Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Dear Would-Be Ballerina (Limerick)

Sunday, February 7th, 2016

Just in time for Ballet Day (Feb. 7):

Please forget the ballet! There’s no place
On the stage for a gal lacking grace.
All your leaps and pliés
Are debasing displays.
So shoo! You’re a huge waste of space!

Ambitious Techie (Limerick)

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Happy National Cookie Day, December 4th.

Ambitious Techie (Limerick)
By Madeleine Begun Kane

A techie served cookies malicious
To his team members. Talk about vicious!
A promotion he chased.
He was fired post-haste—
Just deserts for a guy so ambitious. 

Just In Time For Father’s Day

Saturday, June 18th, 2011

Father’s Day Limerick
By Madeleine Begun Kane

“Do not argue with me,” said the dad
To his son, who was making him mad.
“You are too disputatious,
Your point is fallacious,
And…” “Huh?” said the four-year-old lad.

Sorry To Be So Quiet

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Yes, I’ve been very bad about posting lately.  Okay … delinquent.  But I promise I’ll get back to my limerick and haiku business very soon.

In the meantime, I have managed a couple of political humor posts on my other blog.  If you stop by, you’ll find my John McCain song parody and my John Edwards limerick.

Hey, I may be a liberal, but who can resist poking fun at John Edwards these days?

Versifying About Satire & Law On My Other Blog

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

I’ve written a couple of posts & poems on my political humor blog that readers of this blog might find interesting.

The first is about New Yorker Magazine’s Barack Obama cover controversy.  My poem about the challenges of creating satire begins:

A Humorist’s Lament
Madeleine Begun Kane

A humorist like me sure knows
How tough it is to write, compose,
And sketch satiric toons and prose
And poems.  It’s not without its woes.

For instance, Barry Blitt’s lampoon,
New Yorker’s well-intentioned toon, …

The other is about a federal judge who lambasted plaintiff’s lawyer via judicial limerick.

Humor Carnival Coming Soon to These Pages: Launch Date – April Fools Day

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

I’ve been wanting to launch a Humor Carnival for a long time but, until now, procrastination has gotten the better of me.  At long last, however, I’ve arisen from my torpor and, in theory at least, the first issue will appear on April 1st.  

So what’s a humor carnival? You can find some info here on my Humor Carnival page.  Basically, it will consist of the funniest posts submitted to me and may also include some laugh-out-loud humor that I find on my own.

Any topic is fine and any type of humor is fine (satirical columns, funny lists, limericks, fake news stories, cartoons, etc.) so long as it makes me laugh out loud or giggle uncontrollably.

The carnival will appear here in regular intervals.  I’m hoping every two weeks, but its frequency will depend on how much really funny stuff I get. So please send your funny material my way.

Friday Five Fun — The Eccentric Pianist

Friday, December 7th, 2007

This week’s Friday Five asks us to use these five words in a poem or story: mustard, piano, elastic, moat, and notorious.  As you can see, it set me off in a rather silly direction:

The Eccentric Pianist
By Madeleine Begun Kane

The notoriously eccentric pianist
Played electric stride piano
With an elastic reach worthy of Fats Waller
While perched on the deck of his moat-surrounded castle,
Then dined on a meal of mustard sandwiches.

For a post and limerick about a real (and not-nearly-so-eccentric) stride pianist, check out my Ode To Judy Carmichael.

(You can find more of my music humor here.)

Fun With Three Word Wednesday

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

I’ve decided to join in on the fun over at this week’s 3 Word Wednesday. Here’s how it works:

Welcome to Three Word Wednesday. Each week, I will post three (or more) words. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write something using all of those words. It can be a few lines, a story, a poem, anything.

This week’s three words are Field, Hide, and Second.  They inspired me to write both a limerick and a haiku.  Here’s my limerick:

Bridling At A Question
By Madeleine Begun Kane 

At his question, I’m fit to be tied
Cuz it comes from left field.  I must hide!
He can see I might flee.
“Just a second,” says he.
“I am begging you. Please be my bride!”

And here’s my haiku:

Though I want to hide,
If only for a second,
I field her question.

Last week’s words were Initial, Knock, and Weather, for which I wrote this serious haiku:

How do they weather
that initial door knock with
news: “Your loved one’s dead.”

The Definitive Bad Date

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

The Definitive Bad Date (Limerick)
By Madeleine Begun Kane

A salty young gal is enraged
When she learns that her date is engaged,
So she curses the fellow—
Spews hate with a bellow,
Then shoots. Guess her anger ain’t staged.

NOTE: This limerick was loosely inspired by the inaugural edition of Totally Optional Prompts, which is an outgrowth of the late, lamented Poetry Thursday.

(You can find more of my dating humor here.)

4Comedy.com Is A Content Thief (Another Update)

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

4Comedy.com keeps publishing my blog posts without permission and ignores my requests (via attempted comment posts) to remove my material  and stop stealing my humor posts.  Right now dozens of my posts are at that site, mostly in a section labeled Limericks. 

Perhaps this will get 4Comedy.com’s attention.  STOP STEALING MY HUMOR POSTS AND REMOVE MY POSTS FROM YOUR SITE! 

UPDATE: Ha! Ha! Ha!  The thieves even stole this post!!!  Their theft is clearly automated:  Here’s their repoduced copy of this post: http://4comedy.com/?p=463  (I’m deliberately not linking to them, so you’ll have to copy/paste to see it.)

I wonder if an actual person will notice it and remove it.

UPDATE 2: My updated  post appeared on 4comedy.com as a second post.  Does that mean that this second update will trigger a third post there? Stand by and I’ll report back.

UPDATE 3: So far, this post hasn’t been stolen for a third time.  Is 4comedy.com’s bot slacking off?  Human intervention, perhaps?  I don’t think so, because the first two versions are still on 4comedy.com’s front page.  Surely a human would notice and remove posts accusing the site of stealing content.  Stay tuned for further reports about 4comedy.com’s copyright infringement of my posts.

Print Appearance Alert

Monday, April 9th, 2007

Attention fans of Good Housekeeping’s Quick & Simple: I have a humor column in its current print issue (the Special Double Issue dated April 24, 2007).  It’s on the last page — the Smile! column — and the title is How To Read The Want Ads.

Linky Love

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

Some links, for your reading (and viewing) pleasure:
* Very Funny Classical Music Humor YouTube Video — Rachmaninov Had Big Hands
* Nixon Announces Comeback, To Regain Title As ‘Most Corrupt President’

Humor Anthology News

Monday, March 19th, 2007

Good news!  I’ve just sold two limericks and one haiku to the upcoming political humor anthology, Jest Patriotic (Let There Be Laughter Series)Hack This LimerickRunning From Mistakes; and Torture Bill Haiku.

So, who says crime … uh, I mean poetry … doesn’t pay? 

The political humor anthology’s due out in May, but their money humor anthology Cash In On Laughter is already out. And I’m pleased to say that two of my money humor columns appear in that anthology, as well.  

Linky Love

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

And now some links, for your reading pleasure:
* Dems ‘Embrace’ Brits’ Pullout, Seek To Revoke Declaration Of Independence

Linky Love

Thursday, October 19th, 2006

For your reading pleasure:
Amusing TV reviews by Ken Levine
Carnival of Animals

Linky Love

Monday, September 25th, 2006

Before I get to my Linky Love, I can’t resist mentioning that I also have a political humor blog which has recently moved here.

And now, for your reading pleasure:
Carnival of the Insanities

Linky Love (Updated)

Monday, September 18th, 2006

For your reading pleasure:
Carnival of Education
Right-Wingers Rip Off Lennon’s Imagine (Don Davis Song Parody)

Carnival of Linky Love

Monday, August 28th, 2006

In my quest to avoid utter obscurity, I’ve been doing the rounds of sundry Carnivals. So check out the latest editions of these Carnivals:
Carnival of Comedy #68
Carnival of Real Estate
Carnival of the Liberals (Parody Edition)
Carnival of Cars
Story Blogging Carnival.

Why Another Blog?

Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

There are roughly 7 zillion blogs out there already, so why another? And more to the point, why another blog written by me?

My long-standing blog, Mad Kane’s Notables, is primarily about politics — political satire, left leaning song parodies, etc.  But I do like to write humor about non-political  topics, as well.  Hence this spanking new weblog.