puns that you had missed

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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)

Someone reassure me about The Human Stain, though, please.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I always assumed it referred to what was left after someone jumped off a building.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i finally thought about that "rock the vote/boat" one last week. i suppose it doesn't exist over here so i don't feel too dumb.

i realized abt two years after the film was released that "con air" was a pun.

― m. (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

So y'all never heard the joke:

A man phoned me last night, singing "Stand and Deliver". I told him he'd got the wrong number, but he was Adam Ant.

― Steve.n. (sjkirk), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I am dumb. How is Con Air a pun?

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.conair.com/conair/index.jsp

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:12 (twenty-one years ago)

That's the part of the pun I got -- it took me a while to notice that the plot was about a convict being transported by an airline.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh nabisco...

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

In my own defense, I didn't see the movie and had no interest in seeing it: it mattered very little to me what it was about. All I knew was that it was one of those movies from that season where every movie had a shot of an explosion and a piece of CGI debris flying directly into the camera.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm confused. What do blowdryers have to do with Con Air?

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm confused. What do blowdryers have to do with Con Air?

http://www.ociojoven.com/ezimagecatalogue/catalogue/variations/150x500/17042-150x500.jpg

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"that season"

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I take it that Con Air's an American thing = I am not as dumb as I thought.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate to chide, but anybody who gives somebody a hard time for not getting the not-gotten pun is not being a good netizen.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm neither american, nor have i seen con air.. but... AIR CON, ppl!

― m. (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

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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 (three minutes ago)

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