| WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1525 | Arty Har-har | Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work | H |
| 1491 | The add biz | Choose any word, name or phrase beginning with A throough E, then add any single letter of the alphabet to it -- one or more times -- and define the result or show how it would be used. | H |
| 1451 | Could have said it worse ourselves | Give us a humorously bad "first draft" of a famous line from history, literature or entertainment. | H |
| 1443 | The letters of the laws | Propose some law -- it doesn't have to be a serious issue -- and give it a name and an acronym, | H |
| 1437 | One-offs: A 'typo' neologism contest | You're a fat-fingered typist: Change a word, name or phrase by either adding or substituting one letter that's adjacent (in any direction) to the original one on a regular QWERTY keyboard, or by doubling the correct letter. | L |
| 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. | 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. | 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 |
| 1376 | Get thee to a funnery | Add a character (or more) to a Shakespeare play and supply some resulting dialogue. | 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. | H |
| 1363 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1334 through Week 1359. | H |
| 1356 | Ask Backwards 38 | Sixteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. | H |
| 1349 | Revise and extend these remarks | Go to congress.gov/congressional-record and click on the PDF for any day's Congressional Record. Choose any sentence (or substantial part of one) and write a question that it could answer. | H |
| 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 |
| 1344 | Well, that's just great -- It’s Limerixicon XVI | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "gr-". | H |
| 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 |
| 1326 | Foaling around | Breed" any two names from the provided list of 100 horses and name the foal to reflect both names. | 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 H |
| 1308 | Picture this -- or these | This week you have two choices: (1) Write a caption for one or more of these pictures, or (2) explain what is wrong with the picture. You might also combine two pictures into one -- or all four into one. | H |
| 1304 | All the muse that's fit to print | Present a "what if" scenario and explain its effect. | H |
| 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. | M |
| 1294 | As the word turns | “Discover” a word or multiword term that consists of adjacent letters — in any direction or several directions — in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | H |
| 1289 | Fake gnus: bogus animal trivia | Tell us a fictoid -- a humorously false "fact" -- about the nonhuman animal kingdom. | H |
| 1282 | Picture This | Write a caption for one or more of the provided pictures. | 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 |
| 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. | 4 |
| 1258 | The year in redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1230 through Week 1254. | 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 |
| 1239 | MASH 3 | Combine two movie titles and describe the result. | 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 |
| 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 |
| 1215 | A so-so contest (How so-so is it?) | Write a humorous exaggeration in the form "x is so y that . . . | M |
| 1212 | The Tile Invitational IV | Give us a five-, six- or seven-letter word (or two words) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | 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 |
| 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. | H H |
| 1199 | We want some bad choices | Offer one or more funny Questions for Terrible People, as shown. | H |
| 1197 | Picture This -- It's a Bob Staake caption contest | Write a caption for any of the cartoons provided. | H H H |
| 1170 | Derby or not Derby | Breed" any two of the provided racehorses nominated for this year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont; and name the foal to reflect both names. | H |
| 1158 | What have we here? | Tell us what one or more of these objects really are. | 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 |
| 1146 | Stick it to us with a magnet | Suggest a new Style Invitational honorable-mention magnet. | H |
| 1145 | A DICEy situation | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block D-I-C-E. | H |
| 1143 | Ask Backwards | Provided are 15 answers, separated by asterisks. You supply the questions. | 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. | 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). | H |
| 1134 | The 'Sty'le Invitational Red'ux' | Put quotation marks around part of a word, name or phrase and define the result. | 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 |
| 1126 | Picture this | Provide a humorous caption for any of the cartoons provided. | 3 |
| 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. | L |
| 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 |
| 1110 | The mama of all humor | Write a [Someone’s] Mama joke for some well-known figure, past or present, real or fictional. | H |
| 1101 | The year in redo | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050. | 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". | H |
| 1088 | Ask backwards with our answers, your questions | Supply the questions to as many of the 16 supplied answers as you like. | H |
| 1071 | A pair of threes | Choose two or three entities represented by a single three-letter combination at bit.ly/3letterabs and say how they are alike or different. | H 3 |
| 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 |
| 1057 | Sportin' lie | Give us some fake sports trivia. | 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. | 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. | H |
| 1048 | Ask Backwards | You supply the questions to as many of the provided answers as you like. | H |
| 1031 | The 'Sty'le Invitational | Choose any word, name, or short term; emphasize a key, suddenly pertinent part of it with quotation marks; then redefine the word. | H |
| 1021 | 'Gram theft | Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it. | H |
| 1020 | Colt following | Breed any two of this week's winning foals and name the grandfoal. | 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 |
| 1007 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H |
| 980 | Def jam | Supply a humorous definition for any of the provided Loser-penned neologisms. | H |
| 975 | Gone mything | Debunk a "Sixth Myth" about one of more of the recent "5 Myths" topics provided. | 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 |
| 924 | Doomed to repeat it | Create "Unreal Facts" about history. | H |
| 916 | Bank shots | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from April 22 through May 2 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H H |
| 912 | Pair-a-phrase | Lift a word that appears inside a longer word; pair it with the original word to create a phrase; and define it. | H |
| 890 | Double-teaming | Combine the names of any two pro sports teams -- even from different sports -- and describe the result. | 3 |
| 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. | H |
| 852 | Small, Let's get | Write a rhopalic sentence (or fanciful newspaper headline) in which each successive word is one letter shorter. | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 832 | Clue Us In | You supply one or more clues for the words in a filled-in grid. | H |
| 826 | The Inside Word | Take any word -- this may include the name of a person or place -- put a portion of it in quotation marks, and redefine the word. | H |
| 823 | Wryku | Compose a humorous (or at least wry or clever) haiku. | H |
| 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 |
| 804 | Our Type o' Joke | Change a headline by one letter, or switch two letters, in a headline (or most of a headline) appearing on an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com between Feb. 14 and 23, and elaborate on it in a "bank" headline (subhead) or a brief first sentence of an article that would run under it. | H |
| 797 | Be Resolute | Make a humorous resolution for some particular person or institution to accomplish next year. | H |
| 792 | Clue Us In | Compile a set of funny alternative clues to a crossword penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. | H |
| 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 |
| 776 | An Act of Sunny Side | Note the silver lining in some otherwise disappointing turn of events. | H |
| 774 | Tour De Forks | Supply a name for a restaurant dish named after someone (or some product or organization) and describe it. | 2 |
| 764 | Can You Up Chuck? | Come up with entirely new and funny Chuck Norris Facts. | H |
| 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. | 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 |
| 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. | H |
| 745 | Hurry Up and Slow Down! | Suggest particular ways that would slow life down, or ways that would speed it up. | H |
| 743 | Picture This | Write a caption for any of these Bob Staake cartoons. | W |
| 723 | Name Your Poison | Create a name and recipe for a cocktail and, if you like, describe when it might be served. | H |
| 720 | The Course of Humor Events | Sum up a historical event in a two-line rhyme or other clever and pithy epigram. | H |
| 688 | Making Short Work | Write a humorous six-word story. | H |
| 684 | Backtricking | Spell a word backward and define the result, somehow relating the definition to the original word. | H |
| 680 | Rendered Speechless | Provide dialogue to fill the balloons in any of these cartoons. | H |
| 679 | Ask Backwards | Here are the answers. You supply the questions to as many as you dare. | 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 |
| 648 | Caller IDiot | Name a product or company and supply a stupid question to ask the consumer hotline person. | H H |
| 628 | You Gotta Have Connections | Choose any two or more items from the provided truly random list and describe how they are alike or different. | H |
| 612 | Oh, and One More Thing | What was the thing that didn't make the cut on any list? | H |
| 608 | Comeback Next Week | Come up with original snide retorts to various rude questions or comments. | W |
| 588 | Gadget If You Can | Tell us what these nifty, indispensable items are. | H 3 |
| 578 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" Above are the answers. Send us the questions. | H |
| 567 | A Running Gag | Explain how any of the provided bizarre cartoons by Bob Staake relates to the current presidential campaign. | H |
| 548 | Inklings | Tell us about certain people's childhood experiences and behaviors that hint at their destinies. | H |
| 528 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 520 | I, Object | These items were ordered by well-known people. Who ordered them, and why? | 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. | H |
| 511 | It All Impends | Tell us what is something unusual about to happen in the provided cartoons. | H H |
| 481 | Homonymphomania | Create a new homonym of any existing word, and define. The new word must be spelled in such a way that is obviously pronounced identically to the original word. | H |
| 468 | Ism This Stupid? | Take any common prefix and attach it to any well-known "ism" and define the new term. | H |
| 464 | Cursive Writing | Come up with a new curse for this millennium. | H |
| 454 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 445 | Another Round of Bierce | Add a few entries to Ambrose Bierce's famous "Devil's Dictionary. | H |
| 437 | The Telegraph Poll | Tell us the beginning of a joke that badly telegraphs the punch line. | H |
| 406 | Bum Steerage | Offer some spectacularly bad advice to any of the provided people. | H |
| 388 | Pitches in the Dirt | Come up with a sales pitch to get any surplus product off the shelves. | H |
| 379 | Rather Unusual | Come up with lines that could be uttered by Dan Rather, with his unbearably folksy excesses. | H |
| 363 | It's Your Movie | Take the title of any movie and make it the answer to a riddle. | H |
| 351 | Dubya Fun | Take any well-known statement, expression, slogan, etc., and rewrite it the way Dubya might have said it. | H H |