WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
---|---|---|---|
1619 | A So-So Contest | Give us jokes that are so [something] that [something]. | H |
1611 | Ask Backwards XLIII | We give you the 'answers'; you tell us the questions. | H |
1598 | Same Difference | We give you a random list of things, and you tell us how any two are alike or different. | H H |
1586 | Pun for the Roses | Our annual crazy-popular horse 'breeding' wordplay contest. | H H |
1555 | Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us? | Give us "backronyms" | H |
1551 | Ask Backwards XLII | We give the answers. You give the questions. | H H |
1544 | Same Difference | Tell us humorously how items on the list are alike, different, or otherwise linked. | 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 |
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 |
1532 | We Bee Back With Neologisms | Make up words using letter sets from the NYT Spelling Bee game | H |
1529 | Hello, Dall-E! | Our new contest partners you and a machine. | H |
1522 | Questionable Journalism | Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer | W |
1520 | Nextra! Nextra! | Read All About it. Predict the big news events of 2023 | 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. | H |
1486 | No can do: Signs of incompetence | Give us a clue that someone was incompetent in a given field. | H |
1480 | Oh, you don't really mean that | Define" inaccurately and humorously any of the provided words. | I H |
1468 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1440 through 1464. | 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. | H H |
1464 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | P |
1463 | Fork over some (new) Spoonerisms | Write and original Q-A joke featuring a spoonerism. | L |
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 H |
1457 | What is Ask Backwards XL? | You are on "Jeopardy!"; various answers are provided. You provide the questions. | H H H |
1444 | It's a whole new all-game | Slightly change the name of a sport, sports event or similar pastime to create a new one, and briefly describe it. | H |
1442 | Same difference, or missing links | Choose any two (or more) items from the utterly random list above and say how they're different, alike or otherwise linked. | H |
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. | I H H 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 |
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. | P |
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 |
1416 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1388 through 1412. | 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 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 |
1397 | Trope springs eternal | Use any of the four provided standard settings -- (a) desert island, (b) bartender at a bar, (c) desert, (d) psychiatrist next to a couch -- and describe a cartoon that includes your choice of characters, along with a caption. | H 2 |
1391 | No-covid zone -- a neologism contest | Coin a new word or phrase that lacks C, O, V, I and D and describe it. | 4 |
1390 | 'Same difference' for a new time | Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. | P |
1386 | Colt following: It's the grandfoals! | Breed" any two of the 70 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | H |
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. | P |
1376 | Get thee to a funnery | Add a character (or more) to a Shakespeare play and supply some resulting dialogue. | W H H |
1374 | Versus' verses in a rap battle | Write a mini-"rap" between any two characters, real or fictional, as in the provided ERB example. | I |
1368 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H |
1365 | Dead Letters, our obit poem contest | Write a poem of eight lines or fewer (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2019. | H |
1362 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1307 through 1333, except for Weeks 1309-1311. | H |
1361 | 2020 vision -- the year in preview | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2020. | 4 |
1353 | What's playing at the retroplex | Change a movie title to its "opposite" by reversing one or more words; then describe the new movie. | H 4 |
1348 | Same difference | Explain humorously how any two or more of the provided items are alike, different or otherwise connected. | H H H |
1345 | The confaketionary -- food fictoids | Tell us some comically false "fact" about food, drink or dining. | H |
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 |
1338 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | 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 |
1312 | Neologisms in TOUR de Fours XV | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block T-O-U-R and describe it. The letters may be in any order. | H H |
1310 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1282 through Week 1306. | H |
1308 | Picture this -- or these | This week you have two choices: (1) Write a caption for one or more of these pictures, or (2) explain what is wrong with the picture. You might also combine two pictures into one -- or all four into one. | 2 |
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 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 H H |
1302 | Ask Backwards 37 | Fifteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. Do one or more, up to a total of 25 A&Q's. | H |
1284 | Same difference | Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. | H |
1274 | Heading for a foal -- our horse name 'breeding' contest | Your job is to "breed" any two names of the 360 horses nominated for this year's Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to reflect both names. | H |
1268 | Playing pinocchio | Tell us some humorously bogus trivia about the news media or the publishing or broadcasting industries. | H |
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 |
1224 | We beg you to differ | Explain how any two (or more) items in the provided list are the same or different, or otherwise connected. | H |
1223 | Post again out to mislead public! | Write a humorously sensationalistic, misleading headline on an otherwise mundane article or ad published in The Post or elsewhere from April 13 to April 24. | H |
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 |
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". | 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 H |
1184 | Plan C -- a third candidate? | Explain why some novel person (or thing) should be president; you could also suggest a president-veep ticket. | H |
1176 | Let 'er RIP: Write an obit line | Write a humorous line or two for someone's obituary -- either for a particular person (dead or not) or for a fictional or generic one. | 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 |
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 |
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 |
1162 | An 8-year Re-Onion | Write a fictional Onion-type headline. | H |
1159 | It's all in the game | Come up with a funny/ridiculous board-type game and describe it. | 3 |
1158 | What have we here? | Tell us what one or more of these objects really are. | H 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. | H 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 |
1151 | To [a glass], snarkly | Write a short, snarky (but witty) note to one of the provided glassbowls. | H |
1149 | Gestures of depreciation | Suggest ways to celebrate National Love Your Lawyer Day -- or a made-up "holiday" celebrating some other profession. | H |
1148 | It's TankaWanka II | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. The poem must consist of five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables in that order. And it must include at least one rhyme. | P |
1144 | Someone else's business | Name a real brand, along with something else it would be a better name for. | H |
1140 | You're giving us a bad name | Cite a REAL brand name, past or present, note its original use, and then say what sort of product, organization, etc., that name would be bad for. | H |
1139 | A little sixty-four play | Fashion an entry by selecting one element from each of the provided menu groups. Make sure you indicate the combination you chose (e.g., 2-C-iii). | H |
1138 | Show us your touché | Offer an elegantly snide (and original) insult of anyone living or dead. | H |
1135 | The meter's running | Suggest actions in daily life that should require a time limit -- maximum or minimum -- and come with an appropriate penalty for running over (or under). | I H 2 |
1134 | The 'Sty'le Invitational Red'ux' | Put quotation marks around part of a word, name or phrase and define the result. | H H |
1132 | You and what army? Military fictoids | Give us some comically bogus trivia about the military, past or present, ours or theirs. | H H |
1131 | One man's trash | Suggest a humorous way to reuse one or more of the items listed above -- or anything else advertised on RepurposedMaterialsinc.com. | H |
1130 | Yux Redux: Play on a foreign phrase | Make a word play on a foreign phrase or term (or English phrase using foreign words) and describe it. | H |
1126 | Picture this | Provide a humorous caption for any of the cartoons provided. | H |
1125 | The song remains the sa | Supply a real song title that has the end or beginning -- or, what the heck, both -- chopped off and describe it. | H |
1124 | Heed! Indeed: Advice verse | Write one of the provided reminders as a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. | H 4 |
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. | 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 |
1112 | Some SHARP words | Coin a word or short term that includes all the letters S, H, A, R, and P. | H |
1110 | The mama of all humor | Write a [Someone’s] Mama joke for some well-known figure, past or present, real or fictional. | H |
1109 | Fictoids of Columbia | Tell us some humorously untrue “facts” about Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. | H H |
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 |
1105 | A lit obit of fun | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2014. | H |
1102 | Let's get Sirius | Suggest a new radio channel and describe it. | I H |
1101 | The year in redo | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050. | H |
1099 | Questionable journalism | Take a sentence (or most of a sentence) that appears in an article in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com dated Nov. 20 through Dec. 1 (in print, any article from those days' papers), and make up a question that the sentence could answer. | H |
1098 | Prime time for some Amazon reviews | Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. | H H 2 |
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". | H |
1094 | TAXI's the fare for Tour de Fours XI | Coin a word or hyphenated term that contains the letter block T-A-X-I; the letters may be in any order, but there may be no other letters between them. | H |
1093 | You're only as rich as you fee | What are some really bad ideas for various businesses to make a few more bucks? | H H |
1092 | Are we having funds yet? | Suggest a humorous fundraising "challenge" for any organization. | I |
1091 | Good idea! or not. | Come up with a good idea and, through a small change in wording, a bad idea. | H |
1088 | Ask backwards with our answers, your questions | Supply the questions to as many of the 16 supplied answers as you like. | H |
1087 | The core ridiculum | Come up with a comical class (any type of school) and provide a course catalog description. | I H |
1086 | Playing the dozens | 1. Start with any 12-letter word, name or multi-word phrase. 2. Add one letter OR drop one letter OR substitute another letter OR switch the position of two letters to create a new term, as in the examples given. 3. Define or describe the result humorously. |
H |
1085 | Eww-venirs: Ideas for gift shops | Suggest a humorous--but NOT horribly tasteless--tchotchke, T-shirt, etc., from a real or imagined gift shop at a particular tourist site. | I H H |
1083 | Everybody get appy | Offer up an idea for either a humorously useful app or a humorously counterproductive one. | I |
1079 | Little piddle riddle | Ask a question and answer it with a rhyme. | 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. | W H H H |
1073 | Bank shots: Mess with (y)our heads | Quote a headline appearing in the Washington Post, washington.com or another publication, print or headline, dated May 22 to June 1, and supply a "bank" headline that either misinterprets it, as in the examples above, or comments wryly on it. | W |
1072 | The Tile Invitational | Come up with a 5-, 6-, or 7-letter term by scrambling any of the provided seven-letter ScrabbleGram sets, and define it. | H |
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. | P H |
1067 | A(t)tribute to your wit | Alter a well-known quote slightly and attribute it to someone else. | I H |
1066 | It's mating season | Breed" any two from the provided list of 100 of the 3-year-old racehorses nominated for this year's Triple Crown and name the foal to reflect both names. | H H |
1063 | Same difference | Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different. | P H |
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 H |
1060 | Picture this | Write a caption, or captions, for one or more of the provided cartoons. | P |
1059 | With parens like these . . . | Add some words in parentheses to a well-known song title to make it funnier in some way. | H |
1058 | Eastwood Ho | Create a good-bad-ugly progression. | H |
1056 | Weather or nuts | Coin a term relating to the weather, climate, etc. -- either literal or figurative -- and define it. | I H |
1054 | Dead letters | Write a short, humorous poem commemorating someone (or maybe even something) who died in 2013. | H |
1050 | Just redo it | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1000 through Week 1046. | H |
1048 | Ask Backwards | You supply the questions to as many of the provided answers as you like. | 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. | H H |
1046 | Derive us crazy | Offer a bogus but funny explanation of how a particular expression originated. | H |
1045 | Songs for the asking | Take a sentence, phrase or title from a song and provide a funny question it might answer. | H |
1041 | What have you got to lose? | Answer a question, real or rhetorical, that appears in a song. | H 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. | P |
1038 | It's like this, see | Answer a simple question with a ridiculously argued answer citing various connections and parallels. | 4 |
1037 | Outrage us | Find something offensive about an inoffensive name of a product, organization, place, etc. | I H |
1036 | Just for liffs | Use a real place name, from anywhere in the world, as a new term. | H H |
1035 | The Empy 500 | Explain what news Bob Staake is trying to tell in any of the provided drawings. | W |
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 |
1032 | Hid stuff | Explain the symbolism "obviously" evident in any well-known site, artwork, etc., in 75 words or fewer. | H |
1031 | The 'Sty'le Invitational | Choose any word, name, or short term; emphasize a key, suddenly pertinent part of it with quotation marks; then redefine the word. | 2 |
1027 | Built for two | Give humorous related names for any pair of features in a given building, organization, etc. | 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. | P 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. | 2 |
1022 | What's the diff? | Explain how any two of the provided items are alike or different. | W H H |
1021 | 'Gram theft | Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it. | H H H |
1020 | Colt following | Breed any two of this week's winning foals and name the grandfoal. | 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 4 |
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. | W H |
1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | L 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 |
1008 | Switched reels | Re-arrange all the words in the title of a movie, and describe the resulting work. | H |
1007 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | P 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 |
1003 | Just do it | Use a well-known advertising slogan for a different company, organization or product to humorous effect. | H |
1002 | Wring out the OED | Make up a false definition for any of the listed OED words. | H H |
1001 | Make us ROFL | Give us a funny, original acronym. | 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 H 3 |
999 | Drectrospective | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 946 through Week 995, except for Week 948. | H H |
998 | Set the law on us | Suggest an odd law for a particular place in the world. | 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. | L |
995 | Ask backwards | We give you the "answers" and you supply jokes in the form of a question. | H H H |
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. | I H |
992 | Mittsterpiece Theatre | Suppose public-TV shows, past or present, were turned out onto the open market to make a living on commercial TV. Tell us what would happen. | H |
990 | Indecent relations | Pair two people, real or fictional, who have the same last name; say how they're alike or different, or something they might do (even in fantasy), as a pair. | H |
989 | On the double | Come up with a double or multiple profession, and explain how each job complements the other(s). | H |
988 | A faster break | Suggest ways to make sports and other leisure activities more time-efficient or exciting. | I 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 |
984 | Another brilliant contest | Write something whose words begin with consecutive letters of the alphabet. | 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 4 |
981 | Feeling testy | Write a question that "ought to" be on a qualifying test for a particular job. | I H |
980 | Def jam | Supply a humorous definition for any of the provided Loser-penned neologisms. | H |
979 | The madding crowd | Suggest funny, original ways to tick people off. | H |
977 | Lost in Translation 2.0 | Translate a line of text from English into another language using Google Translate; then copy that result and translate it back into English. You may also make intermediate steps into one or more other languages. | H |
976 | Join now! | Combine the beginning and end of any two words or names in this week's Style Invitational or Style Conversational columns to make a new term, and define it. | H H |
975 | Gone mything | Debunk a "Sixth Myth" about one of more of the recent "5 Myths" topics provided. | H |
974 | Eat our dust! | Write a limerick humorously describing a book, play, movie, or TV show. | 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. | H 3 |
972 | Trends and neighbors | Choose any two items on the provided list and explain how they are alike or different. | H |
971 | Double booking | Come up with a double book with a humorous connection; the first title must be an actual book, while the other may be your own fictitious title or a second real book. | H |
969 | Colt following | Breed any two "foals" in today's results, and name the grandfoal. | H |
967 | Overlap dance II | Create a phrase that overlaps two terms, each of two words or more, and describe the result. | H |
966 | Inkremental change | Start with any word or name, and create a series of words that change by one letter at a time, until you come up with a related word or name. | H |
965 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses in this year's Triple Crown races and name their foal. | H H 4 |
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 |
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 |
959 | Out of network | Move a current or former TV program (or type of programming) to a different network and explain what would change. | I 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 |
956 | Give us some bad ideas | Finish any of the provided "You know" phrases. | H H H |
954 | Bring on the 'fight' jokes | Tell us an original joke ending with “And then the fight started.” | 3 |
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. | H |
951 | Say that again | Double a word, or use a word and its homophone, to make a phrase, and define it. | 3 |
949 | Analogies | Give us an analogy using "a is to b as x is to y." | L |
946 | Another round of Bierce | Write a clever definition of a word, name or multi-word term. | H |
943 | Ask backward XXIX | You are on "Jeopardy!" You supply the questions for as many of the provided answers as you like. | 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 |
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). | H 3 |
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. | H |
936 | Hoho contendere | Slightly alter a well-known foreign-language term and define it. | H |
934 | Same difference | Explain how any two items in the provided list are similar or different. | H H |
932 | We'll call them your-mama jokes | Tell us an original "your mama" joke. | H |
931 | Limerixicon 8 | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters ea- through -el. | H |
925 | A remeaning task | Redefine a word in the dictionary beginning with I through O. | H H |
924 | Doomed to repeat it | Create "Unreal Facts" about history. | H |
909 | Reprizing | Suggest humorous uses for one or more of the items above, alone or in combination. | I |
906 | Your mug here | Give us a new design for the Loser Mug. | W |
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 |
898 | Pre-current events | Predict some humorous news event that would happen in 2011. | H |
870 | Let's play Nopardy | Describe any of the above phrases in the form of a question. | 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 |
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 |
862 | Be cheerful | Send us a cheer or fight song for any pro sports team or any national team. | H |
858 | Same OED | Make up a false definition for any of the words listed below. | W H |
850 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2009. | H |
849 | Homonymphomania | Create a new homonym (or homophone) for any existing word and define it. | H |
845 | Reologisms | Write a description for any of 50 genuine Loser-created neologisms. | H |
841 | Food for naught | Alter the name of a food or dish slightly and describe the result. | 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. | L |
795 | Stimulate Us | Tell us what the government ought to be spending our money on. | H |
794 | Ripped Off From the Headlines | Send us some Onion-type headlines. | H |
644 | Winter Limp Picks | Brighten up the Winter Olympics with some new events and rules. Alternatively, you can suggest a commercial or ad campaign that could be tied in with the Winter Games or one of its sports. | H |
532 | Short Pans | Come up with a terse review (four words or fewer) of any work of art. | H 5 |
524 | Around Things Moving | Take the title of any book or movie, rearrange the words, and explain what the new book or movie is about. | H |
509 | Be a Real Card | Come up with a greeting card rhyme for an un-greeting-card occasion. | H |