puns that you had missed

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (1840 of them)
(That's a pretty bad pun, innit?)

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

I didn't get that either, Archel.

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

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

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

Haha, neither had I!

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

Conclusion: all these puns are rubbish.

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

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

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

the self esteem one works better in certain accents.

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

I never got that... wow.

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

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

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

.. and I was fibbing anyway.

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

that's like C U Next Tuesday, right?

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

yes Nabisco, peripheral.

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

Aw.

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

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

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

I am dumb. How is Con Air a pun?

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

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

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

Oh nabisco...

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

"that season"

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

That's rubbish (as in, I didn't even think of that, and neither did anyone else, therefore too subtle, therefore rubbish).

Puns should be really obvious.

ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:09 (twenty years ago)

Je ne voudrais pas CONtinuer cette CONversation!

Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:21 (twenty years ago)

Why is con air = air con (or hairdryers for that matter) a pun for the film? I still dont get it.

Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:37 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure was covered in depth waaay earlier in this thread! or another thread - who can say

kinder, Friday, 18 April 2025 07:21 (two months ago)

When I was a child my parents were weirdly into light opera

I pity the foo fighter (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 18 April 2025 10:43 (two months ago)

> Jane Dark

jean d'arc?

(see also: Large Door)

koogs, Monday, 28 April 2025 12:34 (two months ago)

I've been aware of the band Fischer-Z for about 40 years and have only just realised that their name is a pun.

bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Tuesday, 29 April 2025 08:47 (two months ago)

Errrrrr... what?

Blake the Messenger (Tom D.), Tuesday, 29 April 2025 08:48 (two months ago)

fish's 'ead

bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Tuesday, 29 April 2025 08:52 (two months ago)

Had to look it up. That seems very weak – not surprised you didn't get it. Do people even talk about fish's heads? Just fish head is the norm, isn't it?

Alba, Tuesday, 29 April 2025 08:52 (two months ago)

It's so dire I hate them now.

Blake the Messenger (Tom D.), Tuesday, 29 April 2025 08:54 (two months ago)

huey smith's "rockin' pneumonia" = walking pneumonia

budo jeru, Monday, 5 May 2025 22:29 (two months ago)

yes and boogie woogie flu = Ougadougou Flu

Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 6 May 2025 16:41 (two months ago)

!!

Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 6 May 2025 16:50 (two months ago)

xp definitely a reference to an avian flu of foreign origin, but i'm assuming you're joking with the "ougadougo"

budo jeru, Tuesday, 6 May 2025 18:49 (two months ago)

indeed i am joking. but if I had to guess I would venture that "rockin' pneumonia" is in fact intended to be a pun on "walking" and it is one that I too missed until pointed out here. just having a lil fun

Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 6 May 2025 20:25 (two months ago)

heh, i thought it was cute but i had to ask because this is one of those threads where sometimes you just can't tell!

budo jeru, Tuesday, 6 May 2025 21:39 (two months ago)

I like to think I had noticed it years ago, but Massive Attack's Mezzanine mentions "all these half-flaws / will lead to mine" in the title track. A mezzanine being a half-floor.

assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 10 May 2025 09:01 (one month ago)

The internet suggests that "half floors" is the actual lyric.

Kim Kimberly, Saturday, 10 May 2025 16:07 (one month ago)

https://i.imgur.com/kZfpeiS.jpeg

jaymc, Saturday, 10 May 2025 16:10 (one month ago)

Who you callin a diphthong

zydecodependent (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 10 May 2025 20:48 (one month ago)

This is giving me flashbacks of a sketch from 'hilarious' 1980s comedy duo Little & Large that went approximately like this: "Is this lift OK?" "It's flawless" (man steps into lift and plummets) "I told him it was floorless". I guess this doesn't work in America (unless you're from Long Island?).

Nasty, Brutish & Short, Saturday, 10 May 2025 21:59 (one month ago)

Pawn by which I mean the chess piece, not pawn as in salacious material

zydecodependent (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 10 May 2025 22:09 (one month ago)

Same model as the Sandie Shaw pun that (most) Americans don’t get

Josefa, Saturday, 10 May 2025 22:23 (one month ago)

It doesn't work in parts of the UK either.

Blake the Messenger (Tom D.), Saturday, 10 May 2025 22:32 (one month ago)

imagining Massive Attack sung in a Zummerzet accent

assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 10 May 2025 23:04 (one month ago)

Exactly, it doesn't work in Bristol!

Blake the Messenger (Tom D.), Saturday, 10 May 2025 23:15 (one month ago)

four weeks pass...

Taco hell

doe on a hill (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 7 June 2025 05:34 (one month ago)

Because it got mentioned elsewhere on ilx today:

B.C.'s Quest for Tires is a horizontally scrolling video game designed by Rick Banks and Michael Bate and published by Sierra On-Line in 1983.

[...] The game's title is a play on the contemporaneous film Quest for Fire.

Kim Kimberly, Thursday, 12 June 2025 15:24 (three weeks ago)

this is embarrassing but somehow I only just realized the other day that Paramore = paramour

rob, Thursday, 12 June 2025 15:35 (three weeks ago)

really a spoonerism, but the volker kriegel track "mindwill"

budo jeru, Saturday, 14 June 2025 23:39 (three weeks ago)

Aerosmith’s album Draw The Line features a caricature line drawing as cover art.

once beloved, recently troubled (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 19 June 2025 15:57 (two weeks ago)

Boy, that ain't the only meaning either behind that one.

pplains, Thursday, 19 June 2025 16:44 (two weeks ago)

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 (two weeks 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 (two weeks ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.