Cape Town writer Mike Wills has released his annual roundup of standout headlines from 2025, noting a revival in clever wordplay. The collection includes amusing, alarming, and mundane examples from reputable news outlets worldwide. It was published on December 21, 2025, by Daily Maverick.
Mike Wills, a Cape Town-based writer and radio host, continues his five-year tradition of curating headlines that entertain or puzzle readers. In his 2025 edition for Daily Maverick, he highlights seven standout examples of revived headline ingenuity from credible news sites, excluding pure clickbait.
The 'Clever stuff' category features gems such as 'Colonel Bogey' from Daily Maverick, referencing South African National Defence Force leaders golfing while troops face dangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other notables include The Economist's 'Xiaomi The Way' on the Chinese firm's success, Financial Times' 'Upwardly Mobiles' about designer phones, News24's 'Graze Anatomy' for a South African food dictionary review, The Guardian's 'Love rats: Canadians get chance to feed rodents named after old flames to owls,' and New York Post's 'On your Marx, get set, Zo! Socialist Mamdani wins race for mayor.'
Wills also covers alarming headlines like The Times' warning on remote sex toys being weaponized, New York Times' report of a passenger swallowing rosary beads on a flight to Miami, and Daily Mail's account of a father using his infant to clear snow from a car. Least interesting ones include The Times' crisp-dunking experiment and Daily Mail's flight attendant greeting explanation.
In AI-related picks, The Guardian notes audiobook actors' concerns over robot narrators lacking orgasm sounds, while The Times reports ChatGPT inventing nonexistent vacation spots. Political entries feature BusinessLive's MK Party claim to fix Johannesburg and News24's story of a nonexistent deputy CFO appointment in Merafong municipality.
Sports oddities range from a Masters golfer urinating in a creek to a WNBA player struck by a sex toy. Other news includes a cheese-rolling winner disliking cheese and a Norwegian finding a ship in his garden. Wills bemoans the decline of puns but celebrates 2025's uptick.