The ‘Overwritten Lead Of The Moment’ Competition Is Over

Every once in a while I single out some local (or national) story as the Overwritten Lead of the Moment, which is sort of a nice way of saying “the bad lead of the moment.” (Well, no. Going back through the archives, some of them are more weird or silly than bad. But most of them are bad.)

Now, I’m not one to shy away from a bad lead. Hell, I’ve written a ton of them myself. (I am a little embarassed at this one, though. But it was like the sixth story I ever wrote.) And I love overwritten leads. They turn otherwise perfectly normal stories into unintentionally funny goldmines.

Unfortunately, the contest is now over. We will never see a lead as good as this again, by Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen:

First, let me state my credentials: I am a funny guy. This is well known in certain circles, which is why, even back in elementary school, I was sometimes asked by the teacher to “say something funny” — as if the deed could be done on demand. This, anyway, is my standing for stating that Stephen Colbert was not funny at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

I had a long-ish conversation the other day about the whole Stephen Colbert-at-the-White House Correspondents dinner, and my feeling was that he was a liberal comedian hired to make jokes, and he did such at the dinner. I thought it was pretty funny (not gut-busting funny, but not bad) and I thought it was weird that some media outlets didn’t mention it in their recaps of the event (not conspiracy weird, more baffling I guess) and I thought it was a great PR move for him. And I also thought that last sentence might’ve been a run-on.

I don’t really think it was “courageous” per se, but I suppose it had some balls, and the whole “Thank You Stephen Colbert” petition thing is a little weird, yadda yadda yadda.

But now, his speech is directly responsible for this lead, and I must say: Stephen Colbert is an American hero. Thank you, Stephen Colbert.

So not Funny [Washington Post via Wonkette]
Koch paces W. X-C at districts [Daily Pennsylvanian]
Archives: Overwritten Lead of the Moment