Originally published at: From "Iraqi head seeks arms" to "Kids make nutritious snacks": Epic headline fails - Boing Boing
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Supposedly some journalist* had a headline ready in anticipation of the untimely death of Jerry Garcia (1995; he was only 53):
Head Dead Head Dead
(*possibly at the San Diego Union Tribune)
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Some of these are only easy to laugh at until you realize they are describing events of genuine tragedy.
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Back in the 80’s, one of the Seattle papers ran a headline reading something like “Haig shuttling to Argentina”, which isn’t wrong itself… except they posted it on the page right next to a picture of a guy with a long white beard peddling on a bicycle.
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I am very curious why Leno is dressed for a Martian roller derby.
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I have to say, although some are just idiotic (“Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says”), some of these feel quite deliberate (“Iraqi Head Seeks Arms”). I, too, am not entirely convinced they’re all real headlines, but I’m not sure which of the two types of headlines are less likely to be real…
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I’m not 100% sure these were ever actual headlines somewhere
I am 100% convinced several of them are entirely fictitious.
“British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands” rings false - we Brits don’t really ‘do’ waffles.
Now, if it had said Belgian … 
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I’m feeling a bit slow today. I had to read that one several times to realize “waffles” was being used as a verb.
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i was trying to find the “buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo” boingboing headline, but wikipedia will have to suffice
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Also that “British Left” was describing a group rather than an action.
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… I thought this topic was going to be about how outfits like the New York Times will change already-published headlines until they seem to be about a completely different event
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That one seems to be based on the apocryphal “Foot Heads Arms Body”
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My all time favorite was a news chyron: “Peshmerga Forces Head Through Turkey”
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and from a small paper in southern Indiana in the '60s:
BRIDGE MAY GET BUILT
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Then there was the story about the couple of tramps in the town of Row, Surrey, who regretted getting into an argument on a boat:
“Row riff-raff rue row row”
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Makes me think the headlines that are clearly deliberate are too good to be true. There will always be some inept news source that will come up with idiotic headlines.
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Indeed, British Left crumpet on Falklands makes much more sense. 
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