Lyttle Lytton 2004

April 19, 2004 12:13 PM

The 2004 Lyttle Lytton winners were announced. The premise is simple: write a terrible opening line (of 25 words or less) of a hypothetical novel. In case you're wondering the winners in 2003 and 2002 were discussed previously. [via kathrynyu]
posted by mathowie (9 comments total)

These are so much less... awful than in years past.


And the last political speech entry is a clear rip-off of the classic "Beatings will continue until morale has improved" office breakroom sign.
posted by me3dia at 12:20 PM on April 19, 2004

The previous winner links go to the San Jose State University contest, btw, which I've always known as the original.
posted by OneSmartMonkey at 12:23 PM on April 19, 2004

This is a different contest, no?

http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/ is the one linked in the previous threads, and doesn't seem to have announced the 2004 ones yet.
posted by malphigian at 12:24 PM on April 19, 2004

I just realized the difference myself. Very sneaky, that Adam Cadre -- naming his contest something remarkably similar to the better known one, then setting up Kathryn to get it in front of Matt's eyes, virtually guaranteeing wide coverage via MetaFilter. Conspiracy!
posted by me3dia at 12:29 PM on April 19, 2004

I wondered why the URLs were different, and why the results were a few months early this year. Oh well.
posted by mathowie at 12:38 PM on April 19, 2004

Good showing by S. Kurruk!
posted by Succa at 12:44 PM on April 19, 2004

The classic Bulwer-Lytton contest traditionally has its deadline for entries as April 15th (although the site says the B-L may be accepting until June 30th this year). The title "Lyttle Lytton" comes from its one notable differentiation from the original contest: the 25 words maximum. Considering that one of the easier ways to construct a really bad opening line is with a run-on sentence, the Lyttle seems a lyttle bit more challenging. (In other words, I didn't enter it).

Still, the Mystery Winner elicited a Diet-Cherry-Coke-to-Monitor-Screen moment for me:
"I know who the murderer is, Kevin blogged."
posted by wendell at 12:58 PM on April 19, 2004

An especially effective inside joke, considering I know whose real name is Kevin...
posted by wendell at 12:59 PM on April 19, 2004

This is the story of your mom's life.: have naked pictures of your mom.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:07 PM on April 19, 2004