |
895 | Picture this | Supply a caption for any of these cartoons. | M H 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. | M H H |
892 | Get a move on | Change the location of something for humorous effect. Provide an explanation if you wish. | I H H |
891 | Mirror, Mirror | Write a word-palindrome sentence, in which the first and last words are the same; the second and next-to-last, etc. | H H H 4 |
890 | Double-teaming | Combine the names of any two pro sports teams -- even from different sports -- and describe the result. | H H H |
889 | Tour de Fours VII | Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order -- the letters P, O, L and E. | H 3 |
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 | H H H |
887 | Plus-Fours | Write a limerick whose third or fourth line is one of those listed above. | H |
886 | Look both ways | Give us a new term that's a palindrome and define it. | M L H H H |
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. | M H H 2 |
884 | Rekindling the spork | Combine two devices or other products to make a new one. | H H 4 |
883 | Same difference | Choose any two items from the list above and explain why they are alike or are different from each other. | T H H H H 4 |
882 | Limerixicon VII | Supply a humorous limerick prominently featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters dr-. | T |
881 | What's in a name? | Take the name of a person or institution. Find within it a hidden message. | H H H H 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. | H H H |
879 | Say Venn | Express some sentiment in the form of a Venn diagram. | M H H H H H |
878 | Safety in blunders | Tell us a way to make the nation more secure. | 2 |
877 | Quipped from the headlines | Write a rhyming couplet about some matter in the news. | T L |
876 | Oilies but goodies | Write lyrics somehow related to the oil spill, set to an existing tune. | T |
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. | M |
874 | Stat Us | Write a funny Facebook status line. | T H 4 |
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 |
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. | I H |
871 | Remarquees | Change a movie title by one letter (or number, if the title includes a number) and describe the new film. | H H |
870 | Let's play Nopardy | Describe any of the above phrases in the form of a question. | T H H |
869 | Clue us in | Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. | T M H H H H H |
868 | Count the ways | Give us some musings of a technical wonk. | H 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 |
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 |
865 | No Googlenopes left | Come up with a humorous Googlenope. | H H 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. | T 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. | H H |
862 | Be cheerful | Send us a cheer or fight song for any pro sports team or any national team. | H H H |
861 | It's incumbent upon us | Combine the names of two or more freshman members of Congress to create "joint legislation." This week's pool of legislators includes only those who were elected to their seats before 1994, the first year we ran the freshman contest. | L H H H |
860 | Ten, Anyone? | Humorously define or describe something or someone in exactly 10 words. | H H H 2 |
859 | Can't goods | Cast a joke in one of the forms listed above. | M H H H |
858 | Same OED | Make up a false definition for any of the words listed below. | 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. | T H H 4 |
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. | R H H 2 |
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 3 |
854 | What's not to liken? | Produce one or more similes in any of the following categories. | H H H 4 |
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. | H H H H H |
850 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2009. | H H H |
849 | Homonymphomania | Create a new homonym (or homophone) for any existing word and define it. | M H H H H H |
848 | Up and addin' | Compose a humorous rhopalic sentence (or multiple sentences) in which each word is one letter longer than the previous word. | H H 3 |
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. | T H H H H 4 |
846 | Season's gratings | Write a brief (50 words or fewer) holiday letter from a personage from past or present, or from fiction. | H 2 |
845 | Reologisms | Write a description for any of 50 genuine Loser-created neologisms. | M H H H H |
844 | Healthy choice | Enter any Style Invitational from Week 790 through Week 840, except for Week 793 and Week 798. | H H |
843 | Prefrains | Provide a sentence or two of lead-in to the first line of a well-known book, poem, or song. | I H |
842 | Ask backwards | Here are your 12 possible answers. Tell us your joke in the form of a question, please. | T H H H H |
841 | Food for naught | Alter the name of a food or dish slightly and describe the result. | H H |
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. | H H |
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 H H H |
837 | Strip Search | Combine two comic strips that appear in The Washington Post or at washingtonpost.com/comics and describe the results. | H 2 |
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 4 |
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 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. | P 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 H H H 2 |
832 | Clue Us In | You supply one or more clues for the words in a filled-in grid. | H H H H H |
831 | A Big To-Do | Name a "bucket list" item for a well-known real or fictional character. | H 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 |
829 | Limerixicon 6 | Supply a humorous limerick prominently featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters di-. | M |
827 | Caller Idiot | Name a real product or company and supply a stupid question or complaint for the consumer hotline person. | 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. | M |
825 | Disinstrumentals | Write some words to music that has no words. | L |
824 | Jestinations | Give us a slogan for any city or town. | T H H |
823 | Wryku | Compose a humorous (or at least wry or clever) haiku. | T M H |
822 | For Real Folks | Suggest some attractions for a Festival of Real American Folklife. | H |
821 | Spit the Difference | How are any of the items on the list above alike or different? | H |
820 | Be Mister Language Person | Supply a Mister Language Person-type question and answer. | W |
819 | Art Re-View | These objects are not what they seem to be, at first glance. They are something else entirely. What are they? | H |
818 | Name the Day | Cite an actual holiday or one of those silly commemorative days, weeks or months for which you can find previous evidence, and supply a snarky description or slogan. | H |
817 | Flopflip | Reverse the first half and second half of a word or name and define the result. | I H H |
816 | Googillions | Come up with an original phrase that generates at least 1 million listings on a Google search. | I H H |
815 | Wittecisms | Create an original word containing -- in any order -- at least a W, an I, two T's and an E. | H H |
814 | There Will Be Bloodline | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name their foal. | M H H H |
813 | Aw, Shocks | Give us a humorous example of the "shocking -- not. | H H H |
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 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. | T |
809 | Unkindest Cutlines | Supply cutlines, or captions, for any of these newspaper photos. | H H |
808 | Take Us At Our Words | Create a humorous poem or other writing using only the words contained in this week's Style Invitational column or results. | H |
807 | Pretty Graphic Expressions | Express some insight as an equation or other mathematical expression. | M H H H H H |
806 | DQ Very Much | Give us a phrase or sentence that would nip a potential relationship in the bud (or elsewhere). | H |
805 | Brand Eccchs | Give us an original name in any of the above categories (not an actual badly named product). | M H H H |
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. | P H H |
803 | The Pepys Show | Write a humorous diary or journal entry for someone, famous or not, for any point in history. | H |
802 | Dreck TV | Suggest a new cable TV channel, with a description or example of its programming. | H |
801 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. You supply one or more of the questions. | W T M H H H |
800 | Compairison | Briefly define or sum up an existing word or short phrase, then change it very slightly and do the same with the result. | H H H 4 |
799 | Send Us the Bill | Come up with legislation that, given their names, two or more freshman senators or representatives might sponsor together. | H |
797 | Be Resolute | Make a humorous resolution for some particular person or institution to accomplish next year. | M 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. | M H H H H |
795 | Stimulate Us | Tell us what the government ought to be spending our money on. | H H 2 |
793 | Take The Fifth | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 725 through Week 789. Each entry must include the word "five" of "fifth" or something fiveish, or -- depending on your favorite anniversary tradition -- something involving (a) wood or (b) silverware. | I H H H H H |
792 | Clue Us In | Compile a set of funny alternative clues to a crossword penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. | H H |
791 | The 1K Club | Supply a chain of 20 names -- they may be names of people, places, organizations, products, etc., but they must be names -- beginning and ending with "Chris Doyle. | M |
790 | If Only! | Explain how the world would be different had some event not occurred. | H H |
789 | Doctrine in The House? | State a humorous, original "doctrine" for a person or other entity. | H |
788 | The Back End of a Bulwer | Give us a comically terrible ending of a novel. | P M |
787 | Tour de Fours V | Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order -- the letters M, I, N and E. | H 4 |
786 | Top of the Staake | So get your thoughts provoked for No. Umpteen of our cartoon caption contest. | H H |
785 | The Ballad Box | Write a short, humorous song somehow relating to the presidential campaign, set to a familiar tune. | H |
784 | Words to The Wiseacres | Give us some proverbs for 21st-century life. | I H H H H |
783 | The Shill Game | Name a celebrity or fictional character to endorse a real product or company. | I H |
782 | That's the Ticket! | Explain why any of the items on the list below is qualified to be President of the United States. | H |
781 | Our Greatest Hit | Start with a word or multi-word term that begins with I, J, K or L; either add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter or transpose two adjacent letters; and define the new word. | H H H |
780 | Location, Location, Location | Say how you know you're in a particular place. | H |
778 | Tied Games | Combine any two sports or nonathletic activities into a single sport or game. | I H |
777 | Limerixicon 5 | Supply a humorous limerick featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters da-. | H |
776 | An Act of Sunny Side | Note the silver lining in some otherwise disappointing turn of events. | H H |
775 | Ad-dition | Combine the beginning and end of any two words appearing in any single advertisement in The Post or on washingtonpost.com, from today through Aug. 4, and then define the new word. | H |
774 | Tour De Forks | Supply a name for a restaurant dish named after someone (or some product or organization) and describe it. | W T H H |
773 | Always Looking for Sects | Coin a religion or belief system and tell us its basic tenet or distinguishing characteristic. | T I H H |
771 | Groaner's Manuals | Come up with a humorous name for a guide or manual for, or a book about, a particular enterprise or organization. | H |
770 | A Knack for Anachronism | Take a famous historical moment, literary passage, or movie scene and place it in an entirely different age. | H H |
769 | Splice Work If You Can Get It | Combine two words -- overlapping by at least two letters -- into what's known by polysyllabic types as a portmanteau word, and by the rest of us as mash word, and define it. | M H H |
768 | The Events Described Herein Are Entirely Fictitious | Come up with fictitious movie trivia. | H H |
767 | 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 May 31 through June 9 and come up with a question it might answer. | H H |
766 | Think to Shudder | Come up with scenarios that are even more awkward (and more imaginative) than the wincers mentioned above. | H H |
765 | It's Doo-Dah Day | Write humorous lyrics commemorating any of the 50 states of the District, set to any of these Stephen Foster songs. | M I H 2 |
764 | Can You Up Chuck? | Come up with entirely new and funny Chuck Norris Facts. | H H |
763 | Another Time Around the Track | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name THEIR foal. | W H H 4 |
762 | Look This Up in Your Funk & Wagnalls | Supply the pair of terms listed at the top of a page of any print dictionary to indicate the first and last listings on the page, and define that hyphenated term. | T P L H H |
760 | Whacksy Buildup | Describe any of these Googlewhacks in the form of a question, "Jeopardy"-style. | W H H |
759 | What Kind of Foal Am I? | Breed any two of the 100 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown and provide an appropriate name for their foal. | H H H H |
758 | Wrong Address | Using any of the words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in whatever order you like, create your own passage. | H 4 |
757 | Gorey Thoughts From A to Z | Send us some rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. | I H H H |
756 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from March 15 through 24 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H H H H H H |
755 | Take Another 'Whack | Send us a phrase of two or more words that produces exactly one Web page on the Google search engine and describe the phrase. | I H H H |
753 | Hot Off The Riddle | Supply a simple riddle and both the wholesome answer and the (printable) Invitational answer. | T H H |
752 | The Might-Mates Right | Fill out any of these five "you just might" joke-templates. | W I |
751 | Strike Gold | Slightly change the name of an existing or former TV show to create a program that can scab the writers' strike. | H |
750 | Hit Us With Your Best Shot: Photo Contest No. 4 | Illustrate, any way you like, any of the provided five captions with your own original photo. | M H H |
749 | Opus 266, No. 3 | Take any common word or two-word term beginning with any letter from A through H and give it a new definition. | H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H 2 |
748 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about a well-known personage who died in 2007. | M H H H H |
747 | Boeing Us Silly | Suggest some comical ways to improve air travel, either in general or for yourself. | M I |
746 | We Err The World | Give us a motto or short slogan for any country in the world. | M I H H |
745 | Hurry Up and Slow Down! | Suggest particular ways that would slow life down, or ways that would speed it up. | H |
744 | You OED Us One | Make up a humorous and false definition for any of the words listed below. | H H |
743 | Picture This | Write a caption for any of these Bob Staake cartoons. | T H H H |
742 | Clue Us In | Give us a whole new set of clues to a crossword puzzle penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. | H H H H H |
741 | Well, What Do You Know? | Tell us what Major Life Lessons can be derived from any of these venues or situations. | M H H |
740 | Give Us a Hint | Offer clues in various situations that something isn't working out well. | P H H H H |
739 | Lies, All Lies | Give us some humorous fictional revelation about a current or past political figure. | H H |
737 | No River, No Woods | Send us a funny parody of a well-known song, with lyrics that commemorate an occasion other than Christmas or Hanukkah. | N I H |
736 | So, Should I Drive Like Your Brother? | Ask a car-related question that would make the Car Guys crack up. If you're not into cars, you can also post a question for advice columnist Ask Amy or etiquette columnist Miss Manners. | T |
735 | Look Back in Inker | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 680 through Week 731. | T H H H H H H H |
734 | Turnaround Time | Write a rhyming couplet containing two words that are anagrams of each other. | M H |
733 | Just Drop It, Okay? | Drop the first letter from an actual word or term to make a new word or term, and define it. | H H H |
732 | The Chain Gang | Supply a chain of 25 names -- they may be names of people, places, organizations, products, etc., but they must be names -- beginning and ending with "George W. Bush. | H H H H |
731 | Doo Process | Describe for us a wildly inefficient and ridiculous way to produce or prepare an ordinary dish or beverage. | H |
730 | Time-Wastes For Everyman | Describe activities that make entering The Style Invitational seem like a constructive use of one's time. | H H |
729 | Otherwordly Visions | Take any sentence in an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com from Sept. 1 through Sept. 10 and translate it into "plain English. | H H H 2 |
728 | Tour de Fours IV | Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order you like -- the letters S, A, T and R. | H H H |
727 | We Get a C-Section | Tell us some pros and cons of moving The Style Invitational to the Saturday Style section; or write us up some free promo-ad copying announcing the move. | I H |
726 | Limerixicon 4 | Supply a humorous limerick based on any word in the dictionary beginning with cl- through co-. | T H |
724 | Abridged Too Far | Sum up a book, play or movie in a humorous rhyming verse of two to four lines. | T I H H 3 |
723 | Name Your Poison | Create a name and recipe for a cocktail and, if you like, describe when it might be served. | H H H |
722 | Let's Play Nopardy! | We supply 12 phrases and you get to provide questions they might answer. The phrases were entries in our Week 717 contest, which asked for Googlenopes -- phrases that showed no previous hits from the Google search engine. | I |
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. | T H |
720 | The Course of Humor Events | Sum up a historical event in a two-line rhyme or other clever and pithy epigram. | H H H 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 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) | T H |
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 H |
716 | The Hard Spell | Write a humorous poem featuring one of the 75 words we've selected from this year's National Spelling Bee. | M H |
715 | Your Mug Here | Send us an idea for a slogan for the back of the new Loser T-shirt. | T H 2 |
714 | Amalgamated Steal | Merge two or more company or product names into a new, ORIGINAL company or product. | I H H |
713 | Painings | Name and interpret any of the provided paintings by Fred Dawson. | M |
711 | Join Now! | Hyphenate the beginning and end of any two multi-syllabic words appearing anywhere in the April 29 or May 6 Style or Sunday Arts section, and then define the compound. | H H H 4 |
710 | Aw, Shoot | Send us a funny, clever, entirely original photo featuring kitchen utensils and/or small household tools. | T P M H |
709 | A Return Engagement | Come up with some novel change to the tax code: a tax on something ought to be taxed, a credit for something that should be rewarded, what the $3 should go to instead of presidential campaigns, etc. | H |
708 | What Kind of Foal Am I? | Breed any two from a list of 100 of the horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races and provide an appropriate name for their foal. | T H |
707 | What Would YOU Do? | Use only the words appearing in "The Cat in the Hat" to create your own work of "literature" of no more than 75 words. | I H H H H H H |
706 | Questionable Journalism | Take any sentence that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from March 24 through April 2 and come up with a question it could answer. | H H |
704 | Another Game of Tag | Create vanity plates for well-known people, real or fictional. | H H H 4 |
703 | Freak Trade Agreements | Think of one thing to trade for another, and supply a short and funny explanation. | M 2 |
702 | Unreal Facts | Come up with a comically false factoid. | M I H H H H H H |
701 | Untitlement | Here are the covers for what just might be Bob Staake's next four books. What are they called and what are they about? | T H |
699 | Our Greatest Hit | Take a word, term or name that begins with E, F, G or H; either add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter, or transpose two letters; and define the new word. | P H H H H H |
698 | Let's Get Personnel | Send us some humorously creative questions that a job interviewer would ask an applicant, or some questions it might be fun to ask the interviewer. | H |
697 | We Beg You To Differ | Take any two items from the truly random provided list and explain why they are different or why they are similar. | H H H H 2 |
696 | Send Us the Bill | Come up legislation the newly-elected members of Congress might sponsor together. | H H H |
695 | Dead Letters | Write a poem about someone who died in 2006. | M H H H |
694 | Hopelessly Ever After | Offer up a gloomy interpretation of any ungloomy piece of writing. | H |
693 | Everything Being Sequel | Give a brief scenario for the sequel to a well-known movie. | T |
692 | Reinkernation | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 640 through Week 688. Every entry must include the word "three" or "third" or a creative variation. | W H H H H H |
691 | Haven't Got a Clue | Make all the clues in the provided crossword ooh-clever or at least ah-that's-funny, even the little words. | H H H |
690 | Funnies: How Time Flies | Pull Billy of "The Family Circus" -- or any of his comic strip neighbors in The Washington Post -- out of his time warp to a different age, era or place, and provide a short storyline or dialogue or caption. | I H H |
689 | Busted Play | Come up with a more objectionable or stupid toy than a working fart-powered toy rocket. | M H H H H H H |
687 | Whatever Were They Thinking? | Tell us (A) What someone might say in some situation, and (B) what that person was actually thinking when he said A. | M H H H H |
686 | It's Baaaaack! | Explain why you, or anyone else in particular, ought to have this fine oil-on-panel by Fred Dawson of Beltsville, or what it might be used for. | H |
684 | Backtricking | Spell a word backward and define the result, somehow relating the definition to the original word. | L H H H H H |
683 | What a Piece of Work | String together words in a single scene, or two consecutive scenes, of "Hamlet" to produce one or more funny sentences, preferably unrelated to the original content. The words must appear in the order in which they appear in the play. | L H H H H H H H H H 2 |
682 | Punkin'd! | Send us a funny, clever, entirely original photo featuring one or more pumpkins and/or other vegetables. | H 2 |
680 | Rendered Speechless | Provide dialogue to fill the balloons in any of these cartoons. | 2 |
679 | Ask Backwards | Here are the answers. You supply the questions to as many as you dare. | H H |
677 | The News Gets Verse | Sum up wittily in verse -- but not a limerick -- any article appearing in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from Aug. 28 through Sept. 4. | H H |
676 | Tour de Fours III | Coin and define a word containing -- with no other letters between them, but in any order you like -- the letters L, E, A and F. | H H H H |
675 | Cut Us Some Slack | Come up with humorous ways to be lazy. | H |
674 | Limerixicon 3 | Supply a humorous limerick based on any word in the dictionary (except proper nouns) beginning with ca-. | M L H H H |
673 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Washington Post or on Washingtonpost.com from July 30 through Aug. 7 and reinterpret it by adding either a "bank headline," or subtitle, or the first sentence of an article that might appear under it. | M H H H |
672 | Just Sign This | Write a funny message for an overhead highway sign. | I H H |
671 | Join Now! | Hyphenate the beginning and end of any two multi-syllabic words appearing anywhere in the July 16 Style or Sunday Arts section, and then define the compound. | W H H H H H H |
670 | A Test of Character | Change a word or phrase by only one letter -- substitute one letter for another, add a letter or transpose two letters -- and explain how they are different or similar. | M L H H |
668 | Cut From the Chase | Write an original John-Bunnell-style wrap-up to a crime story -- or one for a more minor transgression. | H 2 |
667 | Questionable Journalism | Take any sentence that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com anytime from now through June 26 and supply a question it could answer. | W H H H 3 |
666 | Bedevil Us | Give a mini-sermon explaining how some innocuous object or event signals the End of Days. | H |
665 | Your One-in-a-Million | Coin the millionth word in the English language and define it. The word must end in -ion. | H H H H |
663 | Worth at Least a Dozen Words | Interpret any of the provided cartoons as you see fit in a caption. | H H |
662 | How Low Will You Go? | Humiliate yourself for ink, and a stupid prize. | H |
661 | Name Any Good Movies Lately? | Give us a funny new title for an existing movie. | H |
660 | Foaling Down: The Next Generation | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name THEIR foal. | H H |
659 | Tell Us a Fib | Compose a six-line poem with the following number of syllables per line: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. It must be about a person or topic currently in the news, and two successive lines must rhyme. | H H H |
658 | Not in the Cards | Send us ideas for cards that would likely be ruled "FBN" (Funny, But No) by Hallmark but F&YYY by the Empress. | H H |
657 | Nuts Fruit | Send in funny (but printable) images of real pieces of fruit. | T H H |
654 | It Plays to Recycle | Come up with funny ways to recycle things, people, writing (except for your old Invitational entries) or ideas. | I H |
653 | 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 | P 3 |
652 | Ask Backward | You are on "Jeopardy!" Above are the answers. You supply the questions. | H 4 |
651 | Show Us Some Character | Add a character to a book or movie and tell us what happens in it. | H 2 |
648 | Caller IDiot | Name a product or company and supply a stupid question to ask the consumer hotline person. | W |
647 | Paste Imperfect | Change a headline or sentence that appears in the Post or on washingtonpost.com through Feb. 6 either by deleting up to 40 consecutive characters from it or by adding 40 consecutive characters from the same article or ad. | I H H H H |
646 | Warped Perspectives | Tell us how two different types of people, animals, organizations, etc., would interpret any of the provided cartoons. | H |
645 | A Hearty Har Har | Write up a Valentine's sentiment to any personage, or to someone in some generic category. | W T |
644 | Winter Limp Picks | Brighten up the Winter Olympics with some new events and rules. Alternatively, you can suggest a commercial or ad campaign that could be tied in with the Winter Games or one of its sports. | I H H H |
642 | It's Open Season | Come up with a brand-new word and its definition. The words must begin with O, P, Q, R or S. | H H H |
641 | Dreck of All Trades | Come up with a business that combines two or more disparate products or services, and tell us its name and/or something else funny about it. | H H |
640 | Whassa Motto Wid You? | Give us a slogan or motto for any of the states, the District or the U.S. Territories. | H H |
639 | What's the Small Idea? | Do you have a senseless idea for improving the day-to-day lives of everyday Americans? | W |
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 3 |
637 | Full Steam Ahead | Write a steamy passage of a novel that's ostensibly by some well-known person who isn't a novelist. | L |
636 | A Song From Tex Arcana | Write a verse of a song about sea urchin sushi or any of the other provided ostensibly unlyrical topics. | H |
635 | I've Told You a Hundred Times | Enter any Style Invitational from Week 536 to Week 631. Your entry must be substantially different from the original winners. | H |
634 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from today through next Sunday, and change its meaning by adding either a "bank headline," or subtitle, or the first sentence of an article that might appear under it. | H H |
632 | Live On, Sweet, Earnest Reader (Inc.) | Give us an original backronym for a company or product. A backronym is a fake etymology that often gets in a little dig at the subject. | L |
631 | Picture This | What's going on in any of these cartoons? | 2 |
626 | Course Light | Come up with a comical college class, along with a description for the course catalog. | H 3 |