puns that you had missed

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when was the last time you realised that you missed an obvious pun? not necessarily a pun involving the word "obvious".

1. For about two years I never realised/thought of the product "Micro Chips" was a pun. I just thought "oh microwaveable chips!! great!" and then one day i was like OMG MICROCHIPS! and felt really embarrassed

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess, if you have longed for an old pun that you hadn't heard for ages, you can post about it here too.

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I realised the Beatles was a pun until I was about 25.

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't realise "Yerself is Steam" by Mercury Rev was a pun until someone mentioned it on ILM.

My brother never realised that Manda Rin out of Bis was a pun either.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

yerself is steam. ha. i get it now.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a mattress company here in NYC called "Sleepy's" and their more recent ad campaign has following tagline:

Trust Sleepy's For the Rest of Your Life!

I thought, "hmmmm.....that's an awful lot to ask of their customers...lifelong brand loyalty!" The pun of it being the rest of your life (as in relaxed slumber) was completely lost on me until just recently.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

the arrow in the FedEx logo

― Frankenstein On Ice (blueski), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

The arrows in the old British Rail logo. The shame.

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

my roomate got this silly mailing from cingular announcing their merger with at&t but it was in the format of a wedding invitation. At the bottom it said 'reception to follow' and I thought 'so where's the party at?' - little did I know that I was stupid.

on arrested development joe or whatever his name is bought a boat called the 'seaward.' my other roomate pointed out that it was a pun for c-word, that I didnt pick up on.

― still bevens (bscrubbins), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

The michaael jackson video where MJ and girl are eating popcorn. The film ends and the announcer says "See you next tuesday".

Mmmm.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Frank's APA.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm still wondering if 'Rock The Vote' is an allusion to the phrase 'rock the boat'.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

The fact that there was a link between the alter egos of the rappers Blak Twang and Fallacy (Tony Rotton and Danny Vicious) escaped me until about a week ago.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

is 'Trading Spouses' (the american version of 'Wife Swap') a pun on 'Trading Spaces' (the american version of 'Changing Rooms' (which is itself a pun) which is itself a pun on 'Trading Places')?

my brain hurts.

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 12:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Mother of god, I can't believe I had to sit here and say 'yerself is steam, I don't get it' about four times before I got it. Me am tick.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I only realised THIS MORNING that Adam Ant was a pun.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I still don't get 'yerself is steam' :( :( :(

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Your self-esteem.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:08 (twenty-one years ago)

(That's a pretty bad pun, innit?)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't get that either, Archel.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:11 (twenty-one years ago)

It took me decades to figure out the joke in "If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

your self esteem -- it's not a very good pun.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

[i]I only realised THIS MORNING that Adam Ant was a pun.[/i]

OMG!!! I hadn't seen that either! How embarrassing.

― Hanna (Hanna), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, neither had I!

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Conclusion: all these puns are rubbish.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"Don't think twice, it's alright" I was listening to this last night and *ding* it's saying both "don't bother" and "don't even begin to think leaving me was okay."

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:32 (twenty-one years ago)

That's not a pun; it's just ambiguity

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

the self esteem one works better in certain accents.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I only got Aladdin Sane ("A lad insane") like last year or something. That was embarassing.

― papa november (papa november), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I never got that... wow.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

It took me decades to figure out the joke in "If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

Yep, me too.

― papa november (papa november), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i knew the "insane" bit but never thought of "a lad"!

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

isn't it about bowies brother, who had severe mental problems & committed suicide?

― DJ Salinger (joni), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, I never got any of these before (Yerself is Steam, Adam Ant, Aladdin Sane)!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

It was "See you next Wednesday" in the Thriller video, which isn't a pun, but it is a phrase director John Landis puts in every one of his movies.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

The michaael jackson video where MJ and girl are eating popcorn. The film ends and the announcer says "See you next tuesday".

I so don't get it.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i think the answer lies in mark's tenuous grasp of 'pun'.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

.. and I was fibbing anyway.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

that's like C U Next Tuesday, right?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I never got the visual pun of the 7-Up "Uncola" glass until some advanced age of decrepitude.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

walking up some steps just the other day, it struck me:
Rap City ... Rhadsody!

also, i amazingly didn't get Lipps, Inc. until quite recently. sheesh.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I am now worried that there are loads of puns out there I haven't got yet.

Is I Love Everything a pun?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

This happens to me absolutely all the time, and in some cases -- even worse -- with that nagging must-be-a-pun sense that drives one nuts: I'm happy to have the Mercury Rev one finally worked out for me. I can't think of any good recent examples, though: the last one I recall was hearing a Spinanes song and noticing the "inane" in there.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't get Yerself is Steam either. Knew all the others mentioned here, although admittedly it took a while for me to realise with Manda Rin.

Perry Farrell took a while, too.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

In similar news I had a long and frustrating conversation with someone wherein I was pointing out, with amazement, that the title of Philip Roth's The Human Stain could be read in two different ways, and that ads for the film version seemed to be inflecting it in the one of those two ways that I hadn’t thought of. Unfortunately I couldn’t seem to make the different inflections clear to the person I was talking to. I’ll try it with you guys: I had always read the title (without having read the book) as being “The Human Stain” like “The Human Condition”; the film trailer suddenly made me realize it was possibly supposed to be “The Human Stain” like “The Human Cannonball” or “The Human Calculator,” referring to the individual character.

I share this only because I need some reassurance that I wasn't being a bonehead in this conversation.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

And wait, what's the pun with Perry Farrell? (If it's supposed to be "peripheral," that is the worst thing I have ever heard.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not a pun, it's a spoonerism.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

yes Nabisco, peripheral.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Suddenly that's better than the "Ferry Peril" Spoonerism I thought Dan was hinting toward.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Aw.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 1788 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

lol yeah. Wiki lists many reasons other than the cover: "Draw The Line is a classic title that says it all, the coke lines, heroin lines, drawing symbolic lines and crossing them all – no matter what."[17]

― once beloved, recently troubled (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 19 June 2025 17:42 (nine months ago)

The shared discovery of the multiple references inherent in Draw The Line surely produced giggle fits amongst the band that went unmatched until the Night In The Ruts title was conceived.

― henry s, Thursday, 19 June 2025 17:55 (nine months ago)

four months pass...

hotmail

― koogs, Sunday, 19 October 2025 03:08 (five months ago)

― Kim Kimberly, Sunday, 19 October 2025 03:19 (five months ago)

html, or hot male?

― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 19 October 2025 03:31 (five months ago)

The name "Hotmail" was chosen out of many possibilities ending in "-mail" as it included the letters HTML, the markup language used to create web pages (to emphasize this, the original type casing was "HoTMaiL")

― Kim Kimberly, Sunday, 19 October 2025 03:47 (five months ago)

Bowie's 1980 Floor Show. Which he performed shortly after George Orwell's widow refused him permission to do a musical based on 1984.

― Zelda Zonk, Sunday, 19 October 2025 04:04 (five months ago)

(my original 4am thoughts were 'hot-male'. it didn't make a lot of sense. 'html' does)

― koogs, Sunday, 19 October 2025 07:40 (five months ago)

Roger Corman and Brian Aldiss using the title Frankenstein Unbound.

― Nicholas Raybeat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 October 2025 21:20 (five months ago)

it was adapted from a book of the same title, which presumably was a reference to Percy Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, since the og Frankenstein was subtitled The Modern Prometheus? but curious to know what you mean

― budo jeru, Sunday, 26 October 2025 02:29 (five months ago)

て

― Nicholas Raybeat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 October 2025 04:05 (five months ago)

Yes, that is exactly what I meant.

― Nicholas Raybeat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 October 2025 04:17 (five months ago)

Omg

“Deflatormouse”

― mixed martial farts (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 31 October 2025 02:55 (five months ago)

two months pass...

La mort de l'auteur is a play on Le Morte d'Arthur.

― Eric Blore Is President (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2026 16:27 (two months ago)

Is Alice in Chains a pun on Alice in Wonderland???? If so, I missed it till today

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Saturday, 17 January 2026 16:11 (two months ago)

Apparently yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_N'_Chains?wprov=sfti1#Recordings_and_name_change

― obvious old hat (rob), Saturday, 17 January 2026 20:41 (two months ago)

it’s not a pun?

― Gentler Death Squads Please (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 17 January 2026 21:16 (two months ago)

Yeah it derives from AiW but it's not a pun.

― visiting, Saturday, 17 January 2026 22:33 (two months ago)

And we were saying, 'Alice in Wonderland? How about this, how about that? Maybe...Alice in Chains? We could put her in bondage stuff!'

god what a bunch of boneheads

― budo jeru, Saturday, 17 January 2026 23:13 (two months ago)

Pansy Division

― EsBeeKid (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 18 January 2026 22:51 (two months ago)

it’s not a pun?

in the specific confines of this thread, the definition of pun has expanded dramatically over the years aiui

but yes i should have put it in the cultural allusions that you had missed thread

in any case, the origin story was prescient bc whenever i think of their name as anything more than a pure signifier of the band, what i picture is an AiC tee from one of those bootleg merch ads in the back of Hit Parader or similar, that showed Alice from the Brady Bunch with a big smile on her face and all wrapped up in big cartoony bondagey shackles and chains

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Sunday, 18 January 2026 23:01 (two months ago)

Not a pun but I just realized after 37 years the joke of Weird Al's "Even Worse" cover is that his jacket has like three times as many zippers and buckles

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/Michael_Jackson_-_Bad.png
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4c/Weird_Al_Yankovic_-_Even_Worse.jpg/250px-Weird_Al_Yankovic_-_Even_Worse.jpg

― EsBeeKid (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 23 January 2026 19:29 (two months ago)

Truly a testament to how absurd Michael Jackson was that it just struck me as pastiche and I never clocked it

― EsBeeKid (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 23 January 2026 19:32 (two months ago)

MJ's was created by cult leader and child rapist Tony Alamo. Behind the Bastards did a good episode on him.

― adam t (dat), Friday, 30 January 2026 01:39 (two months ago)

two weeks pass...

ok so i've just had the "why did the chicken cross the road?" joke explained to me and omfg whaaaaat?!?

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:07 (one month ago)

always assumed it was just a dumb anti-joke, fuuuuuck

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:11 (one month ago)

It is the definitive anti-joke. Any "explanation" involving puns is a retcon job

― EsBeeKid (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:15 (one month ago)

idgi

― Gentler Death Squads Please (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:15 (one month ago)

"to get to the other side" - it wanted to die, i.e. pass over to the spirit realm

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:16 (one month ago)

To get to the other's hide. Chicken has a booty call y'see

― Abby Gore (Neanderthal), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:16 (one month ago)

and i can buy that, why else would it be something vulnerable to being hit by traffic? i mean it's not 'why did the elephant cross the road?" xp

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:18 (one month ago)

Nick, I have a bridge you might be interested in buying.

― The Olde, Old, Very Olde Man. (Tom D.), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:20 (one month ago)

When it first appeared in print, it was

"Why does a chicken cross the street?"

"Because it wants to get on the other side!".

― Abby Gore (Neanderthal), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:20 (one month ago)

NickB, There is absolutely no way that was the intention of a joke that's over 100 years old and has served as the stand-in for anti-humor and misdirection for a century. You are being had by someone with TikTok brain

― EsBeeKid (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:21 (one month ago)

For a start it dates to 1847 when there was considerably less traffic on the roads.

― The Olde, Old, Very Olde Man. (Tom D.), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:21 (one month ago)

(xp)

― The Olde, Old, Very Olde Man. (Tom D.), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:21 (one month ago)

really don't know how i feel about this thing tbh, but i can definitely see there is indeed a pun lurking in there

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:23 (one month ago)

1847?? shit ok, hmmmm

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:24 (one month ago)

Xxxpost I'm sure the people spreading this are also telling people they were today years old when they learned Michael Jackson was singing "ima say it one more time I'm not gon stop" on Wanna Be Starting Something

― Abby Gore (Neanderthal), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:24 (one month ago)

Chickens, that's where I'm a viking

― Abby Gore (Neanderthal), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:24 (one month ago)

Don't you know the YeOlde1800sFiresideTropes.com "Chicken Trample" trope of a chicken being killed by a horse-driven buggy going 2 mph?

― EsBeeKid (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:25 (one month ago)

tbf anyone telling it in the modern era is totally summoning up a picture of a busy car-strewn road, knowing full well that chicked is probably toast. no-one hearing it now is thinking "why did the chicken cross a quiet country lane, 150 years ago?"

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:31 (one month ago)

Anyone who hears this joke in the modern era that doesn't know its reputation as the seminal example of anti-humor is maybe a 7 year old who isn't going to get your pun anyway

― EsBeeKid (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:50 (one month ago)

all true but i'm never going to be able to unsee the pun there now, whether i want to or not

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Friday, 13 February 2026 18:56 (one month ago)

The body of folklore/jokelore around chicken jokes is interesting as a case study of pre-internet meme spread.

The template being amenable to riffage and variation is also interesting. The turtle? To get to the shell station. The turkey? He was stapled to the chicken.

― calmer chameleon (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 13 February 2026 19:21 (one month ago)

I only just realised the pun in Small Prophets!

― bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Friday, 20 February 2026 18:53 (one month ago)

one month passes...

Just realized that the Harlem Globetrotters were not only trotting round the world playing basketball, but were also trotting up and down the court bouncing a globe.

― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 26 March 2026 00:54 (one week ago)

New Power Generation

Like I thought it was because they were new, powerful, and replacing the previous generation

I didn’t make the connection that “power is something that is generated” until I saw the words “Ontario Power Generation” for the 1000000th time and thought, once again: “it’s cute that Ontario’s power company named itself after Prince’s band”

― washed spice (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 2 April 2026 00:02 (one hour ago)

Snoopy fights the red baron because he's a dog fighter.

― adam t (dat), Thursday, 2 April 2026 00:08 (one hour ago)

Mind... blown

― a burrito, my gazebo (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 2 April 2026 00:33 (one hour ago)

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