Hell’s Bells what did I let you and myself in for? Don’t be angry with me, I set the competition without really thinking. It shan’t happen again. Don’t be angry if you disagree with my prize-giving either. These things are personal and in the end it was a kind of lottery, so many entries were similar that I became blind to the letter L.
To remind you. I instituted a competition to celebrate the arrival of my 50,000th follower. This was only a week and a half ago and there has since been something of an exponential leap in numbers which means I am almost certain to have to dream up a 100K competition soon – which, you will be pleased to know, will be nothing like as lexical, literal and lethal as this 50K beast.
The event wasn’t helped by Twitter’s hashtags not liking a single-letter attribution. If you want to see the whole collection of entries then use the following site, rather than Twitter’s own: it adds content as you scroll down.
If I have to read another story about Lilly (often Lily Allen, of course), lullabies, hillbillies or Kill Bill at Llanelli I may well scream. But how could you have done otherwise?
There are so many worthy entries, worthy in that they at least attempt to make some kind of sense within the absurd constrictions I laid upon you, that I have had to resort to giving three prizes almost at random. Prizes for third and second place go to those who cheated but in such a way as to amuse me, the first prize is for a ‘proper’ entry that satisfies all the conditions, as so many of you, astonishingly, managed to do.
Honourable mentions to FryPhile (and I promise you not on account of the flattering name) for a mathematical formula that manipulates Ls to yield the year 2009 and to @Richard_Holt too for his elaborate use of strange characters. To @simonrjones too for offering the best entry to exploit Welsh place names (a stratagem that occurred to many, perhaps his name suggests an innate advantage?). @utterpiffle, @tonya_in_tenn , @ meakookaem, @chickenings, @joannavos and @moulesfrites also amused me with their ingenuity, as did too many others to mention, including I expect, you … Anyway.
Third prize to @Chubbx for a slew of imaginative insects and other L-shaped oddities. Here are two examples of her mind at work:
Earthworms knelt praying fervently that they win this competition LLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLL
A REALLY long ladder sliced in half with a chainsaw LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL think I seriously need help.
Yes, @Chubbx, you do…
Second prize to @fiskerton for tickling me with
Tetris v0.1 proved too easy: L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L
And for the First prize I had to choose between a whole load of jellies and lollies belonging to Lillie but ended up picking this entry from @Shing_and_R2 which kind of makes sense as a warning against illicit pharmaceuticals and has more elegance and individual sense-making phrases than most of you (or I) managed… so congratulations to you @Shing_and_R
I’ll tell all: shills—all bull—willfully lull dull fools. Illegal pills sell—all will fall ill. Law will prevail—hellhole cell walls call #L
Phew! The L-staring hell I’ve been through is all of my own making. Thanks for your patience and imagination. Now to think hard about a really fun frolic to celebrate the hundred thousand…………
S xxx
OK, so doing it alphabetically wasn’t so interesting?
All bull! Call dull. E’ll fall, gall hell. I’ll jell, kill lull. Mull null, or’ll pull quill. Roll-Sell-Tell URL volly will XL, yell zeal.
Well done to the winners though!
Love the second placed entry, nice one @fiskerton, tickled me no end.
Bloody L?
Well, rejected and unmentioned, I nevertheless feel duty bound to share my “party announcement” entry here, as it never appeared on hashtags:
#L Lolly Ball Calls! Lilt, loll, lull, lilo hol in Dolally Gully! All well? LOL. All still ill, hell. Gild well, all -Ally&Lily, Pall Mall
If you ever want to make a similar entry for a similar contest, get hold of a text editor with a character count, like TextWrangler. Then type 50 Ls, and fill in the spaces between them with other characters, none of them L.
I suspect this contest has done more to raise awareness of Stephen’s existence on Twitter than anything else he’s ever posted. All the entries must have been very confusing for the non-Fry following Twitter community. Thanks, though — was fun!
Good case for how unreliable technologies like Twitter can be – my entry doesn’t show up when searching for “#L”, but it does when using search.twitter.com for tweets I sent to Stephen. Ah well, was great fun nonetheless and congrats to the winners, of course!
Earthworms … ::giggle::
Priceless, love the insects and tetris, really good!!!
Well done everyone! Brilliant!
Mr Fry, perhaps you ought to get your eyes tested after all that, it was bad enough for those of us who went L blind over a couple of days! No idea what is must have been like trying to filter through it all. Well done to you too, that was no small feat
Yes second place is highly amusing. and would have been my winner!
‘as did too many others to mention, including I expect, you …’
Yep not mentioned, and I tried so hard to be coherant. hoo hum. now looking forward to the 100K competition.. maybe this time…
Lill Lull’s a smelly Llama. All ill alluvial llamas smell. Ill Lol (Llanelli llama) smells willfully & lollops illegally in Llullaillaco.
Much better, and got an obscure volcano name in.
I demand a re-count please.
Very good entries. I’m disappointed though – I worked hard making a full tweet with 50 L’s included. Mine was:
#L All-illegal fille lil’Lolly L laxly lay killa bell on hill lip. Dollar bill allure; will Lolly still. Parallel bell-FELL-toll fulfill lol
OK… so I get why I didn’t make the grade now lol
Well done all!
That Tetris one was pure genius! I’m sorry to say mine was one of those wit(!) Jill and Bill
Congratulations all around.
Looking forward to the ‘100kontest’. Shouldn’t be long now.
I can’t even get a comment onto this blog. So clearly my entry hits all known rules for spam!
Oh, I can’t wait to hear from Shing about this. She’s going to be so excited.
Fair choice (but it’s wrong, completely wroooong! -shut up, Ego)!
Just thought I’d mention how much I liked the standard plastic comb LLLLLLllllllllllllllllll and something romantic that I can’t find anymore about Bill lovin Jill till Hell’ll chill (and those were not mine).
Well done!
Now awaiting next comptish, which will undoubtedly be about something I don’t even have a shimmer of a clue about.
Since several readers took the trouble to program utilities that assisted in the contest, I wonder if someone would be willing to create a site where we can resubmit our entries, and collectively vote for the best? (Clearly Stephen still hasn’t seen half of them.)
Wow
Well done everyone and thank you very much for the lovely larks (aaah!!) we had thinking up entries for this competition. I think I can imagine just what sort of hell you created for yourself Stephen – I like to have a look at other entries when you do these fabulous competitions, and even that was quite enough for me! I think I’ve just about been able to stop counting Ls in people’s tweets now, but I think I might have to give myself a little longer yet.
I’m just so chuffed Fryphile got a mention
Again! Bless his little cotton socks. I can’t think of anyone else who deserves it more. If the Forum’s Fluffettes were to put forward a candidate for mentioningness, Fryphile would have to be the one 
.
Thank you and congrats on the followers! Here’s to more twitter induced craziness,
much love
Debs (@dreamingshadow)
Looks like the 100k mark may well be reached by the end of today!
Fab. Loved the worms.
xx
I just wanted to congratulate to all the winners and hats off
My tweet was nowhere as coherent as any of yours!
So congrats once again
And here, here for the next competition I might even given it a go this time around 
Congrats to winners! I almost got a spasm in my eye trying to think over all words with l’s!
Hmmm… I made that formula for this year with Ls earlier than the other user…
Illa Lesbia,Lesbia illa.Love let loose. This year LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIX. 40*50=2000. Natales grate numeras? #L
first I’ve heard of this, so now I’m lolling about, lol-ing!
Love the Tetris one! Boo, my entry doesn’t appear on Hashtags, what a pity. I did a topical one about looting the Naughty Banks:
#L Lilburne’s Lollards(Llanelli Lot)fell ill.CallsBill:all lolly lost!To Lille Mull Hull Hell?PallMall pell mell,pillageLloyds, billionsfull!
Great competition, fun to play, thank you Stephen! xxx
The L’s in this comment have been removed to pacify Mr. Fry:
B ess my sockages! This must’ve been terrib y painfu for you, dear f uffy sir! May I profess my p easure to those who p ayed and who were generous y honored?
*professes p easure*
A very creative ot you a are.
A bouncing bund e of thanks to Stephen for the HMing. P ease don’t fee ike you have to entertain us, though. You’re under no ob igation to torture youre f. That’s what the Dai y Mai is for
thanks, it was a lot of fun!
i’m real curious…figured since you came up with the contest, you tried it yourself before announcing it. what did you make?
I think I’ll accept the world’s machinery (busted tag trackers, moderation queues etc etc) contrived to prevent my L-oquent abecedarium ever seeing the light of day
So I’ll just say congrats to the winners, and laugh at the Tetris one!
Hey Stephen,
I’m curious about how many valid entries you actually got. Did you use some tools to help verify them and save some effort?
- Jan (@thaytan)
I agree with the winner; when I read it on the hashtags page, I thought, “Bet that wins.”
Thought I might have stood a chance, since I managed to write a somewhat lyrical poem that made a kind of sense, but I fell into the Lilly-lollipop-Welsh-name trap. It’s really difficult otherwise! Well, even with, it’s a diabolical task. But Fry got his comeuppance having to judge it.
So, congrats, Shing_and_R2, you avoided the trap and came up with one hell of a “Lweet”; I really like it.
If the new comp is 100 Ls, Fry’s getting iPhones thrown at him.
Jeff you’re right… I am so excited! Woke up this morning with a couple new followers and figured I had placed in some way but whoa. Celebratory dinner at Honey’s Kettle?
Congratulation to everyone who won and a real big woo hoo to those who entered. Hope to join in on the next contest even if I have course work to do. LOL
ShaylaMorris
Mine had a beginning, middle and an end, it made sense, it had punctuation, character development, lust, murder and a bi-sexual love triangle. In 140 characters with 50 ls precisely. Only two of my words had less than four letters in for goodness sake!
sigh
#L Full allure spilled all artfully,lull’d Lill lolls listlessly,loves tall,dull Lyle lustfully.Lyle’ll kill lull’d Lill in alley.Lyle<3Bill
#L sad to see complaints/ why no joy in creating?/ savour the process
HAHA the Tetris one did it for me.
FAO all the bloody moaners, groaners, and farm owners in this thread. ITS A COMPETITION! a game, a bit of “!FUN!” rivalry Not to mention it was Mr Frys competition, so his word, goes. You wouldn’t expect to moan at the lottery machine for not picking your numbers would you!
my GOD I’ve never seen anything like it, the amount of dummies this thread needs is incredible.
To quote the man himself, “stop feeling sorry for yourself!”
GREAT comp
i hope he does a 100th one, or maybe just a random fun one, no prize, least it will ween out the glory hunters.
Hope everyone’s well.
P.S – I am honestly not an angry person LOL, this just got to me
Check out my tweets! you’ll see.
http://twitter.com/JonathanSyer
I thought it was a fabulous competition, really good fun. Mine missed out being counted because I didn’t put my #L tag in, mainly due to basic stupidity but also misunderstanding Stephen’s tweet about the tag.
However, it doesn’t really matter. What was lovely was thinking of it in the first place and getting all excited when I had done it. It was hard!
So for the record and because mine included my own web ID and my son’s real name, and was TRUE(!) here’s mine:
Olulabelle’s lullaby lilts sillily, lulls & fills jolly lil ol Solly, will tell: Mollys ill doll all well by pill; lo he’ll loll, fall still
*Does little victory dance owing to sheer L brilliance.*
Re my comment #4 above, I don’t mean to appear to *whinge* about not winning or not (sigh) being mentioned — @stephenfry is of course free to choose whatever he wishes, and there were many, many entries.
The winner is a worthy entry, much better than my own. I just wished to share, as I feared the monsters of hashtags had eaten it (a common experience, it seems) and was curious to find out what others had made.
More contests! The journey is the reward, and so forth.
Bonus: which character is missing from this post?
*kudos to FryPhi*e above*
Thanks Stephen Fry, I really enjoyed that competition. It was a challenge to come up with something meaningful within those restrictions. When I finally did come up with something I was really proud of, I remembered how useful it can be to have boundaries when creating. It can be very inspirational. Here is my poem (taken out of the twitter format):
Lilt tall lily, lilt well
All shall fall, hell will tell
A bell tolls, dull yet fell
Roll call to all, ill and well
Lilt tall lily, lilt well
Congratulations to the winners and congratulations to @stephenfry for 100k!
Thanks again,
@dansimpson
That’s four hours of my life that I’ll never get back again. One thing I guess that this proves; there is no such thing as a unique idea – no matter how clever you think you’ve been.
Congrats to the winners!
As mine didn’t show up on the hashtags page and I don’t think Stephen has seen quite enough Ls yet…:
Bill lollops, falls pellmell, rolls; willy lolls. Old Lolly mulls: bellpull? Pulls! Lull. Small rill spills. All hell! Galled Lolly falls.#L
xx
My comment did not show???
All’s well that ends well.
Would you do me the honour of following me on Twitter @kalbonner. I’m just about to go into Primark and may get killed in the stampede for 2 for 1 bedsocks. So I suppose this is a last request of sorts. I thank yeuw. x
Mr Fry,
Just wanted to say I have been enjoying your twitter feed immensely – even though you cannot see my replies [on twitter]. =)
So very many clever people out there – congrats to all the winners. I couldn’t enter myself as the word (placename?) “Llandudno” would not escape my head. Bloody L. (groan).
Good heavens that was undesirably complex and having to memorise that password was about as exciting as the algorithm for the sound effect for the shoe polish in Second Life…
I tweeted Stephen Fry and he replied once – I think you had 30,000 followers then and I decided statistically you probably haven’t read a word I have said since, so I’ll try here.
I have Aspergers.
I have written a book.
http://thelogicofattraction.com
And…
You are in it – twice in fact if I recall correctly.
I want to thank you personally for your excellent program about bi-polar disorder, without which I would not have gone on my (most recent) journey of self-discovery which subsequently led to my diagnosis.
You are in fact one of the people I owe my new found willingness to enjoy life to.
In appreciation, I would like to send you a copy of the book.
It’s a fun read and you’ll enjoy it…
Where should I send it?
Best wishes
Mark
I noted your tweet about the lack of Gay News in Singapore. In fact, there is a gay news site – http://www.fridae.com – based in Singapore, catering to Asia in general. My editor just contacted me and we’d love to interview you while you’re here. If you’re at all interested, do drop her a line at .
Argh, would break down doors to interview you myself, but I’m flying away tonight until Tuesday morning. Me and my friends follow QI like rabid wolves on the tail of a bunny.
Selamat Pagi.
blue king fisher screeches across the garden, birds twittering and a new day begins, last nite in Peti Tenget Bali, i watched with the 2nd episode of yr very brave open film
The Secret life of the Manic Depressive.
my Dad Arnold was sectioned a few years ago, he sadly died a couple of years ago, and he lived the Secret life of a Manic Depressive.
I want to thank you STEPHEN for sharing your journey with us all.
Hopefully while yr here in Bali, u will take time to visit some of the magical places that are hidden away, if u want to know where they are let me know and i will happily share them with you.
may Peace be with your journey as they say here in Bali.
Haha! Lily Allen XD , scream let it out
It is so easy to post a ridiculous question in the hope that you (Stephen) will respond.
I have been an admirer of yours for some time and recently became a ‘Twitterer’ so that I could experience your exciting life via your ‘Tweets’ – fascinating, exciting, exhilerating, wonderful.
You are indeed fortunate and have the ability to involve people in your life in an interesting and sometimes educational way. This is why you are popular and why you should never, ever change.
In conclusion I have not asked that proverbial ’stupid’ question in he hope of a reply, but perhaps – just perhaps – I might get a ‘Twitter’ of my own from you. Christmas sometimes does come early.
http://twitter.com/bluecob