# 56 worst/best analogies of high school students **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 17, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684 "2011-02-17T08:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/1 "2011-02-17T08:07:49Z")
Not sure if this has been posted before, but I laughed out loud at this. [56 worst/best analogies of high school students](http://www.losteyeball.com/index.php/2007/06/19/56-worstbest-analogies-of-high-school-students/) My favorite is this. > [@](#): > > 1. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM. ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/2 "2011-02-17T08:10:06Z")
I find this list as funny as a list of things that amuse me. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/3 "2011-02-17T09:25:27Z")
They’re very amusing, but they’re actually not from students. They’re from two contests that the Washington Post had, one in [1995](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031600802.html), and one in [1999](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031600738.html). My favorite’s #27 on the list: > [@](#): > > The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/4 "2011-02-17T11:18:23Z")
Hilarious! Although I don’t believe that some could have been genuinely and innocently writen by contemporary students, like the 16 about freight trains, or others that just are too clever like : > [@](#): > > 22.He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/5 "2011-02-17T12:17:02Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Hilarious! > > Although I don’t believe that some could have been genuinely and innocently writen by contemporary students, like the 16 about freight trains, or others that just are too clever like : You’d be surprised what a bored student can come up with, now or ever. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/6 "2011-02-17T13:17:23Z")
Given how many times those lists (which, once again, are written by adults, not by students) have been posted to numerous message boards and websites and circulated in vast amounts of E-mail, it’s too bad that _The Washington Post_ never decided to publish a book of Style Invitational winners for their various contests. (The Style Invitational is the name of the weekly contest that the paper runs. Each week they ask for something different, although a few things, like the analogies, have appeared more than once.) More people have read and laughed at them than have watched most TV comedy sketches, and at least the writers of those sketches were paid once when the sketch first showed on TV, even if the sketches were then posted to YouTube and then went viral. The writers of the analogies have never been paid for them. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/7 "2011-02-17T13:58:38Z")
28 Almost worked: 1. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while. Should have been: 1. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for way too long. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/8 "2011-02-17T15:15:51Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > 28 Almost worked: > > 1. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while. > > Should have been: > > 1. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for way too long. The original version is much “better”. The point is that it doesn’t add anything to the description. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/9 "2011-02-17T18:49:09Z")
I am disappointed to hear that these were written by adults responding to a contest instead of school children, as if I had been told that a recording was actually by Katy Perry instead of Lassie. My favorite was: Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “Second Tall Man.” But now my enjoyment is ruined, because that is simply a brilliant analogy. Darn it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/10 "2011-02-17T18:56:16Z")
A lot of those are great. This one reminds me of something out of Terry Pratchett: > [@](#): > > 1. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t. Many of them wouldn’t be out of place in a Jack Handy list of Deep Thoughts. I laughed out loud at the brother-in-law one. ---
**Author:** ![Ura-Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Ura-Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ura-Maru)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/11 "2011-02-17T19:05:19Z")
The bowling ball one is suspiciously similar to one of Douglass Adam’s lines, “\ hung in the air in exactly the same way bricks don’t” – Given the subject matter, refraining from cleverness is in itself an act of supreme irony. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/12 "2011-02-17T19:18:50Z")
That one made me think of Adams too; not only the Vogon ship line but also his “beverage that tasted almost, but not entirely, unlike tea.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/13 "2011-02-17T20:53:27Z")
Shit I don’t know if I can read this at work. I’ve only read three and I’m already having trouble containing my laughter. ---
**Author:** ![Pops1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9de053/32.png) [@Pops1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pops1963)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/14 "2011-02-22T00:14:28Z")
Those were as funny as something really funny. Especially #44 woo woo woo ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/15 "2011-02-22T02:28:24Z")
[Geschpooklichkeit.](http://philip.greenspun.com/humor/analogies) Heh. (2nd runner-up.) ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/56-worst-best-analogies-of-high-school-students/571684/16 "2011-02-22T03:44:55Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > They’re very amusing, but they’re actually not from students. They’re from two contests that the Washington Post had, one in [1995](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031600802.html), and one in [1999](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031600738.html). My favorite’s #27 on the list: That’s my favorite, too.