h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To giving my name,

Bzzzzzzzz (are we allowed to buzz in this game? Too late, I've done it now).

I challenge PaleoDan to finish the current limerick in a way that makes sense.

Since when are Limericks required to make sense?

Besides...

When taking the bus into work,
Around the stop I did lurk
As soon as it came
To giving my name,
My poor larnyx started to jerk.

There was a young man from Bengal,
Who went to a fancy dress ball,
He thought he would risk it,
And dress up as a biscuit,
But the dog ate him up in the hall.

While not being sensical, has some sort of vague logic to it. However,

The was a young man from Bengal,
Now my aunt has knitted a shawl,
I drank some tea,
Good manners are free,
Stone me look, the sky is starting to fall.

Is just pointless gibberish, yet it still fits (well, just about) the structure of a limerick. Shouldn't we at least be striving for the former rather than the latter?

Why, yes, Jonny. Yes we should.

To make some (common) sense of all the technical stuff, a limerick should, ideally, amuse and follow the general pattern below:

da-DA-da da-DA-da da-AAY
da-DA-da da-DA-da da-AAY
da-DA-da da-BEE
da-DA-da da-BEE
da-DA-da da-DA-da da-AAY

You can muck around with the pattern a bit, but it's only really a limerick if you get the beats right: As people have often told me, "Try to put the em-PHA-sis on the right syl-LAB-le".

Try this:

Our Jonny's a limerick fiend,

A school girl third former
Played about with the butter
The teacher informed her
Being a lactose waster
You'll be staying in later

Our Jonny's a limerick fiend,
Although his BZZZZZ quite demeaned,

(I think this game is getting confused with Cheddar Gorge, with all the moist nethers, BZZZZing, and accusations of nonsense )

Actually Jonny, I thought the second limerick more entertaining, even if, like life, it made little sense. Perhaps we have inadvertently stumbled on a new form of limerick, which should maybe be given a new name, to avoid confusion (heaven forbid!). I propose 'Dublin'.

A limerick writer from Dublin
His stomoch loudly rumblin
Was sent to bed
Without being fed
Because of atrocious rhymin

Quite

And on the pretense

Do it - don't talk about it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There once was a doctor called Who

Who always knew just what to do

There once was a doctor called Who
Who travelled around in a blue

(All right, we'll do yours )

There once was a doctor called Who
Who always knew just what to do
But what he finds hard is

Convincing his car, Liz

And no doubt unstable

Sheesh! I gave you "Tardis" and you didn't even seize on it! And his car was called Betsy. Oh well...

There once was a doctor called Who
Who travelled around in a blue
And no doubt unstable
Time machine, able
To look like a portable loo.

(Sorry - had to finish that one off!)

There once was a man from Nantucket,