WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
---|---|---|---|
1619 | A So-So Contest | Give us jokes that are so [something] that [something]. | H H |
1618 | Week 100! | ...which we celebrate with a centennial contest | H 4 |
1617 | Mess With Our Heads | Look at a headline and see a funnier meaning. | H |
1611 | Ask Backwards XLIII | We give you the 'answers'; you tell us the questions. | H |
1609 | Saved! | Tell us funny ways to be thrifty in these parlous times | H H H H |
1607 | Funny, Init? | Compare two people who have the same initials. | H |
1606 | The Cold New Trend | What would be an even sillier new fad than decorator refrigerator shelves? | H H |
1602 | We Got Game | Tell us some funny ways to 'improve' a sport. | H H |
1599 | Picture This | It's our caption contest. | H H 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. | H |
1597 | The Farce of July | Give us new ways to celebrate Independence Day. | H H |
1595 | Ebenezer Screwed | Write us a funny comic strip on a certain sensitive subject | H H H H H |
1594 | So Good! So Bad! So Ugly! | We bring back a classic contest | H H |
1591 | Our Typo Humor | More fun with headlines. | H H H |
1590 | All You Need Is Ink | Take a line from a Beatles song and rhyme it with your own. | H H |
1589 | Wait Wait Right Here! | Write some 'Not My Job' questions a la the NPR quiz show. | H |
1587 | The Trite Stuff | Replace some well-worn phrases with better ones. | H H H 2 |
1585 | Bring Up the Rear | Move the last letter of a word to the front. | H H 2 |
1584 | Seeds of Change | Make an anagram of a name-brand product. | 3 |
1580 | Hi, Anxiety! | Tell us some funny ways to stress yourself out. | W H H H |
1579 | Captions Courageous | Write a description for any of six photos | H H |
1578 | The Pepys Show | Give us a diary entry from anyone in history. | H H H H H 4 |
1577 | Why the #$%#$% Not? | The Washington Post is looking for some bold ideas -- Let's show it some! | 4 |
1576 | Praise the Lurid! | Give us clickbait headlines for mundane stories. | H |
1575 | The Ughscars and the Phewlitzers | Give us an idea for a bad book or movie. | H H |
1568 | Nextra! Nextra! | Tell us the funny news events from 2024 | H H H |
1567 | Picture This | A caption contest | H |
1565 | Oh, For Namesakes! | Compare two people who share part of a name. | H |
1563 | The Perfect(ly Ridiculous) Gift | Offer up some products for people-who-have-everything catalogs. | H H H H H |
1560 | The 'Hole Story | Write us a funny 'Am I The Asshole' question | W H |
1559 | As the Word Turns | 'Discover' new words by snaking through this random grid | H |
1556 | Cross Us Up | Mirror a phrase, more or less | H H |
1555 | Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us? | Give us "backronyms" | 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 |
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 |
1551 | Ask Backwards XLII | We give the answers. You give the questions. | H |
1547 | Alphabettering | Write a funny sentence containing all 26 letters. | H H |
1546 | Put It in Bee-verse | Write a funny poem using a spelling bee word | H |
1545 | Their Base Behavior | Tell humorously how some business or organization could alter its product or message to appeal to Trump’s cult. | 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 |
1541 | Wrong enough for ya? | Fake facts about the weather | W H |
1540 | Picture This | It's caption contest time, with eight motley pictures to choose from. | H |
1539 | Get Real, Reel | Name a scene in a movie, a TV show, or literature, and tell us how it might be revised (perhaps less satisfyingly but far more realistically) | H H 3 |
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 H H |
1531 | The Worst New Contest Ever | Describe something that would be worse than a second Trump presidency | H H H H |
1530 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret any headline by adding a 'bank head'. | H |
1527 | Film Flim-Flam | Use all the letters in a movie title to make a new movie | W |
1525 | Arty Har-har | Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work | H |
1524 | Picture This | A caption contest | H |
1523 | Where in Hell ...? | Name a "circle" for some "evil", plus a suitable punishment | 3 |
1522 | Questionable Journalism | Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer | H |
1505 | Munici-pals | Choose any two or more real U.S. or Canadian towns — they need to show up on a Google search — and come up with a joint endeavor they would undertake. | H |
1501 | Try a little 'kindness' | Tell about an “act of kindness” that you or someone else does that, well, won’t be appreciated. | 3 |
1499 | Picture This, a cartoon caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | H 3 |
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. | H |
1491 | The add biz | Choose any word, name or phrase beginning with A throough E, then add any single letter of the alphabet to it -- one or more times -- and define the result or show how it would be used. | H |
1489 | Let's movie things around | Rearrange the words of a movie title to create a new movie, then describe it | H |
1488 | Let's recycle! | Come up with humorous uses for ANY product or combination of products listed at RepurposeMaterials.com, including but no restricted to the provided list. | H |
1484 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | 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 H |
1481 | Mess with our heads | Reinterpret some actual headline (or a major part of it), from any publication, print or online. | 2 |
1480 | Oh, you don't really mean that | Define" inaccurately and humorously any of the provided words. | H H |
1477 | Thinking outside the big box | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided items listed on walmart.com<\em>. | H H H |
1473 | Sign right here | Write a funny message for the overhead highway sign. | H |
1472 | Phony money -- tell us fake financial trivia | Tell us some fake trivia about money or the financial system. | H |
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 |
1466 | Be invitationally correct | Give us a funny "correction" that a newspaper or magazine might offer. | W H |
1465 | Put your '22 cents in for our annual pre-timeline | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2022. | H H |
1464 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | H H |
1463 | Fork over some (new) Spoonerisms | Write and original Q-A joke featuring a spoonerism. | H |
1452 | As the Word Turns | Discover" a word or multiword term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions, up, down, back, forth, diagonally -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | P H |
1447 | Give it to us straight | Take any sentence from an article or ad in any publication (print or online) dated July 29 through Aug. 9, 2021, and intepret it in “plain English". | H |
1436 | Haven't seen it: Fun with movie titles | Misinterpret a movie title in a supposed plot description. | 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 |
1426 | Mess with our (or others') heads | Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. | H H |
1425 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | H |
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 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 |
1417 | Dead Letters, our obit poem contest | Write a poem of no longer than eight lines (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2020. | H |
1416 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1388 through 1412. | H |
1415 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1360 through 1387, except for Weeks 1361-1363. | H |
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 |
1410 | Legends of the fall -- more fictoids | Tell us some bogus trivia about autumn, or things that happen (or have happened) in autumn. | H |
1407 | Your ad space (or space ad) here | Come up with an idea for promoting some commercial product or service (a) in space, (b) in a prison, (c) at a kindergarten, (d) by a football team or (e) in the White House. | H |
1406 | The news could be verse | Write a poem based on a recent news article, in which the lines' first letters spell out the title or subject of the poem. | 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 |
1401 | How hai? A joke-haiku contest | Write a joke (roughly) in the "It's so xxx" genre as a haiku. | H |
1400 | Back on track with our classic 'foal' contest | Breed" any two of the provided names of the 100 horses nominated for the 2020 Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to humorously reflect the parents' names. | H 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 |
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. | H |
1395 | Add nauseam: A plus-one contest | Add a "plus one" to some familiar numerical grouping, true or fictional | H |
1393 | Second chance (acned conches?) for anagrams | Describe any of the provided anagram businesses, or offer its slogan. | 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 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 |
1389 | TankaWanka 4: Haiku plus tu | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. | H H H |
1387 | Movie clips -- drop letters from the middle of a title | Delete one or more letters (they must be consecutive) from the middle of a movie title, and describe the resulting new movie. | H H |
1384 | Of course there are stupid questions! | Give us stupid questions, especially ones reflecting Our Current Situation. | H |
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 H 3 |
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. | 3 |
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. | 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 |
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. | H 4 |
1376 | Get thee to a funnery | Add a character (or more) to a Shakespeare play and supply some resulting dialogue. | H H |
1375 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. | H H |
1373 | Prime time for some Amazon reviews | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided Amazon-listed items. | H 2 |
1372 | Trash talking, 1880-style | Write a quatrain or -- heck -- two of Balliol rhyme about some person. | 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. | H |
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. | H |
1368 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | W H |
1367 | Pick me up at work, okay? | Give a pickup line from someone in a particular profession, or from a particular person or fictional character. | H |
1366 | Tour de Fours XVI -- It's the LIAR club | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block L-I-A-R and describe it. | H |
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 H 4 |
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. | 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). | L L H H H 3 |
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"). | 4 |
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. | H H |
1354 | As the Word turns 5: Taking our vowels | Discover" a word or multiword term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | W |
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 |
1352 | Hee-rotica -- Steamy prose for unsteamy life | Write a short steamy scene (100 words would be considered long) about a non-steamy event. | H |
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. | 4 |
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. | W H 2 |
1348 | Same difference | Explain humorously how any two or more of the provided items are alike, different or otherwise connected. | 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 |
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 H |
1345 | The confaketionary -- food fictoids | Tell us some comically false "fact" about food, drink or dining. | H 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 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. | H |
1339 | Songs for a modern error | Write humorous lyrics about some modern woe, set to a familiar tune. | 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 |
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 |
1333 | Check your (homo)phones | Invent a homophone--a word that sounds the same as an existing word but is spelled differently--and define it. | 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 |
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. | 2 |
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. | 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 |
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 |