When I worked in the newspapers, a ‘blooper’ day was the busiest of all. One, because it started early with that portentous call from the editor at 5.00am (four hours after you have closed the edition and hit the bed) informing (read yelling) about the slip-up and second, because confab on the subject would be an incessant process thereafter. Nothing else would matter that day – murders, malnourished kids, bird-hit flights, train delays would take a hike. The gaffe would be up for discussion at every edit meeting, every rest room mini conference, lunch time, bus-top, etc.

But today, away from the newspapers, bloopers bring a smile. Take for instance the Times of India mistake on page 1 today. The story was on condoms and the headline read Alarming droop in condom use…. (see above photo)

What is of comical value is not the spelling mistake but the apt usage of the word ‘droop’ in connection to the subject in question – condoms. So was the word droop intentional or a genuine error. We know it was an error but a funny one indeed and I hope the TOI gang is also chuckling along with us.

Another blooper I remember in the TOI was of a flyer page 1 article I had written. Something went wrong and the whole article appeared with every paragraph chopped to half. So all 8 paras had their top 4 lines missing! What sense the article made to any reader is anybody’s guess.

Bloopers are serious issues but always invoke a smile. Take for instance, the case in the tabloid MiD-Day; that used to publish a weekly legal column by a famous lawyer. The introduction of the lawyer, which always went as a single line at the end of the column read – Mxxx Mxxx is a noted criminal lawyer. One particular day this intro just went as Mxxx Mxxx is a noted criminal – no lawyer. While that was indeed a grave error, none of us could stop tittering. Even the editor who was essentially upset with the sub-editor, crackled along.

Hindustan Times, recently, went a step further. It published an entire article on top-of-page position, in a strange language. We at PaGaLGuY checked whether the language was Spanish or French but alas no, it was actually dummy text! Sub-editors sometimes use dummy text while laying out pages to gage the visual appeal – this dummy text possibly refused to leave.

In the early years in newspapers, errors were not tolerated and have heard of people losing their jobs. But these days editors publish front page apologies and some even invite readers to point out the errors.

But these days there is always the online edition which simply wipes away all the errors and makes the copy perfect!

Have a look at some more blooper newspaper headlines.

And now I see people on Facebook agree with me – that the error was probably intentional.