feghoot n.

a very short story that culminates in an (elaborate) pun

Pronounced /ˈfɛgˌhut/.

Also with capital initial.

[< the name of Ferdinand Feghoot, protagonist of a series of stories of this sort written by Reginald Bretnor under the pseudonym ‘Grendel Briarton’]

Wikipedia

Fancyclopedia

SF Encyclopedia


SF Criticism

  • [1956 ‘Grendel Briarton’ in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction May 99 (title) page image Reginald Bretnor bibliography

    Through time and space with Ferdinand Feghoot.]

  • [1958 R. Pemberton The Science Fiction Field Plowed Under in Cry of the Nameless (#114) Apr. 11 page image bibliography

    Fritch’s ‘The Logical Life’ is another of the newly-popular short bits leading to a fast but minor punchline, Feghoot-style.]

  • [1959 Eyetracks (#1) Nov. 1 page image

    Then Bloch must be Grendel Briarton or whatever name F&SF signs to those Feghoots.]

  • 1960 P. Roberts The Fannish Inquisition in Venture (#66) July 22 page image Peter Roberts

    As for the articles, there’s an amusing army tale from Dave Emerson, a rather wretched Feghoot, and a not too esoteric article on the impossibility of FTL travel by the editor, Eli Cohen.

  • 1965 B. Solon The Ivory Tower in Niekas (#14) Dec. (unpaged) page image Ben Solon

    There's a Feghoot by Alex Eisenstein, and really, Alex, I expected better from you…alas, you've been corrupted by Lew Grant…

  • 1968 A. Boucher Best Detective Stories of the Year 172 page image Anthony Boucher bibliography

    A true feghoot…not only culminates in a pun of singular beauty and terror; it is, even before that point, an entertainingly absurd episode of a possible history.… My successor at F&SF, the astute Robert P. Mills, stepped up the publication of feghoots to one every issue; he had observed that, though the readership was about equally divided into feghoot-lovers and feghoot-haters, both parties were united in always reading the feghoot before any other stories.

  • 1978 E. Cohen Moss on the North Side (#1) (unpaged) page image

    I'm sure that anyone fluent in Chinese could write a Feghoot that depended on some common Tao te ching line, and be understood; in English, even the spelling of the title isn't standard.

  • 1989 G. Laskowski Lan’s Lantern (#30) June 133 page image George 'Lan' Laskowski bibliography

    Arlan Andrews' feghoot (‘No arrest for the wicked’) coundle [sic] hold a candle to…well I can't say it's GOOD, can I? That word doesn't go in the same sentence with a feghoot! ‘Worth reading and inflicting on other people’ — there, I can say that.

  • 1991 C. Willis Learning to Write Comedy in Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy 82 page image Connie Willis bibliography

    The story would at first appear to be a science fiction story, complete with characters and a plot (one of my favorites, which I suppose is not strictly a Feghoot, since it’s by Damon Knight, was about a vegetable vampire that sucked the juice out of celery and carrots), but when you got to the end of the story, you realized you had been had and the last line was actually a punchline, or even worse, a pun (in the case of the veggy vampire, they drove a steak through his heart), and the whole story had been nothing more than a very long joke.

  • 2000 Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Jan. 164 (advt.) page image

    Oi, Robot, which is the title of the long awaited book collection of more than 50 of these startling items, including bawdy limericks, Feghoots, worst story openings, 50-Word Mini Sagas and more.

  • 2022 P. Myers Style Invitational Week 1493: Frankly speaking in Washington Post 19 June e14/2 page image

    Contest… Tell a feghoot — a mini-story (a ridiculous one is fine) that ends in a groaner pun on a familiar expression, title, line from a song, etc.

Research requirements

antedating 1960
Research History
Noa Sheidlower submitted a number of cites.
Noa Sheidlower submitted a 2022 cite from the Washington Post, from the Internet Archive's copy of the online edition; Jesse Sheidlower verified it in the print original (but left the link to the online version, which has an earlier publication date).

Last modified 2024-12-27 18:36:12
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.