Cryptic crossword thread 2026 starts here

It's a big day for those fluent in the good grammar of civility looking to deploy decorum to mask agendas of cruelty

Err

What does it mean when your doctors keep insisting you redo the cognitive exam

My full page comic for the @prospectmagazine.co.uk Christmas issue. With sincere apologies.

Best I could do

Fun game

Corridor I ran through the most in 2025:

Most annoying book I read in 2025:

FUNNIEST SHOW WE WATCHED IN 2025

PLEASANTEST SURPRISE OF THE YEAR:

Need to bang out the rest of my beat of 25 fairly quickly

One of the best to ever do it

Sharon Horgan bummed a cigarette off me outside the Groucho. Who cares

The little Pluribus goat 😭

lol why is Murray in the big Will scene. Gelman just lurking in the background looking serious while all the 24 year old child actors emote crying

🎅🏼 🍫 🌴

Watching THE GREEN KNIGHT again

Does feel like Vecna over-indexed on children

Scenes in the new stranger things: - here’s the idea for a plan (or perhaps… a different plan) - let’s do some prep for the plan and have a conversation - we’re doing the plan!

Can’t get over how much this looks like Sin City

10/10

S Tier funny movie sound

Peep Show Bake Off. I can’t believe Robert Webb was too busy for this

The epitome of being 37: the crooks in Home Alone are both getting fits off

Time for my annual viewing of one of the worst scenes ever put to celluloid: Kevin Mccalister giving the Pigeon lady some home truths above the opera house

A relatively recent advertising thing I don’t like: ads about parents with dementia to sell chocolate or whatever. Basically ad people shouldn’t be trying to “tell stories”. You picked the money. Make peace with that

Just seen a three and a half year old be terrified by the clown puppet shower bit in Home Alone 2

This whole movie hinges on Caine being able to say lines like “Why it’s Fozziwig’s old rubber chicken factory!” with a straight face.

When this is top story on the Guardian front page you know that nothing is going on

Merry Christmas one and all.

*throws open window* ME: You boy! What day is this? BOY: Ow. Why did you just throw an open window at me

Jodie Foster: They should have sent a poet Poet: Aliens ahoy! A galactic sight. When you’re in space all day is night

Thank you @nigella.bsky.social for yet another year of lovely hams

Horror premise: “Tiny Tim, who did NOT die”. Tiny Tim is some kind of immortal unkillable supernatural monster. He murders people with his crutch. Etc

HALLELUJAH NOEL BE IT HEAVEN OR HELL THE CHRISTMAS YOU GET YOU DESERVE

I’m the guy who adds “this does not indicate any wrongdoing” to every article about Epstein on the BBC

today in tweets that would have worked better in october

Apple just autocorrected “misty” to “musty” without asking me and I think that might be it. It’s not a big thing but it’s it. The final straw. I’m gonna punt this phone through a wall

Christ what a freak

A fun one. I like it when they're little murder mysteries or treasure hunts or whatever

Thom’s 2025 countdown continues with: worst fucking advertising spokescharacters I hate the most

Thom’s 2025 countdown continues with: worst fucking advertising spokescharacters I hate the most

Last night we let the Gary do the talking

“I believe in Father Christmas” is the best Christmas song btw. Stop booing me I’m correct

REMAINS A BANGER

Time to watch the undisputed greatest Christmas film ever made

Thom's top three visual gags of 2025. in no particular order

Fun, but the weakest of the three; comedy too broad, way too much setup & downtime and way too much 'somebody hides in a bush and overhears something else'. Also too much CGI and it just hugely runs out of steam at the end and is like 🤷 will that do