WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
---|---|---|---|
1464 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | 4 |
1453 | Haven't read it -- mis-subtitle a book | Choose any book title listed on Amazon and misinterpret it by adding a subtitle. | 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 |
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 |
1190 | You're workin' on a chain, gang | Create a chain of no more than 15 proper nouns — names of people (real or fictional), products, places, etc. — including one title of a work — in which each name relates somehow to the previous one. | H |
1117 | You got another sing coming | Write a song about a topic or person lately in the news, set to a familiar tune. | H |
1111 | When you riff upon a store | Use a wordplay on a song title as a name or slogan for a real or imagined business. | H |
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 |
1080 | McGonagall with the windiness | Memorialize a modern "tragedy" in a poem burdened with hilariously overwrought verse; lame, forced rhymes; and painfully uneven meter. Get the badness across in one verse of no more than eight lines. | H |
1038 | It's like this, see | Answer a simple question with a ridiculously argued answer citing various connections and parallels. | H |
1026 | 'Might' makes ink | Give us a joke using any of the using any of the provided "you might be" templates. | 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. | H |
1008 | Switched reels | Re-arrange all the words in the title of a movie, and describe the resulting work. | P |
1007 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H |
1003 | Just do it | Use a well-known advertising slogan for a different company, organization or product to humorous effect. | H |
999 | Drectrospective | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 946 through Week 995, except for Week 948. | 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 |
980 | Def jam | Supply a humorous definition for any of the provided Loser-penned neologisms. | 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 |
974 | Eat our dust! | Write a limerick humorously describing a book, play, movie, or TV show. | H |
969 | Colt following | Breed any two "foals" in today's results, and name the grandfoal. | H |
965 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses in this year's Triple Crown races and name their foal. | H |
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 |
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. | 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 |
934 | Same difference | Explain how any two items in the provided list are similar or different. | H |
929 | Now sit right back ... | Write a funny song introducing a TV show, past or present. | 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. | 3 |
899 | Clue us in | Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. | H |
876 | Oilies but goodies | Write lyrics somehow related to the oil spill, set to an existing tune. | H |
869 | Clue us in | Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. | H |
843 | Prefrains | Provide a sentence or two of lead-in to the first line of a well-known book, poem, or song. | H |
816 | Googillions | Come up with an original phrase that generates at least 1 million listings on a Google search. | L |
810 | What Kind of Foal Am I? | Breed any two of the more than 400 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races and provide an appropriate name for their foal. | H |
807 | Pretty Graphic Expressions | Express some insight as an equation or other mathematical expression. | W |
801 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. You supply one or more of the questions. | H H |
798 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem commemorating someone who died in 2008. | H |
783 | The Shill Game | Name a celebrity or fictional character to endorse a real product or company. | 2 |
780 | Location, Location, Location | Say how you know you're in a particular place. | H |
763 | Another Time Around the Track | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name THEIR foal. | 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 |
742 | Clue Us In | Give us a whole new set of clues to a crossword puzzle penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. | 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. | H |
735 | Look Back in Inker | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 680 through Week 731. | 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 |
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 |
723 | Name Your Poison | Create a name and recipe for a cocktail and, if you like, describe when it might be served. | I |
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 |
713 | Painings | Name and interpret any of the provided paintings by Fred Dawson. | H |
712 | Another Time Around the Track | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in the results of Week 708, and name THEIR foal. | H |
705 | Simile Outrageous | Come up with funny analogies, perhaps with some 21st-century references. | H |
704 | Another Game of Tag | Create vanity plates for well-known people, real or fictional. | W |
695 | Dead Letters | Write a poem about someone who died in 2006. | 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 |
681 | Ticket to Write | Write a jingle for a business (or its product), organization or government agency, set to a Beatles song. | T |
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. | 3 |
665 | Your One-in-a-Million | Coin the millionth word in the English language and define it. The word must end in -ion. | H |
664 | A Thousand Times?! No! | Come up with a new signature line for Russell Beland's -- or anyone else's -- e-mails. | 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 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 |
648 | Caller IDiot | Name a product or company and supply a stupid question to ask the consumer hotline person. | H |
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. | H |
645 | A Hearty Har Har | Write up a Valentine's sentiment to any personage, or to someone in some generic category. | 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 |
630 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine the beginning and end of any two multisyllabic words in this week's Invitational, and then define the compound. | H 2 |
626 | Course Light | Come up with a comical college class, along with a description for the course catalog. | H |
625 | Haven't Seen It | Make up a new plot for an existing movie title. | 3 |
611 | Ask Backwards, Erudite Edition | You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the sophisticated answers. You supply the questions. | H |
605 | Truly Stupendous Ideas | Name two people with the same initials (the people can be living or dead, real or fictional) and explain how they are similar or different. | T |
588 | Gadget If You Can | Tell us what these nifty, indispensable items are. | H H |
577 | Teledubbies | Slightly change the title of a TV show, past or present, and describe it. | I |
571 | A Tour de Fours | Create and define a word that includes T, H, E, and S in any order. The letters must appear consecutively. | H H |
566 | Get Whack | Type a two-word phrase into the Google search engine that produces exactly one result. | H |
556 | So Zoo Us | Combine any two kinds of animals, give its name and describe it. | H H |
549 | Show Us Your Best Quantities | Come up with novel units of measure, and explain or quantify them. | T |
546 | A Nice Pair of Cities | Choose any two or more real U.S. towns and come up with a joint endeavor they would undertake. | T |
544 | You Gotta Have Heart | Write us some valentine sentiments from one particular person (real or fictional) to another. | H |
539 | Dead Letters | Pay tribute in verse to someone who died in 2003. | H H |
528 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
517 | Insert Joke Here | Slip a single bogus sentence into next year's State of the Union address, figuring the Prez will probably just read it right off the teleprompter. | T |
504 | Life Is Snort | Write a schmaltzy last line of a "Life Is Short. | T |
495 | Words of One Syl- . . . Um, Just Short Words | Take some complex issue of any sort and explain it to all us morons entirely in words of one syllable. | 2 |
483 | Obitter Fate | Give us an obit headline for some famous person, currently living or dead. | H |
470 | Czar Har | Take the name of someone famous, rhyme it with a product, and describe the unholy union. | H |
465 | Hyphen the Terrible | Take the first half of any word or word combination in today's Post that is broken by a hyphen at the end of a line, and combine it with the second half of any other hyphenated word from the same story, and define the new word that is formed. | H H |
463 | Retell Sales | Give us the beginning of any well-known story as retold by any famous person, living or dead, except for Ronald Reagan. | H |
459 | Stock Humor | Look at any of the abbreviated company names in the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange listings in any newspaper's business section and suggest what business the companies might be in. | H H |
443 | Sick Humor | Come up with modern diseases of Washington life. | H H |
412 | Painful Climaxes | Come up with statements that start really dramatically, but leave you sorta flat at the end. | T |
410 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
409 | Nice Job, if You Get It | Take anything that might need its image enhanced and rename it in a way the keeps its essential identity, but makes it seem nicer. | T |
406 | Bum Steerage | Offer some spectacularly bad advice to any of the provided people. | H H H |
403 | Cry, Uncle! | Write the beginnings of an obituary that will provide the details of what happened to the Style Invitational Uncle. | T |
399 | IT PAYS TO BE GENDEROUS | Write a short film description that could persuade a woman that the guy movie he wants to see is really close to being a gal movie, or vice versa. | H |
397 | Sins of Omission | Omit a letter or letters from a real-life sign to create a name for a new business, comically different from the original. Describe the new business or include a slogan that explains it. | H H |
396 | April Foals | Mate any two of the horses qualifying for the Triple Crown races and come up with appropriate names for their foals. Maximum 18 letters and spaces. | H H |
395 | Devilishly Clever | Describe someone's special little corner of Hell. | H 1 |
394 | Life in the Blurbs | Come up with a blurb used to sell a real or imagined book or movie that would be likely to have the opposite of the intended effect. | 3 |
393 | Things Could Be Verse | Take any story in today's Washington Post and rewrite it into a rhyming poem of no more than eight lines. | H |
389 | Operation Overkill | Present a solution to a problem that goes just a little too far. | H H |
388 | Pitches in the Dirt | Come up with a sales pitch to get any surplus product off the shelves. | H H |
386 | The Game of Clue | What are some clues that someone might be any of the provided characterizations? | H |
381 | Idiom Savant | Take any well-known idiom, or expression, and invent an interesting derivation for it. | H 2 |
374 | Bill Us Later | Take a well-known expression and update it for the new millennium. | H |
373 | An Extra Large Challenge | What should we put on the back of the new Style Invitational T-shirt? | H |
368 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine the first half of any hyphenated word in a story in today's paper with the second part of a different hyphenated word from the same story, and provide a new definition. | H H |
363 | It's Your Movie | Take the title of any movie and make it the answer to a riddle. | H |
341 | What's In a Name? | Write something about any famous person that uses only the letters in his or her name. | H |