Fifth Line

Fifth Line Press

Galley

There was a ………… from …………
Who …………………………………… ;
But ……………………
……………………
And …………………………………… .

Pose a premise. Ask a question. The last line is never in the seed — that is the whole invention.

The engines

Old generators shuffled three unrelated phrases, including the last line, then asked a model to glue them. The punchline was already written, and it had nothing to do with the setup. This press does the opposite: the seed is a situation plus a question. Line 5 is never in the lists.

What can happen?drawing-room

A peacock from Kew took a leap to the blue,
And melted right into the firmament's hue;
    A cloud took its train,
    And the weather grew vain,
Till the Met Office filed it as 'vanity dew.'

Ordinary leap. Unexpected weather. Last line from the Met Office.

Comeuppance?drawing-room

There was a smart spider named Erica
Who reordered her legs to make trickier
    The snare for each fly—
    But the knots went awry,
And she caught herself looking much stickier.

The snare is the rope. Knots go awry. She is the catch.

What can happen?drawing-room

A clever young lady from Tennessee
Compressed Ozark gossip most deftly
    In packets so spare
    That a whisper could bare
The bishop's affairs at the rectory tea.

Innocent compression. A whisper. The rectory is the trap.

Comeuppance?drawing-room

A protester from Portland tried glue
On her placard to hold what was true;
    But the paste proved too thick,
    And it set double-quick—
Now the sign holds the protester too.

The paste is the rope. Civic, and stuck.

Reversal?drawing-room

A curious cat out of Uganda
Took issue with sisal, grandstander;
    He clawed at the twine,
    But the fibres combined,
And the sack packed the puss in a pandah.

Hunter hunted. The sack packs the cat.

What can happen?after-hours

A mandrill who marshaled the lane
Flashed face, then his rump, then again;
    One signal got crossed
    With a wag and a toss—
So the mayor got mooned and rear-ended in vain.

Signals crossed. Slapstick, not anatomy.