In case you missed it, the super secret new side-project has finally gone live.
Nick and I have wanted to do this for a few years. I registered the domain recently and we quietly hacked an instance of WordPress in our spare time last week to get something usable in place. Today, shewentofherownaccord.com is a modest but fast-growing user contributed collection of jokes. Specifically, and this is important, jokes in the following form:
My wife’s gone to the Caribbean.
Jamaica?
No, she went of her own accord.
There are as many of these jokes as there are place names and the imagination to create (sometimes quite convoluted) puns with them. The 1st line is a setup, 2nd line is a place-pun, 3rd line is a retort. It’s all about respecting the constraints of the form, in the same way that Haiku are more beautiful because of the constraints, not despite them.
My favourite feature – and I can say this with full modesty because, as with most of the interesting features, Nick added it – is the master map.
In the four days since we quietly launched the site it has already grown from 24 to 62 jokes meaning that we’ve already reached a stage where user contributions outnumber our own. Some of them are really funny too (someone calling himself Gruff has been responsible for some of my favourites so far).
There’s lots of work still to do but if you’re inspired to add your own or want to find out more then come join us. It’s already a lot of fun.
nice site, well done, the layout is pretty lean and appealing.
I always assumed these kind of silly jokes only existed in Germany … might franchise your concept and provide a german site …
I believe the original “My wife’s gone to the Caribbean” joke comes from P G Wodehouse. At least it appears on the second page of his 1948 novel Uncle Dynamite, which is not where you put a joke you’ve borrowed from someone.
(“Yes, my dear wife, I am glad to say, continues in the pink. I’ve just been seeing her off on the boat in Southampton. She is taking a trip to the West Indies.”
“Jamaica?”
“No, she went of her own free will.”)
Now that‘s interesting. Thanks James.
This in one of the daftest things I seen for ages… Brilliant :-)