So here we have it: My Top 10 Bloopers.
Before I start I would like to say that I have made some right corkers in my time. For example, on my first intro at the Derby Evening Telegraph I wrote:
Choir Leader Anne Smith is desperate for more male members to add a little cheer to her Christmas celebrationsFortunately I had a very amused sub to save me from the embarrassment of that going in the paper.
So. Here goes:
1) It's a classic. I thought that by now all subs would be very wary of putting the words 'Blow' and 'Job' in close proximity but that's what happened on the Oxford Mail.
I know, I know. The kicker's in bold and there's a colon in between but still.....
2) The Juxtaposition is a funny beast and tricky to manage when advertising and editorial departments don't talk as much as they should.
But putting the words 'Don't bury your head' next to the picture of a mother describing the horror of hearing that her only son had been decapitated caused the Derby Evening Telegraph red-faces all round. I was on the early shift that day and had 35 complaints in the first 15 minutes!
3) What are Ant and Dec up to?
One from the Express this time. Difficult to see what happened here but a bit of rooting around on Google finds the claim that they changed 'Can Dec finally match Ant?' to 'Can Dec at last match Ant?' but forgot to update the right-hand page before sending to print!
4) I knew she was odd but WTF? Here, in the sadly departed London Lite, we see Amy Winehouse heading out on the town. But what's that she's holding? A severed hand. Eeek. Odd - even for her.
Note to sub - step away from the Photoshop.5) Mary, Mary quite contrary. If this man is homeless, how was he attacked in his own home? Someone was half-asleep on this one.
6) Quite possibly the best smutty headline of all time. I mean, I know what the Gloucestershire Echo sub is trying to say. But extra services offered by girls at Cheltenham Ladies College caused quite a stir on Twitter last year.
7) This one from the Ludlow Journal only makes sense when you look at the keyboard and realise that I is next to O, and K is next to L but I doubt Tony Fuller was best pleased when he read this caption and saw he had been renamed Tiny Fukker.
8) What year is it again? This piece in the i was a very insightful column about the improvement in the Tour de France this year. Unfortunately the sub appears to be looking to the future.
9) My word that Kendra is dirty. The model and reality TV star released a candid autobiography but the Daily Mail seems to have got confused between its wrestling metaphor (no holds barred) and its pornography metaphor (no holes barred). Still, maybe this wasn't a mistake...
10) Back to Leveson again and if the good Lord (Leveson that is, not the big imaginary fella up in the clouds) isn't careful, this kicker will represent how every feels about the media for all eternity.
I am fairly certain that the Daily Mail was referring to the media scrum at the Amanda Knox trial or perhaps labeling their colleagues media scum was another dig at Desmond?
Hope you've enjoyed - feel free to use the comments to direct us to your own favourites.
I can't claim credit for all the above. Some I have spotted, some were spotted by HoldTheFrontPage and some came to me via Twitter.
