Washington Post Style Invitational
According to the Wikipedia page the Style Invitational has been going on since 1993. Every week, readers are invited to submit a humorous response to some creative prompt. This week’s asks the audience to write a funny diary or journal entry for someone, famous or not, for any point in history.
This particular assignment isn’t that engaging, but there are past contests that involve a bit more wordplay. A teacher friend in my Seton Hall program, Beth, told me about this during lunch today. This is one she told me about: supply alternate meanings for existing words.
Some examples:
- coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon.
- flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
- abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
- esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
- willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
- negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
- lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
- gargoyle (n.), an olive-flavored mouthwash.
- flatulence (n.) the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller
- balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
- testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
- rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you.
- oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions.
- pokemon (n), A Jamaican proctologist.
- circumvent (n.), the opening in the front of a Jewish man’s boxer shorts.
Then I made one up:
- windbreaker (n), a person known for his or her flatulence.
Anyway, it is free to sign up at the Washington Post site and I thought this might be an interesting thing to keep an eye on week-by-week. There are prizes like pens, t-shirts, etc. available. That’s more than I can say for those no good plagiarists over at McSweeney’s.
Comments
Enthusiasm fail.
Hahahaha, well, I’m going to keep an eye on it.