May/June 2024 Limerick Laughs Winner and Runners-up

Said a boy as he looked from a train,
“I’ve been told that we’re crossing a plain.
The word plain is not right
’Cause there’s stuff in plain sight,
So I think they should name it again.”

Congratulations to Bob Turvey of Bristol, England, who won $25 for his limerick describing George Hughes’s cover illustration from our July 24, 1954, issue.

If you’d like to enter the Limerick Laughs Contest for our upcoming issue, submit your limerick via our online entry form.

Here are some more great limerick entries from this contest, in no particular order:

There was a young fella named Ned
Who traveled asleep in his bed.
When at dawn he awoke
And saw a cowpoke,
He thought it was all in his head
—Marcia Gunnett Woodard, Swayzee, Indiana

“The rustlers are coming!” cried Bob,
For he knew there would soon be a mob
Of bad guys who’d battle,
And stampede the cattle.
This was no time to sleep on the job!
—Sjaan VandenBroeder, Stockton, California

He wrote on a small piece of paper
“Evil Cowboy” and “Copper Escaper,”
Which he placed in a folder
Called “Jobs When I’m Older”
Next to “Ninja” and “Bubble Gum Shaper.”
—Gennadiy Gurariy, Athens, Ohio

With a red, rosy glow to his cheeks,
Butch dreams of the life that he seeks:
To be roaming the land
As a budding cowhand
And not washing for days, maybe weeks.
—Stuart Ritchings, Ipswich, England

TV Westerns are nifty to me.
Real life ain’t what I want to see.
So I look at this sight
Like it’s blurred black and white,
Then it’s almost as good as TV!
—Justin O’Connor, Leeds, Massachusetts

The compartment, I know, is a mess.
So I’m sorry and gotta confess.
I’ve been looking at cows
And a cowboy, but now’s
The time that I shower and dress.
—Rudy Landesman, New York City, New York

The bed on this train is the best.
This boy had a comfy night’s rest.
The sight that he’s seeing
Has him believing
He really is now “way out West”!
—Betty Mead, St. Joseph, Missouri

We’re in Kansas — sing “Home on the Range,”
Where the buffalo mostly have mange.
Where the old antelope
Are all pre-saddle soap
And the deer are genetic’ly strange.
—Doug Harris, Stockton-on-Tees, England

A review of my trip I’ll provide:
3 stars for the general ride,
But the afternoon show
Gets a 5+, you know,
And to think it was all performed live!
—Lynda Hacker Araoz, Valatie, New York