Category: Hashtag Games - Dan Fiorella: Writer @ large

Dan Fiorella

Hashtag, You're It! - #Feisty Fast Food

2/25/2025

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

Can't say this was one of my strong efforts. I submitted a dozen and got 4 selected, but they picked one of my weakest puns (Pander Express) but one of my stronger (Dairy Drama Queen). There were some solid entries, but a lot of weak ones that made it. There's always next week...

#FeistyFastFood

Hashtag, You're It! - #Bully A Ballad

2/18/2025

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

This last game caught me off guard; sure, it was another musical one, but the combo of bullying and ballads got me. Sure, a lot of people don't really post ballads, they just grab any old song title and play with that. I, on the other hand, pulled up a list of the 40 best ballads and worked my way down, while checking a list of synonyms for "bully." Made up the usual dozen and got 8 picked for the site. Yay, me!

Hashtag, You're It! - #Animalize An Actor

2/11/2025

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

When I opened up Twitter this week for the game, I kinda floundered. You know sometimes when you know a lot of things, but none of them come to mind? That was this. Actors; there are thousands of them. Animals? Of course I can name animals. But I just stared at the screen because nothing was coming to mind. I did devise a strategy; I was going to focus on classic actors. So I looked up a site for the top actors of the 1940s. Then I had to look up most popular zoo animals just to get the juices going. I managed to come up with a dozen, and I got 5 in. Yay. Check them out!

#AnimalizeAnActor

Hashtag, You're It! - #Alien Alcohol

1/29/2025

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

After getting skunked in last week's game, I racked up a dozen entries in this week's game. I read it and it felt like a really different name game, something away from music and sex and insults. Again the usual routine, I had to look up a list of 40 best-know aliens which gave him a lot of ways to avoid the whole Star Wars/Star Trek quagmire. Also, I'm not much of a cocktail drinker so, I had to look that up. Then it was just a matter of mashing them up. A little bummed my favorite one, Klaatu Bacardi nikto, didn't make the cut. Oh, well. check out the fun at:

Hashtag, You're It! - #Nightmare 90s Bands

1/15/2025

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

Between the holidays and preoccupation this was the first hashtag game I fell back into. And it's a pretty solid return. I almost didn't do it because I'm not a music guy at all. I mean, I like music and I listen to songs, but I can't name bands or years or groups. So I came into this blind. Fortunately, the internet exists and I looked up a list of 90s bands. And even a few 90s groups, too. So Happy New Year, everyone!

#Nightmare90sBands

Hashtag, You're It! - #Criminal Christmas Movies

12/25/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

The last hashtag game before the holidays. I skipped the previous week, I just didn't care for the topic. This one came up and it was a bit of work. WH had grabbed all the good ones, (which you can tell by the fact they posted all of theirs0 so the rest were a job. In the end, I don't think I came up with more that 10, but I got 6 included on the WH site, so that's something. Merry Christmas, happy holidays and I guess we'll see this stuff return in the new year!

#CriminalChristmasMovies

Hashtag, You're It! - #Pissed-Off Pastries

11/25/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

This was one of those weeks where it started off slow, but then I hit a stride. I wound up positing 20 items. I would do a couple, then back away, then suddenly a couple more ideas occurred to me, so I'd jump back in. It's another week where most of the "featured" items were generated by WH. I'm trying to be a little more generous and retweet posts I like and there were a few, but not ones that make the website. I got 8 in this week, but oddly not the one that got the most likes online, so that's weird. There were a lot of duplicate posts and you can tell people don't look at what's already posted before they jump in (not that it's a guarantee that you won't post something that's already been posted).

So, check out the WK page, or mosey on over to Twitter and check out the hashtag there...

#PissedOffPastries

Hashtag, You're It! - #Mean Medicines

11/18/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

Only 2 this week. I wasn't initially thrilled by the topic, Mean Medicines, but I thought up one good one to get started, looked up a CVS ad and went from there. I'm disappointed, my first one, Marquise de Sedative, didn't get selected. Two out of 17 seems pretty slim, but I saw one account posting endless tweets and they were awful. They were unrecognizable as jokes or medicines. I was curious about who would post so many (for hours, BTW) so I clicked on the account link to discover I Was Blocked! I have no idea who this account is or why I was block, but there you have it. Hashtag games are not for the weak. Even if they are...weekly. Sorry.

Hashtag, You're It! - #New America Slogans

11/11/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

Well, we moved from one scary season to the next, post-Election Day. WH decided that after the election, the country needs a new slogan. I'll admit, I was slow to get up to speed on this one. Even reading some of the early posts didn't inspire me toward anything. After a bit, thinking about regular American quotes pulling up my sarcasm pants and I was able to come with more than a dozen or so. And I got 5 or so included on the WH website. Why am I not sure? They somehow duped the page halfway down and some of mine are in both halves and the page scrolls so weirdly, it's hard to count mine. Oh, well, see for yourself:

#NewAmericaSlogans

Hashtag, You're It! -#Crude Costumes

11/5/2024

Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site.

Weekly Humorist wound up the Halloween season with some punny costumes. I didn't realize how many I submitted until I saw what WH re-tweeted. 21! I just pulled up a store page listing their most popular costumes and run from there. Most of the entries were of the gross/crude variety (as were mine) and I went a little blue here (not sure why). I got 10 in, so I'm happy. Check them all out:

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