The Cleverest Thing Anyone Has Ever Written

by Ben Paddon
originally published at 12:43PM on Wednesday, December 12, 2007

“This is the cleverest thing anyone has ever written,” beamed Martin, looking at the story he’d just finished writing. He felt like he’d had the single greatest idea of all time, the most original of original thoughts, and that he’d captured the concept perfectly using all the right words in the right places.

What had actually written, however, was a story about a writer who was trying to come up with an idea for a story to write. It was the oldest idea in the world, as clichéd as you can get when you’re stuck for ideas. A writer coming up with this idea wasn’t coming up with an idea at all.

It didn’t help that Martin couldn’t spell, either. He grammar also left something to be desired. The man couldn’t string together a coherent sentence if you’d given him a Magnetic Poetry kit, numbered the pieces and told him to arrange them in order. He had all of the creativity of a particularly untalented carton of milk.

Still, for one moment it made him feel really clever. Even if he had misspelled his own name.

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Comments

  • from someday_93:

    Haha, now that’s a funny story…great job!
    LoA

  • from KimuraCarter:

    Very good, very funny!

  • from White Hat:

    Awesome.

  • from Nouvelle Bardot:

    untalented carton of milk, best thing i’ve heard all day. i might just have to call someone that.

  • from Melia:

    Aww poor Martin. Glad he got that perfect moment though :) And ‘untalented carton of milk’ struck me as a very Douglas Adams-type of description. Made me chuckle.

  • from Mistress Elsha Hawk:

    I agree with Melia- very Douglas Adams!
    I think I know people like that…..AND I think they would want to try to publish something like that, seriously. Errors and all. It’s sad. Very sad. Nice entry!

  • from emma jo_234:

    Hahahahahaha I loove it. Especially the “particularly untalented carton of milk” thing. And the last sentence. Hahahahaha.