British Comedy Guide

Punctuation help with play title

I have a title: 'Codename Blah' (obviously 'Blah' isn't the real word). Would you write:

Codename Blah

Codename - Blah

OR

Codename: Blah

????

Any of them is suitable. I've not read the book, so blah might be a good codename for the operation...

The last one for me.

The space is OK.

The hyphen is f**king gash.

The colon is 50 shades of win.

Thanks, All.

Quote: SimonWing @ November 23 2012, 11:57 PM GMT

The hyphen is f**king gash.

Do you mean gauche?

Punctuation doesn't really apply to play titles-after all it's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, not Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and exclamation marks should never be used at all in titles.

Tell that to Billy Wilder!

Quote: evan rubivellian @ November 27 2012, 10:53 AM GMT

Tell that to Billy Wilder!

And Westward Ho! of course, but usually they are left out. It's not Psycho! and Scream!.

Image

No mention of Top Secret!(?) For shame!

I've never used exclamation marks or question marks in titles ( but that's an idea). My own instinct was the colon and I've gone for that(so far).

Quote: keewik @ November 27 2012, 10:51 PM GMT

My own instinct was the colon and I've gone for that(so far).

Please, this is a comedy forum not a place to brag about your sexual peccadilloes!

I reckon it depends on the blah and the style of the piece. One blah might work one way and another won't. We need to know the blah.

Of course, this is the 21st century so you have to keep your title up to date.

Blah@Codename. com

... Could be a wise option.

(I put a space in so it didn't appear as a hypertext link.)

Quote: evan rubivellian @ November 28 2012, 11:22 AM GMT

Of course, this is the 21st century so you have to keep your title up to date.

Blah@Codename. com

This apparently dates back to 1971. Okay, it didn't really become a cliché until the 2000s, but it's still not really up to date. #blahcodename may be better, if you want to go down that road...

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