Automated pun helper? I want a program or website that can help me with puns, aphorisms, etc for making jokey headlines

January 22, 2004 1:28 PM

Is there some sort of program or website that can help create short, punny titles for articles like you find in magazines and some newspapers? Say I have a piece on hazardous waste - I'd love to be able to plug that in somewhere and get a list of common aphorisms, signs, buzzwords, etc. that include those words and variations thereof ("haste makes waste," "a mind is a terrible thing to waste," "dukes of hazard," "biohazard", etc). It would be like a list of sayings combined with a thesaurus and a rhyme matcher, but more...
posted by gottabefunky to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

Try Clichesite.com.
posted by GaelFC at 1:31 PM on January 22, 2004

I haven't tried this, but I hung on to it because it intrigued me - phrasefinder supposedly has a subscription service that "generates ideas for headlines, advertising copy, song lyrics, poetry etc." There are some free resources on the site too.
btw, gbf, I like your new site.
posted by madamjujujive at 1:46 PM on January 22, 2004

I think you might find Wordlab useful.
posted by oissubke at 3:19 PM on January 22, 2004

I came into this tread hoping to post a message saying I will physically kill anyone who decides to invent such a thing, only to find out there are three.

*sharpens axe*
posted by Space Coyote at 7:50 PM on January 22, 2004

Gotta concur with Space Coyote. Why you would want to pattern *any* title after the lame clichés, cheap wordplay, and obvious puns that newspapers use, beats me. You're shooting too low.
posted by Mo Nickels at 7:41 AM on January 23, 2004