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Doggie Dad's avatar

I worked on this, but couldn't come up with a second verse, so gave up, but I might as well share:

Mean Mr. Moustache shills for the Swamp

Tries hard to stomp out the MAGA minions

Pulitzers aligned in a row

Metaphors tied neatly in bows

Keeps a stash right under his nose

What a mean old man

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Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

Hilarious. So much comedic talent in the Racket world. The winners did a great job, fun to see all the other entries. Here was mine:

Mean Mister Mustache he's in the dark

Raves full of snark lying for a newspaper

Sleeps in his huge Bethesda home

If you lose your job just learn to code

Peasants make him turn up his nose

Such a mean old man

Suck on this, old man

His sister Kam works writing slop

She never stops, she's a Substacker

Takes him out to brat summer yas kween

Donald Trump's tweets are so mean

Always shouts out something obscene

Such a dirty old man

Dirty old man

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HorseLaugher's avatar

Mockery is power!

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John Wygertz's avatar

What fun! More, please.

The best way to defeat pompous fools is mockery, and there is an untapped reservoir of scorn among your readership.

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Susan G's avatar

I have rhyme and humor envy. Fantastic work by the winners and runners-up.

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Kurt's avatar

What a hoot!

Do it again, Matt. Have another contest like this.

I don’t really care about the prize. The creative humor is the reward.

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I_am_Roxy's avatar

No sooner had I hit the "cancel subscription" button on Matt's substack he came up with this total winner of a contest. Alas, I immediately went back and chose "continue subscription." He keeps pulling me back in.

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steven t koenig's avatar

Why would you have wanted to cancel in the first place? This is the best deal on the internet, brought to you by the hardest working man in the biz. And with 100% honesty

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bestuvall's avatar

just when you thought you were out

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Michael's avatar

Mine was:

Mean Mr Mustache

Talks in a cab

Turns drivers gab

Into next column

Thinks his Micky D’s will stop war

World works like a grocery store

Thank you China can we buy more

Such a crowded mind

His New York Times

Busts out his rhymes

Prints all his crimes

Against good writing

Mixes metaphor on his cue

Splits that baby right into two

Hits it like a hammer and screw

Such a hot mess mind

Dirty mustache mind

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TSF's avatar

If the last 8 years have taught us anything, it’s that you’ve GOT to have a sense of humor.

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Michael's avatar

I guess Matt’s not following up on the suggestion for the next one to be Rachel Maddow as Polythene Pam. Hard to rhyme I guess.

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Patrick's avatar

And an insult to Polythene Pam.

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Michael's avatar

Yeah true if Rachel makes the News the World its time to find a new world

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Patrick's avatar

sad to see someone so smart and talented be so misguided.

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Joe's avatar

From the original contest piece:

"An underlying theme of the period is that the public is not a diverse population that needs convincing, but more ideally a monolith that accepts expert instruction without question, and may be threatened if it doesn’t."

Next up, change the lyrics to Maxwell’s Silver Hammer to reflect the consequences of deviating from the narrative.

"Bang! Bang! Moustache's silver hammer

Came down upon his head"

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bestuvall's avatar

Alinskys rule number five

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schnico's avatar

I have this weird thing (many do, I suppose) that I get up in the morning with a song running through my head, and I don't even consciously realize it until late morning or early afternoon. Today it is Mean Mr. Mustard. And as much as I like these poems, I hold Matt responsible for this, today.

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BookWench's avatar

This was fun!

Thanks for running it, and congrats to the winners!

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Will Clark's avatar

Somewhat related...I followed a girl to San Diego, she had two jobs, one was at a French bakery in La Jolla, the other, writing a column for the San Diego Padres official newspaper, the years after Charley Finley sold all the best A's players and Rollie Fingers, Sal Bando and Gene Tenace all landed with the Padres.

Rollie Fingers moved my Fiat in his driveway to get out of his garage (said gf's column was interviewing Padre's wives). An obscure anecdote of course, though just a reminder how incredibly huge Rollie Fingers was back in the day -- I couldn't possibly have been more excited that he had driven my car! : )

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John Phelps's avatar

I took the two winners and plugged it into suno https://suno.com/s/qJ1UWISA7PHu4q4z

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Ann Robinson's avatar

Bravo

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Jane Tracy's avatar

😂😂😂

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