Category: Puns - Dan Fiorella: Writer @ large

Dan Fiorella

Hashtag, You're It! - #Veterinarian Video Games

3/24/2025

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 topic was pretty fun and cute. Not a video guy, and haven't paid much attention to them since Pacman, so I did google a list of games to get me going. There were many good ones posted and I'm glad to report several of mine made the cut for WH's website.

#VeterinarianVideoGames

Hashtag, You're It! - #Give Booze The Blues

3/18/2025

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.

Happy to get my usual 6 items selected for this game, but as I'm reading the column, I really duped a number of items WH had posted first. I do try to go over them before I submit, but I didn't see them. And if I dupe with some other random post, well, I'm not there to wait for everyone to tweet first and then jump in. It was a solid topic with enough ways to squeeze a pun out.

#GiveBoozeTheBlues

Hashtag, You're It! - #Carnal Carnival Attractions

3/12/2025

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.

I'm a prude, I know it. I had almost decided to skip this hashtag game because it was yet another carnal-based theme. But I can be a bit of a completist and it started to bother me not to submit, because I always submit (this explains my career protectory so much). So I wound up submitting several, trying to be clever. Going for the double entendre. Going for the sly nod. Keeping it PG-13. A couple of phrases leapt to mind and I started going from there. All it all, I did okay. But you can be the judge.

#CarnalCarnivalAttractions

Hashtag, You're It! - #Sitcom A Rock Band

3/4/2025

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.

I was afraid I got skunked this week. As a scrolled down the site's page, I saw mostly Weekly Humorist's own posts. You have to read them the day-of to make sure you don't dupe them (and even if you try to read them all, you still wind up posting the same jokes). Finally, toward the end, my few came up. As always, the music based ones throw me, as I'm not a music guy. But I am a sit-com guy. But to avoid the usual log jam of recent sit-coms, I hit the internet to look up some titles from the 50s and 60s, and whatever others that popped into my mind as I was working the list of rock bands. There were a lot of good entries (including mine.) So, check it out at:

#SitcomARockBand

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! - #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

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