Monday, 12 May 2008

Europeans get drunk 'to have sex'

Source: BBC News

First of all, duh. Second of all, who are they quoting here?

BAD HEADLINE!

Friday, 2 May 2008

'Thurgood' - not Thurgreat

Source: New York Post

This headline - about a play called Thurgood - is ridiculous. So ridiculous that we adore it. [Hat tip to Playgoer.]

GOOD HEADLINE!

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

'Everyone I know is Crock-Potting it up'

Source: The Globe and Mail

Sure, it's a quote, but come on: The tiny bit of craft and artistry in a trend story ought to be in the display. Plus, who do you know who would even use Crock-Pot as a verb?

BAD HEADLINE!

No. 10 goes digital with a spot of Twittery-pokery

Source: The Guardian

Informative and salacious!

GOOD HEADLINE!

Priest tied to balloons disappears

Source: The Toronto Star

When a priest tied to balloons disappears, that's really all you need to say. No need for embellishment or ascension jokes.

GOOD HEADLINE!

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Mrs Starkerzy arrives in Britain

Source: The Sun

About the French president's lady wife having her picture taken with no clothes on. Sarkozy is quite a tricky surname for punners (does it rhyme with anything other than Teacosy?), but the Sun's cunning addition of that extra "t" works a treat. Er... "starkers" does translate, right?

GOOD HEADLINE!

Monday, 24 March 2008

Rarebit in the spotlight

Source: The Guardian's food pages

A piece about Welsh food gaining popularity. Rubbish: rarebit is a more than acceptable rabbit substitution, but the spotlight/headlight reverse is weak.

BAD HEADLINE!

'Eggcellent' turnout for Easter egg hunt

Source: Belleville Intelligencer

The joke here is that "ex" sounds a little bit like "egg." If this were a story about A Christmas Carol, I'd call it a Dickens of a bad pun. If it were about puppies, I'd say it was a doggone bad pun. Such plays on words deserve permanent postPUNment.

BAD HEADLINE!

Spy saga unfurls paradox of man

Source: The Toronto Star

This is on a review of Michael Frayn's play Democracy. It is trying much too hard.

BAD HEADLINE!

Monday, 3 March 2008

Tippling point

Source: The Guardian


Puntastic! Here's the context: "Global warming and changing tastes are putting the squeeze on Europe's traditional vineyards."

GOOD HEADLINE!

Saturday, 9 February 2008

Sunday, 3 February 2008

Longoria Day's Journey into Blight

Source: New York Post

Despite its almost complete irrelevance to the article, we must give this O'Neill-referencing headline the thumbs up.

GOOD HEADLINE!