Humor is subjective. You know it. We know it. What makes Polly pee in her pants laughing may do nothing for Penelope.

Shoebox has its own humor thing going and even the Shoebox writers and illustrators have stacks (drawers) of not-so-quites and no-ways. And apparently our pastime of laughing at ourselves is shared by others out there -- others who enjoy laughing at what we made that never made it into a card.

Actually, only about 20% of what gets turned in gets accepted and becomes a Shoebox card. On the Shoebox blog, they feature the other 80%.

Go check out some of the funny going on over there. You might get a chuckle. Or two.

Oh and they've even made a couple of videos celebrating that other 80%. Check it: Funny, But No #1,  Valentine's Day, St. Pat's, and even Christmas.

Stinkers of the World, Unite!

A fun, new mini-contest's here--
these critters need your votes!
What stinker hearts are beating
'neath the feathers and fur coats?

Do we see a bit of mischief
in that pooch's twinkly gaze?
Will that birdie ruffle feathers
as it squawks and talks and plays?

A horse, of course, can show
a bit of feisty spunk and spirit.
And pigs and cats with attitude
will really let you hear it.

Hamsters look so innocent,
but they're stinkers while we snooze,
And the antics of somebunnies
make the Stinker Daily News.

So look through all the finalists--
Which one will get the cash?
We'll find a stinker champion…
Or my name's not Blogden Nash.

Awwww, Lila. Thanks.

Lila wants to thank Hallmark for her check and finalist flat. She already has the flat framed and ready to hang! Thanks so much to all of you for creating such fun!"Julie Beierschmitt
Enid, OK

P.S. from Judgy: If any other critters want to pose with their prizes and share, we'd sure enjoy seeing them. Also, has anyone else framed their flat? We were hoping that would be something you'd all enjoy. (And we are tickled that Lila did!)

P.P.S. Funny*ness Finalsits: You, too, will be receiving your very own, one-of-a-kind flats of your cards. Sit tight. We only have so many elves working on this. :)

Runners-Up Gallery

Didja see the brand spankin' new gallery of Funny*ness runners-up? Didja? Didja?

http://www.hallmarkcontests.com/funnyvote/index.cfm?step=runnerup

Funny, huh? Boy, oh boy, what a tough job those judges had!

Which runner-up tickles your funny bone??

Mini Contest Winner and...

Nancy and Jasmine sitting in a tree,

W- I - N - N - I - N - G!

Next Monday come back and see
Who the biggest stinker should be.

avatar, here we are.

thanks to my little elf, i now have an avatar. looks just like me.

thanks, little elf.

in other news, any day now, expect to see some more funny on the site. alternate funny. funny that almost-nearly-just-about-made-it-to-the-top-18 pool of funny.

p.s. also, we are wanting to give you hints about the next contest, but we are not allowed to yet. (partly because we are still figuring bits of it out.)

One Dedicated Finalist

Thought you all might find this as charming as we did: In order to solidify their spot as a finalist, one of our finalists-to-be needed to get a release for a picture they took. No big deal, right? Wrong.

They took said picture a few YEARS ago, on vacation, at random, about three hours away from their house.

So, when our contest administrator called them and told them they needed the release signed within three days to qualify, this scrappy finalist found a way to hop in their car, drive the 3 hours and hunt down the person from whom they needed the release. True story. But it's not over yet.

The person from whom they needed a release could only be reached through a non-English speaker, by the English speaking finalist. So confusion (and a little mayhem) ensued until the (English speaking) release signer could be located.

Whew. And located they were. And a finalist they are.

That, my friends, is dedication. Right on, I say. Right on.

Best of luck to ALL the finalists - in both competitions. Looking forward to seeing all your smiling faces in our Hallmark stores all summer!! :)

Something Funny?

Okay, friends. Judgy is back in the house. And the house smells a little funny. Let's talk.

Remember the "hanging chads"? Or the zillion other voting dilemmas we have seen in politics and pop culture over the years? I sure do. And now I get how difficult it is to make sure everyone plays nice more than I ever did before.

Here's the thing, we are a small team within Hallmark (small but mighty, we like to think) working on these competitions. We are crazy passionate about them and about enabling all of you to get your creative voices heard and seen on greeting cards. Seriously. It's true: We love making cards and we absolutely love that YOU love to make them, too.

No one wants the bad kind of funniness going on in our voting. And believe me, it is taking some time, but we are ferreting out any bad funny to make sure only the solid, legit, we-love-to-play-nice votes stay in the running. It is our belief that this will be solved in the next few days and that you will see some changes in the current rankings of the finalists as a result.

Please be patient and give us some time on this. We're working hard (really really hard) to make sure everything is right. But it does take time and like I say, we are a small (but mighty) team.

Oh and just so you know, part of the judging process has always been (and will continue to be) that the judges do not see the names of any of the contestants until their card ideas are chosen as finalists. This means that if anyone was chosen twice, it was because their idea(s) were solid, "sendable," theme-appropriate greetings that all the judges agreed was tops. ("Sendable" is tricky. There were ones that had us peeing in our pants, they were so funny. But not necessarily something more than a few people would send, which in Shoebox parlance is called "funny, but no.") (See their blog for examples.)

Lastly, we also like the idea of showing the alternates and runner-ups. We're looking into the best way we might do it. We'll get back to you on that. Soon.

Okay. Go vote with confidence: Look for your kind of funny (and your favorite pet card). And make that funny (and that pet) win.

The new finalists are here! The new finalists are here!

Photos, illustrations, collages, lettering…and (oh my sides) really great jokes. These people did it all. And they did it all funny-like.

To paraphrase a certain reality show judge, "Check it out, check it out, dawg. These cards are hot." Check it, y’all. Pick your favorites. Get to know these folks and their fantastic work. And start voting!

In the days/weeks ahead, you'll be seeing guest blogs written by the finalists in our contests - we'll give it a go with Pets first. YOU'LL get a peek into their creative processes (please knock first) and THEY'LL get a chance to beg for votes, um, I mean introduce themselves a bit and promote their work!

Check back every day to vote and look around. We keep getting new ideas (many inspired by you and the rockin' feeback you're providing right here on this here blog) and so far nobody's telling us we can't do them so keep 'em comin'! We've got something special up our sleeves for the alternates so be sure to come back and check that out.

Congratulations to the finalists and alternates and to every one of you who had the spunk to bring the funny!

Blogden Nash

Judging the Funny

Okay, dear funny-makers. I am happy to report that the 18 finalists have...been...chosen.

Here is the wall of the top 50 and the open spots for the 18 finalists. We are very fancy.

On the final finalist judging day, we - funny experts of funniness at Hallmark + our celebrity judges - reviewed the top 50 and each created our own personal dream 18.

None of our groups matched. We all had different ideas of what is funny. Only ONE card idea was picked by everybody. Funny is like that...funny.

So, to fill those 18 spots, we had to duke it out. Convince each other. Trick each other. Bribe each other. (Kidding. There was no funny business.) (I mean, of course there was funny business, but only in the most literal sense.)

If you are one of the finalists, or one of the alternates, we congratulate you. And salute you. And want to give you props for bringing the funny.

If you were not selected this time around, do not dismay. There will be other competitions. And other chances to be funny. (You could be funny right now!)

All will be revealed on Monday. So, hang tight, keep rhyming and goofing around here or wherever you like to do that sort of thing. You all are cracking us up.

Voting Matters

Well, we’ve been sniffing away, and, unfortunately, we’ve found some funny stuff. Our legal minds are telling us we can’t be too detailed, but we have tied specific activity to specific people voting and we are very disappointed. And, we have taken action.

Once again, we will be removing any duplicative (see, told you we had to get our legal folks involved) votes that appear to violate the one vote per person per day rule.

As you can imagine, we are passionate about the integrity of this contest. If this final warning is not heeded, we will take much stronger action. So….consider yourselves warned and in the interest of fairness (not to mention Karma), remember: one vote, per person, per day. This means no multiple email accounts (ie home, work, newly created, your pet... etc.).

Ok, phew, that's enough on that. Let's get back to the fun stuff. Who's going to come up with the next poem? Here's a topic... Guess the celebrity judges for YourFunny*ness! (And no, it doesn't HAVE to be a poem!)

Prize Packet Pyramid

Once all of the YourPets finalist packets were finally assembled, Edison did a final inspection.

Everything smelled right, so off they were sent.

Thanks, Edison.

A Poem Just for You

One, two, three judges I see.
You cannot know their identities.

Judging away most of the day,
But they don't have the final say.

It was hard work, yes it's true,
Narrowing down Funny*ness for you.

That was the start, sorting through art,
Next is the really fun part.

Finalists will be shown.
Some entrants may groan,
And even computers might be thrown.

But don't be sad, we'll soon be back
With another contest for you to attack.

Much Love,

Judgy's Little Elf
.

prize packets sent!

As part of the prize packet for the YourPets finalists, we are sending each person their own "flat" from the production work we did to turn their design into a real live card. We stamped them, signed them and sent them off to the Finalists with their prize money just the other day.

We think the flats are pretty fun to see. And really, are one-of-a-kind. Anyone in the country will be able to buy one of the Finalists' cards once they're printed, but only the Finalists themselves will have a copy of their pre-production flat.

If it were me who won, I'd frame it and smile each time I (or my pet) saw it. But then again, I'm a sucker for things like this.

Guess that's why I work here.

Judgy

Ranking the Funny

One "Bowling Alley". Three Judges. Lots and lots of funny card ideas.
The mission? Pick 50 ideas and rank them in order of funny.
It's a tough job, but hey...you're worth it.

Rats.

The contest is now closed.
You are late. We are sad.

Sit tight. Juding is starting.
Voting will be next.

And maybe a surprise or two.

(Hint hint - check out the Pets
page today.)

Have you shared your Funny yet? Hmmmmm???

Lately we're thinking a lot about "funny" and about how we know there are more of you out there who have a just-for-the-heck-uv-it hilarious card ideas out there.

(Did you funny people know that our deadline is THIS Sunday? Get cracking, procrastinators. The clock is ticking.) (Hear it?)

Go. Now. Inject some of your own brand of funniness into this world.

You know it'd be fun to share your funny. Think about it.

Judgy

Funny or No?

So, we judges have started digging in to your submissions and are *usually* laughing when we should. The humor nut is a tough one to crack, that's for sure (ask any of our veteran Shoebox writers or artists who have their own personal, very large collections of "no's"). (Actually, they did a whole chapter on that in their book last year and go on and on about it on their blog.)

And serious about humor though we may be, there was at least once when we couldn't help but lose it because of your funnyness. Hilarious. Thank you.

If you have been waiting until the last minute to submit your funny, just remember to restrict that funny to "just for fun" card ideas -- that means no birthdays and no holidays, just a joke ready to send in a card for a laugh.

You've just got until the end of this week, until SUNDAY night 11:59 CST to be exact, to submit YourFunny*ness to us.

Enjoy the funny. Be the funny. Live the funny.

(Good luck! We hope you win.)

Flats & Funny

How does a finalist card idea become a real card in the store? Anyone curious?

Before we even think of sending anything to print, everything we create must go through rounds of proofreading and be put into a fancy computer design program that makes sure it'll all look good once the ink hits the paper at our factory.

What you see over there on the right is a "flat"... all of the YourPets finalist designs should be through this process by the end of the day today, ready to be shipped off to print!

Speaking of printing, if YOU want an idea of yours to be printed (with your face and story on the back) (and sold in stores all around the country), join in the YourFunny*ness competition. (Funny Cards sent for no reason - just to make someone laugh.)

There are only nine days left! Have a funny photo? A funny drawing? A funny joke you can make into a card? (My mom was on one years ago and I can tell you that it was a big deal for her, for me and for everyone we know.)

Hurry up and GET FUNNY. (It's fun to be funny.) (And good for you, too.)

Are you smarter than a YourPets Blogger?

Try your brain at these trivia questions and see.

1. Photos of how many different species were entered in the contest?
a) 10 b) 12 c) 16 d) 20

Correct answer: a. While there were only ten different species, you all get diversity points for the bizarre breeds and hybrids!


2. Which one of these non-dog and non-cat species was NOT entered in the contest?
___Rabbit
___Turtle
___Horse
___Pig
___Hamster
___Boa Constrictor
___Chinchilla
___Guinea Pig
___Parrot

Correct answer: Boa constrictor. Though we hear they can be verrry snuggly. (All those other critters came to play!)


3. What is the age of our most senior human contender?
a) 74 years old b) 85 years old c) 93 years old d) 101 years old

Correct answer: c. Props to her! She rocks!


4. Why aren't there any monkey cards?

Correct answer: You tell us. We don't know.


5. Which of these farm animals is among the finalists?
a) Rooster b) Pig c) Lamb d) Llama

Correct answer: b. And oinks for playing!

Blogden Nash