193 people’s
favourite
funniest
word ever
Over the past week,
I’ve asked everyone
who joined my Write
The Funny course
waitlist to send me
their favourite
funniest word ever.
It started as a bit of
fun, to stop my course
update emails going
into spam.
But it’s become
something pretty
magical.
Some of these words
are silly. Some sound
incredible when you
say them out loud.
Some are dirty. Some
make you do a little
sick in your mouth.
Some people sent me
more than one word.
Rule breakers. I like
that. Some sent me
non-English words.
Some words are
totally made-up.
Some of the words
have little personal
stories with them too.
Or explanations of
why the people think
they’re funny. Those
bits are in quotes at
the bottom.
And here they are,
starting with Daniel
Pedraza’s favourite
funniest word ever
(which also happens to be mine)…
Daniel Pedraza
Bumhole
Virginie Vanluchene
Manhole
“I’ve been in the steel construction business for more than a
decade now, but this word will never not be funny to me.”
Tansy Baxter
Tallywhacker
Rachael Rowatt
Dumpling
Mark Wingerter
Naugahyde
“The funniest word and brand name I ever heard. Mostly
because my dad used it as his wrestler name when he and I
would play-wrestle when I was a little kid. He chose it because
Naugahyde is a fake leather that was as tough as... well, real
leather I guess. And so was he. Fond memory and funny stuff.”
Sachin Bhandary
Bullshit
Nikki Sey
Winkel-Wagon
“The Dutch name for a shopping trolley.”
Iva Vlašimsky
Dipstick
Mark Young
Gobble
Andrew Standeven, Ant Gritton, Julie
Cumming & Lucas Shelton
Kerfuffle
David Waterfall, Lyndsey Yates, Matt
Edgar, Pippa Lain-Smith & Mark
Butterworth
Flange
Mark Stringer
Flange gasket
Jocelynne Rowan
Abergavenny
“Not Averbegenny, or Agerbervenny, or Abervegenny, or
Agerbevenny, or Avergebenny… you know, that Welsh place!”
Beth Satre
Flatulence
Danny Townley
Chippy tits
Simon Mitchinson
Yorktioneer
“Combining Yorkshire and Auctioneer to describe the TV show
The Yorkshire Auction House.”
Helen Cliff
Titter
Ceri Sunu
Niblings
“The collective term for one's nieces and nephews.”
Joel Stein
Dickwad
John McGovern
Mince
“Meaning rubbish or shite here in Scotland. Always makes me
chuckle hearing my team were fucking mince at the weekend,
their heids are fulla mince or some other variation.”
Kim Perry
Knob
Elizabeth Davis
Globule
Michele D'Achille
Fart
Neil van Piggelen
Chungus
“Used to describe something larger than you'd expect it to be.”
Sandra Wickert
Fiddle-faddle
Katy Fletcher
Craig
when pronounced “Creg”
Lee Knapper
Arlarse
“Scouse for mean or unkind.
As in Arrh ey, don’t be an arlarse!”
Jacob Colter
Plop
Anureet Kaur
Frou-frou
Richard Hurdle & Sarah Roberts
Wibble
Réka Vegi
Fufu
Rananda Rich
Forswunk
“While I only just recently saw this word, it tickled me –
including for its (highly appropriate at this time of year)
meaning of exhausted by work. According to the person on
Xitter who posted about it, it comes from the 13th century!”
Jon (not Sarah) Brooks
& Sarah Kerkache
Onomatopoeia
Matt Cascarino
Topeka
“When I was teaching my son the state capitals, I said: If you
had to walk from here to Kansas, you’d probably have a hole in
your sock. And if you looked at it, you’d see toe-peek-a.”
Marijke Verbruggen
Stitious
“Not superstitious. Just a little stitious.”
Michael Rugland
Mezzanine
Judith Rose
Sausage
Vlad Mihanta
Aiurea
“It means elsewhere but in a lost and uncertain way. It’s also
made almost entirely from vowels. The important vowels
(sorry 'o’) and the others we have in Romanian 'ă', 'î', 'â'.”
Neil McLoram
Diphthong
Holly Wake & Jenna Morrissey
Kumquat
Fiona Leake
Dingleberry
Shannagh Calverley
Ballache
“But not pronounced like that. It has to be said like bal-ash in a
very posh accent. What a frightful ballache.”
Ben Leach & Caroline Dowse
Dongle
Alex Thompson
HELMET
(always all-caps)
“An insult. As in: You're a fucking helmet, aren't you.”
Leigh Ann Hubbard
Hot take
“One time, a younger colleague used this phrase (I’m 47; she
was 23) and then started explaining what it meant. She
thought I didn’t understand, ‘cause I’m old. So that’s why it’s
my favourite funny phrase. It’s only funny to me.”
Lara Candido Porter
Lollygagger
Gari Cruze
Lozenge
Liisi Tamra
Vanapagana-
rahapada
“It's a real word in Estonian and means 'old pagan's money pot’.
Ridiculous, I know.”
Katherine Hesketh
Gubbins
Kevin Emmott
Spatchcocking
Breton Towler
Sphincter
Bryn Monk and Robin Lewis
Pantaloons
Ann Richardson, Earl Pilkington
& Sally Bathgate
Bumfuzzle
Hans Alexander Mangen
Attpåklatt
“In Norway we use this to describe children born many years
after their brothers and sisters. Attpå is a rural saying for in
addition, and klatt is probably what you call a blob. In great
contrast to our Danish neighbours who says something
beautiful like afternoon star (Aftenstjerne).”
James Brooks
Squinny
Paul Sykes
Clunkspanner
“In the mid 80s, I worked in a garage as a Saturday boy and
the mechanics would often say, It's a problem with the
clunkspanner. This was typically when they couldn't identify the
problem. Always caused a laugh and it brings back fond
memories of making tea and sweeping the floor for £10 wages.”
Grant Donnelly
Purrpll
“I don't find it funny but my Canadian kids literally pee
themselves when I say it. And make me say it to their friends.”
Catherine Barney
Palaver
“As in: What a palaver!”
Rachel Höfele
Flagitious
Claire Foster
Orangotango
“On a trip to Lisbon Zoo, I found out that the Portuguese word
for Orangutan is Orangotango. It's maybe not the funniest word
ever, but it's not bad.”
Scarlett Chester-Roberts
Guff
“Not only can it mean nonsense, but it's also slang for fart
(and farts are always funny).”
Richard Webb
Testiculating
“Waving your arms about and talking bollocks.”
Laurel Hardgrove
Supercali-
fragilistic
… but not an expialidocious in sight.
James Orr
Platypus
“Platypus is funny in or out of context. What's not funny is their
miss-naming as duck-billed. Ducks, depending on who you
believe, are 25 to 35 million years old, whereas the platypus is
one of the oldest evolutionary species at 133 million years old.
So we should speak only of Platypus-billed ducks.”
Kym Ricketts
Rural
John Sullivan
Double-dammit
“I had a friend in high school hit me with that word 24 years
ago. It’s a funny word because it’s a triple compound word. It
builds interest. It is best shouted. Don't go with the traditional
mn spelling of damn. That's a waste of silent Ns. Ns deserve
to be silent. They've had it coming since hijacking Ks.”
Bryn Monk
Doohickey
Annica Wainwright
Slickepot
“The Swedish word for spatula. I always read it as lick the pot,
which feels like a very accurate description for a spatula,
specifically the bendy rubber kind the Swedish word refers to.”
Karen Woodward
Quite
Phil D
Artificial
Intelligence
“Makes me laugh my ass off every time I hear it and see it out
there.”
Daniel Engel
Debouch
Mel Barfield
Strumpet
Henry Dockerty
Chutney
Tim Flynn
Oxymoron
Dan Sullivan
Hecktigal
“My son has created this word that we’ve all adapted into our
normal life. It’s like radical, obnoxious, or stubborn, but it is
different in that it provokes others to exclaim: What the heck!?
It’s spelled hecktigal, not hecktickle, for obvious reasons.”
Robin Lewis
Squidge
Anna Forgaard
Donkey
Bethan Stone
Sboncen
“A Welsh word that means squash, which is gutting because I
don’t have a lifestyle that means I talk about participating in
sports. It technically can’t be used for orange squash. But does
that stop me calling it ‘sboncen oren’? Absolutely not.”
Yvie Armstrong & Trilce Ruiz
Bamboozle
Peter Barnes
Collop
Angelica Gottlieb
Hippopotomon-
strosesquipp-
edaliophobia
“The fear of long words. Still cracks me up.”
Matt Hearnden, Roger McGrath
& Sylvia Ranee
Nincompoop
Naomi Aerts
Nincompoopery
Nicola Dunseith
Eejit
Ucha Vekua
Cyclical
Julia Cameron
Stinky
Kit Garrett
Phalange
Joel Chudleigh
Collywobbles
Katie Mitten
Fandangle
Jane Smith
Ghoul
“Say it four times with your eyes closed while boiling a magnet
and tell me you don't agree.”
Kate Horsington
Snackish
“When you didn't buy any snacks at the shop because you told
yourself your need to stop snacking but now you feel
snackish.”
Ellen Jackson
Dudelsack
“The German word for bagpipes.”
Adrian Sandy
Bonk
Portia Persio
Infingardo
“An Italian term which can be translated as lazy, sloth,
shiftless, good-for-nothing, freeloader people who couldn’t be
arsed to do anything, because someone else is going to do it
for them, like the Royals, or post-capitalism capitalists.”
Avigail Ganchrow
Trousers
Matthew Upton
Ridonkulous
Helen Banyard
Ilk
Martin Dickson
Gobin
Nick Crawford
Discombobulate
Luiza Popa, Natalie Simm, Sally Antilles
& Alison Hart
Discombobulated
Jodie Newman
Discombobulation
Charlotte Wilson
Higgledy-
piggledy
Rushav J. & Trine Bloor
Flabbergasted
Fran Benoist-Eatwell
Monsieur Bing
“Not a funny word as such, but some Mr Men names
in other languages are . Monsieur Bing in France is
my fave (Mr Bounce).”
Anne Galliot
Concupiscence
Bhairavi Parikh
Meow meow
Lindsey Russell
FinifugaI
Bianca Coleborn
Booger
Mathieu Gomez
Connoisseur
Tom Gilhuley
Turd
Tim Deane
Obsequious
Samantha Watkins
Polyglot
Tamar Beck
Ninja
Ellen Jackson
Kagool
Lorraine Hannah
Brolly
Tom Render
Guggenheim
“As in: Go shove it up your Guggenheimer.”
Kacie Axsom
Britches
Steven Horn
Diversionality
Matthew Thomson
Shouldn't've
Patrik Bergquist
Constipation
Jonathan Griffiths
Binfluencer
“Someone who sets the trend on the street around which
colour bin needs to go out each week.”
Mark Pearce
Poppycock
Alison Kerevan
Bottom
“When said by a Minion, it always makes me laugh.”
Magnus Pedersen
Impfpflicht
“The German finesse of creating a 10-letter word meaning
compulsory vaccination, with only two vowels.”
Taina Pemberton
Kalsarikännit
“The Finnish tradition of drinking alcohol at home in your
underwear, with no intention of going out.”
April Boulton, Claire Pocock, Emma
Wiltshire, Jo Carter, Liselle Barnsley &
Nikki Pilkington
Cockwomble
Christopher Croft
Schadenfreude
Adam Hencz & Jo Martin
Gobbledygook
Lani Edwards
Illiterate
“But only when it’s spelt wrong.”
Rafał Kruczek
Belter
Tom Smith
Unbefuddledly
Ben Whitaker
Crab Market
“My 14-year-old daughter regularly gets words wrong. She
thought there was a crab market in Fuerteventura and asked
whether they’d survive the plane home. It was a craft market.”
Ben McKinney
Bobbins
Mark McDonough
Crevice
Amy Wright & Matt Drzymała
Flaps
Len Keenan
Laughter
Nikita Roy & Selina Griffin
Shenanigans
Stefanie Mellano & Tom Plumb
Bollocks
Jennifer Hawthorne
Lugubrious
Danusia Ro
Nextly
Sarah Bryer
Bollard
Karen Espley, Ed Toll, Michelle Benson,
Naman Khanna, Nathalie Todd & Rolf
Rhodes
Moist
Ben Levy
Bungalow
Kat Sale
Gumph
Tamsin Alli-Balogun
Bumf
Sal Thomas
Brouhaha
Lorna Smart
Gusset
Valeria Rossi
Curlicue
Mary Cameron
Spatula
Emma Colburn
Blancmange
Louise Holmes
Mucus
Danny Verbov
Splat
Craig Clarke
Rompecabeza
“My favourite Spanish word, which means puzzle but sounds
like getting a braining.”
Annette Sharp, Nick Carson
& Phil Harvey
Piffle
John Hawker
Curmudgeonly
Rafferty Nunn
Antidisestab-
lishmentari-
anism
And finally, the best
possible way to end
a list like this…
Gemma Goode
Toodlepip
Wanna learn how
to write funny?
I’ll teach you how…
I’ll walk you through
everything I know
from 20 years of
writing funny stuff
for the world’s
biggest brands (and
loads of startups).
This course is not
about writing jokes.
It is not about the
psychology of
humour. And you
do not need to
be a comedian.
Nor will you have to
pay full price if you
join the waitlist
right now.
1,117 people are
already signed up.
Click the link in
the main post.
thewordman.co.uk/course
