Humor Writing Prompt #11: NatPasq 20th Anniversary, Part 6 of 10

Humor Writing Prompts

“Take away that pudding—it has no theme.”

—Sir Winston Churchill

Last month, National Pasquinade began prompting you with themes from the last twenty years of the magazine. The challenge each week is to write a funny piece, based on the themes below, that could have appeared in the magazine during the issue’s time frame.

Time Frame: Spring 2007 through Winter 2008/2009. America started eight years of pissing off racists by electing its first black president. If you can see Russia from your house, you can certainly bring the funny without even trying. Create a funny story, parody, or article based on one of the following themes:

  • Sanitized For Our Convenience
  • Kid Friendly
  • Scratch ‘N’ Sniff
  • Increasingly Forgetful
  • Extra Juicy
  • Shark Jump
  • Unusually Hairy

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. If you’re especially satisfied with your results, why not submit your finished piece to National Pasquinade for its 20th Anniversary Issue? The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2017, if you pay attention to deadlines.Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #10: NatPasq 20th Anniversary, Part 5 of 10

Humor Writing Prompts

“Take away that pudding—it has no theme.”

—Sir Winston Churchill

Several weeks ago, National Pasquinade began prompting you with themes from the last twenty years of the magazine. The challenge each week will be to write a funny piece, based on the themes below, that could have appeared in the magazine during the issue’s time frame.

Time Frame: Summer 2005 through Winter 2006/2007. Load some Coldplay onto your iPod and sharpen your comedy skillz. Create a funny story, parody, or article based on one of the following themes:

  • Selling Out
  • One Size To Fit Them All
  • Curiously Optimistic
  • Quantum Entanglement
  • Fun With The Elderly
  • Tentative Travel
  • Tucker Carlson in Extreme Settings

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. If you’re especially satisfied with your results, why not submit your finished piece to National Pasquinade for its 20th Anniversary Issue? The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2017, if you pay attention to deadlines.Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #9: NatPasq 20th Anniversary, Part 4 of 10

Humor Writing Prompts

“Take away that pudding—it has no theme.”

—Sir Winston Churchill

A few weeks ago, National Pasquinade began prompting you with themes from the last twenty years of the magazine. The challenge each week will be to write a funny piece, based on the themes below, that could have appeared in the magazine during the issue’s time frame.

Time Frame: Summer 2003 through Winter 2004/2005. Remember how Britney was so, like, pretty, and everyone was into tater tots? Yeah, me neither. Create a funny story, parody, or article based on one of the following themes:

  • Global Warming
  • 133+
  • Goodbye, ePasquinade
  • The Special Supersized Spring Break Spectacular
  • Reader’s Digest Parody
  • Patience
  • Federally-Enforced Christmas

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. If you’re especially satisfied with your results, why not submit your finished piece to National Pasquinade for its 20th Anniversary Issue? The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2017, if you pay attention to deadlines.Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #8: NatPasq 20th Anniversary, Part 3 of 10

Humor Writing Prompts

“Take away that pudding—it has no theme.”

—Sir Winston Churchill

A couple weeks ago, National Pasquinade began prompting you with themes from the last twenty years of the magazine. The challenge each week will be to write a funny piece, based on the themes below, that could have appeared in the magazine during the issue’s time frame.

Time Frame: Fall 2001 through Spring 2003. The new millennium has really started to take off and you can pay for it all with the new Euro! Every country in Europe will want the Euro. It’s the Currency For The New Millennium! Create a funny story, parody, or article based on one of the following themes:

  • Classified
  • Cleverly Deceptive
  • Ticking Package Wrapped in Greasy Brown Paper
  • Chaos
  • Gambling
  • Underground Comic
  • Surreality Television

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. If you’re especially satisfied with your results, why not submit your finished piece to National Pasquinade for its 20th Anniversary Issue? The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2017, if you pay attention to deadlines.Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #7: NatPasq 20th Anniversary, Part 2 of 10

Humor Writing Prompts

“Take away that pudding—it has no theme.”

—Sir Winston Churchill

Starting last week, National Pasquinade began prompting you with themes from the last twenty years of the magazine. The challenge each week will be to write a funny piece, based on the themes below, that could have appeared in the magazine during the issue’s time frame.

Time Frame: Winter 1999/2000 through Summer 2001. The Y2K bug never really materialized, but nobody will ever forget needing to scratch out the little “19” on every check you wrote. You still write checks, right? Create a funny story, parody, or article based on one of the following themes:

  • The Second-to-Last Award Show Ever
  • Proofreaders’ Strike
  • Happy 224th
  • Lucky Halloween
  • Flushed
  • Coulda Been a Contender
  • Dog Days

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. If you’re especially satisfied with your results, why not submit your finished piece to National Pasquinade for its 20th Anniversary Issue? The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2017, if you pay attention to deadlines.Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #6: NatPasq 20th Anniversary, Part 1 of 10

Humor Writing Prompts

“Take away that pudding—it has no theme.”

—Sir Winston Churchill

For the next ten weeks, National Pasquinade will be prompting you with themes from the last twenty years of the magazine. The challenge is to write a funny piece, based on the themes below, that could have appeared in the magazine during the issue’s time frame.

Time Frame: Spring 1998 through Fall 1999. Put those pagers on vibrate and open up Windows 98™, we’re visiting the very late ’90s. Create a funny story, parody, or article based on one of the following themes:

  • Fly the Friendly Skies
  • Hi-Jinks and Misadventures
  • Health and Fitness
  • Special Olympics Preview
  • Bad Poetry
  • Looking on the Bright Side
  • Abundant Cornucopia

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. If you’re especially satisfied with your results, why not submit your finished piece to National Pasquinade for its 20th Anniversary Issue? The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2017, if you pay attention to deadlines.Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #5: Fucking Leprechauns!

Humor Writing Prompts

And don’t wish for more wishes. There’s been a loophole to counter that one for over sixty years. Those little assholes have pooled their collective knowledge through social networking and it’s virtually impossible to formulate a great wish that won’t screw you in the end.

In an ongoing attempt to jump-start your attempt to pen something uproariously funny, or at the very least amusing, here’s another jolt of inspiration for you creative types to use as you will.

Fucking Leprechauns. Sure, if you catch one, it’ll grant you wishes. But can you trust that the wishes won’t have some unexpected and unfortunate twist? And how in bloody hell do you catch one anyway? Sure, in the movies you just lure them into a trap with a small pot of gold-painted coins, but it’s a new millennium, folks. They’ve had centuries to adapt. I want to know what I need to do to catch a leprechaun in 2017. And what I have to do to ensure my wishes of fame and fortune don’t backfire on me. #FuckingLeprechauns

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #4: Five Words

Humor Writing Prompts

Like the tail of the thawing opossum peeking from a deep puddle of slush, I could feel the start of a bad case of shingles coming on. “Don’t fret,” she said to me. “If they don’t look good on our roof, we can always donate them to Goodwill.”

In an ongoing attempt to jump-start your attempt to pen something uproariously funny, or at the very least amusing, here’s another jolt of inspiration for you creative types to use as you will.

Five Words. Choose three of the following five words to include in a single paragraph. Form of the word is okay. For instance, “donates” and “donated” are fair game. As an additional challenge, use your paragraph in a story. #FiveWordsHWP

  • Opossum
  • Donate
  • Fret
  • Slush
  • Shingles

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #3: Run-On (and On and On and On)

Humor Writing Prompts

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
— Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

In an ongoing attempt to jump-start your attempt to pen something uproariously funny, or at the very least amusing, here’s another jolt of inspiration for you creative types to use as you will.

Humor Writing Prompt #3: Inspired by, and in the fine and longstanding tradition (well, since 1982) of, The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, write, type, or word-process the opening sentence to your future self’s bestselling novel, any genre; this glorious sentence should contain, at the very least, fifty words, should contain no more than one semicolon, and unlike this run-on atrocity, should be funny on some level and convey something similar to a plot.

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. Happy writing.

Humor Writing Prompt #2: Time Journal

Humor Writing Prompts

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that piece of toast looks exactly like the bread that disappeared from my toaster in 1983!

Happy New Years’ Eve, folks. Here’s another poke in the head for you creative types to run with.

Humor Writing Prompt #2: You’ve just discovered, entirely by accident, that an ordinary everyday item has somehow gained the ability to transport you through time. Compose a series of journal entries that reveal the discovery and your subsequent journeys.

Share your results, or a link to your results if they’re longer, in the comments, if you feel so compelled. Happy writing.