Friday, April 22, 2022

READY OAR NOT: Our Next Party Theme Revealed!

Happy Friday, Skippers!

You've been telling me how much you miss the ridiculous holiday parties John and I used to throw pre-Covid, and believe me, so do we. So much that we decided we just couldn't wait for December to roll around again, and are planning a party in two weeks for my birthday. (Eep!)

May is already hectic with MegaCon and whatnot, and we only gave ourselves about a month to plan, AND we're throwing an elaborate baby shower this weekend that's taken most of our spare time 'til now... but are we going to let that stop us?

HECK NO

Here's the deal: I like puns. Big puns, little puns, really really bad puns: just... gimmie.

My idea, therefore, was to throw a pun party like the ones you've probably seen floating around TikTok. (If not, go see, they're great.) Those are all costume-based, though, and we needed a theme for decorations. It's not a Yates party 'til we build something as ridiculous as it is large, right?

I was stumped for the better part of a week, until Katie over on FoE asked for help with the menu for... drumroll, please... her niece's Jungle Cruise party.


(art by Mini Pandas)

It was a light bulb moment, gang.

I was a Jungle Cruise skipper back in college; it's actually where my love of puns began. So not only is this the perfect birthday theme, I can't believe I didn't think of it first. C'mon, me. Get it together. And thank you, Katie and Katie's niece.Your contribution rocks, and will not be taken for granite.

After smashing the two themes together, there we had it, skips: A Jungle Cruise Pun Party.




Start brainstorming now, because I'm going to ask for your most excruciating puns at the end of this post: costume puns, food puns, game puns, visual gags, you name it.

But first!

Want to see what we've built so far?

Please say yes.

I'm... going to assume you said yes.


Our very first project was a sign for the front door. All of our parties have had foam signs (remember the Bog of Eternal Stench?), which we usually keep and display afterward as party mementos. Not to brag, but this is definitely my favorite one so far:



I love how the textures turned out! You'd think this was made of wood, right? Ahhhh I love aging things.





Here's how it started:



This design isn't an exact copy from the parks; instead I asked John to layer the center part of this sign in Disneyland over a ship's wheel:



Once John photoshopped a mock-up, we projected, traced, and cut it out of pink insulation foam.


Stick around and I'll convince you to craft with pink foam eventually.

That's John adding another detail layer with craft foam.

I sanded the edges to round them slightly, then got to the fun part: painting.




This is all basic craft paint. In fact this whole sign was a freebie, made with foam scraps, twine, and paint we already had.


I lightly traced the lettering, then painted it in by hand. (Vinyl lettering would have been a different sheen, so I went the old-fashioned route.)



Done!



My "wood grain" is a basic dry-brushing, nothing fancy, but look how it sings on these foam layers:


Yesssss. I'm telling you, you should try this.

*****

K, let's move on to something bigger.

Much bigger.

Here's a hint:



... which is also a GENIUS Dollar Tree DIY I discovered in one of my Facebook craft groups. The screwdrivers are 2 for 1.25, so total cost for the wheel was just over $6.


Here I am figuring out that wrapped twine helps disguise the screwdrivers:



And here it is installed:



Whoops, heh, getting ahead of myself.


Suki, would you care to introduce this next build?

Thanks, Sukes.

From that all-important blue-tape size reference John moved on to this:

And this:




Which he then clad in Masonite and more pink foam:



The PVC canopy was when it really started to come together for me:


Oh yeah. Here come the waterworks.


John: "Hey, we never use these bed sheets anymore, right?"

Me: "Which ones? And why do you ask?"

John:



That grin is how we don't spend much on builds, but also don't have many spare bed sheets.

Some primer and red craft paint later:


EEEEEEEE

Gettin' excited, y'all.

The current JC boats are are more drab & beige, but my heart will always belong to the retro striped canopies of my Skipper days:




I wood-grained the top deck (poorly, so we'll be viewing it from a distance), then we added Styrofoam ball finials and a snappy red stripe at the bottom of the hull:


Hard to see, but John even made the lever for the throttle, which is amazing. Plus the wheel spins!


I painted the ship wheel black; the aged "wood" was looking too rustic.

This isn't the finished display, but the boat itself is done. Woot! We may add a name on the hull (current favorites are "Jungle Jen" and "Age De-Nile", any preference?) and maybe some colorful string lights to give it more of a party boat vibe. Any other suggestions?



Oh, and I'll also wrap our Slytherin plush snake around one of the canopy pulls, to stand in for Monty Python. Hee.

I hope this already has your creative gears cranking, but here comes one last batch of silliness for your consideration: the menu. This is what kick-started the whole process back with Katie's post on FoE, as I kept going back to give her more suggestions, and also write down my favorites from other people. So brace yourself, and here goes:

The Jungle Cruise Punny Cannibal Cafe:
Always Looking For Better Ways To Serve You


Starters & Sides:

- Back Side Of Watermelon
- The Yolk's On You Deviled Eggs
- Hippotatoes
- First Cole Slaw Of The Jungle (I'm most proud of this one)
- Ca-noodles


Mains:

- Schweitzer Balls
- Point In The End Skewers
- Boat Tie Pasta

Desserts:

- Ginger Snaps
- Rock Candy (Not To Be Taken For Granite)
- Jeep Turnovers
- Monty Pie-thon


Drinks:

- Shirley Temples
- Ele-Fanta
- Jungle Juice
- In De-Nile (non-alcoholic)

I know there have to be more great jungle-y food puns out there, so what am I missing?

I'm also looking for costume puns ala "Bear-ista" or "social butterfly" - ideally with a jungle or animal twist. We've asked our guests to either dress as a pun OR a skipper-era adventurer, so it should be a hilarious mix.

I'm also looking for games, decor ideas, etc. Remember, the more terrible the puns...



....the more I want to hear them!

 I love y'all very much, thanks for being here and joining me in another round of party silliness. I have even more groan-worthy things to share next time (the games are gonna be a HOOT), but 'til then, I hope you have the best weekend possible. May your conversations and your couch naps be deep, comfortable, and uninterrupted.

::hugs::


*****

P.S. This book has been a best-seller for years over on Cake Wrecks, and this is the week I finally break down and buy a copy myself:


Exceptionally Bad Dad Jokes

There's also a volume 2 with an even prettier cover, if you'd like the set.  :)


42 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. This would make a cute costume as well as a menu item.

      Delete
    2. Omigosh, I had to say it out loud. Gold stars.

      Delete
    3. "you may meat a strange ear........................." ;p

      Delete
  2. Costume idea: "Jungle Gym" - pith helmet with straight outta the 90s workout videos clothes (don't forget the leg warmers and arm bands!)/hand weights

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. or Jungle Jim? I'm thinking something old timey with a handlebar mustache.

      Delete
  3. I think it would be fun to dress up in all kinds of puns and see how many people can find them all -- from your hair net decorated with mosquitoes to your shoes labeled "wit" on top and "brevity" on the bottom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Last year my neighborhood ran a scavenger hunt for yard art. Our prompt was "bare necessities," (a la Jungle Book) and we put out a stuffed bear sitting on a pyramid of toilet paper. Maybe an idea for the Room of Requirement?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Malinda from Twisted Translations - who like you is one of my favorite people on the Internet - did a song made entirely of puns, which you simply must listen to:

    A song made entirely of puns

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the song Wet Dream is entirely puns on sea life. it's by Kip Adotta. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l1GvDWtccI

      Delete
  6. As a nod to the recent Jungle Cruise movie you could get a rock and write THE on it. People could take celebrity photos with THE rock at the helm of the wheel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love this! You could even announce on the invitations: "Celebrity Guest the Rock will be in attendance! Yes, really!"

      Delete
    2. Yes, yes, yes, that's a great idea!

      Delete
  7. A friend of mine always wanted to wear ox horns and a dunce cap... Oxymoron.

    ReplyDelete
  8. There’s this silly poem I used to teach my first graders. Fearless Flying Hotdogs by Jack Prelutsky. Some of the puns in the poem are ’mustard in formation’, ‘catch up with each other’, ‘spread our wings with relish’, and ‘there’s never a sour crowd!’

    ReplyDelete
  9. If you don't already have enough giant builds to fill your time, some pvc and and a big fountain pump in your tub, plus some dollar tree ferns and moss could make a pretty decent back side of water in your guest bathroom tub. Just sayin'...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Not jungle related but this is our 3 year old's favorite joke...
    What do you call a train with a cold?
    Achoo-choo train

    ReplyDelete
  11. Do your drinks range in size from 8oz to a whopping 1 cup?

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is awesome. I'd love to borrow some ideas from this for my dad's Pirate birthday. (I'M 80.)(say it out loud). I'll have to see what I can come up with. I'm drawing blanks right now... (oh... dress as an artist and use an eraser as your tool... drawing blank images on bits of paper!)

    ReplyDelete
  13. If you call it "de Nile" it sounds all fancy like French :-D

    ReplyDelete
  14. The great children's singer "Gir-Raffi" or the historical poet/writer "Edgar "Hi-Poe-Punamous?" If you serve pickles, can it be a "Crock o' Dillies?" And I think the boat should be named "Jengle Queen."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, these suggestions all get my vote!

      Delete
    2. I just looked again at Suki' picture. She is seated perfectly in the middle as she surveys what you have done. Typical cat behavior! She is queen of her domain - even if she's not quite sure what that domain entails yet.

      Delete
  15. Poulet surprise - A startled (or startling), but literary, chicken (say it fast with a bit of a z sound rather than an s). Could be a costume or a menu item.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Clearly the boat should be named "A Jen Gracefully"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While many of the puns here are cute, this one HUGELY gets my vote. It is brilliant, personal, and positive! Nicely done.

      Delete
  17. Costumes: surgical scrubs & cap with fish scales = a sturgeon, pin-striped suit & giant eyes = Marlin Brando

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you could also do something with Goldie Hawn (or maybe Goldie Fawn?). Like Goldfish + Han Solo. Is that a pun or just a mash up, lol? Or even just a Gold Han.

      Delete
  18. Would appetizers be called can-nibbles?

    ReplyDelete
  19. I work in a public library and I have a paper fish at my desk. Why my coworkers ask why I have a fish hanging there (or any version of the question), I answer, "Oh, just for the halibut."
    I crack myself up. :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Having once entertianed being a Marine Biologist....Can you fathom it? Mother of Pearl wants 50 clams.
    Kelp you help me.

    ReplyDelete
  21. For the boat, how about 'Queen of Denial'?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Need a like button for all these comments! How about "Iguana hold your hand".
    ~SM3

    ReplyDelete
  23. I'll work on the an idea for the boat name. But I think it should be something positive. I like the De'Nile pun but it makes it seem like aging is thumbs down so I think something for accepting and positive would be nice.

    ReplyDelete
  24. How about celebr -age-sion? Or that can be on the invite/name of the party.

    ReplyDelete
  25. You've gotta call it "The Epboat" :D
    --sirk

    ReplyDelete
  26. We are renting an AirBnB right now and there is a type of lizard decoration on the the wall. My husband asked, What's that? I said, Art Gecko. There are also photos on the walls of a trip someone seemed to have taken to Africa. I think the big water loving animal in one of them has met his demise by now, making it a Hippoposthumous. In our house we give pun of the month awards. In July we will be married 40 years.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Have to tie that boat up somewhere at the party. The Moor the Merrier.

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful when commenting; dissenting opinions are great, but personal attacks or hateful remarks will be removed. Also, including a link? Then here's your html cheat sheet: <a href="LINK ADDRESS">YOUR TEXT</a>