Defend the Indefensible: Puns

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The lowest form of humor, indeed. Reading pun threads is roughly equivalent to watching one of those Worst Extreme Sports Injuries videos in sheer cringe-worthiness.

Sorry, but puns are best left relegated to abysmal sitcoms and greeting cards that only your grandmother thinks are funny.

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/289/1065/400/Ralph%20Wiggum%20Valentine%20Let

― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:00 (twenty years ago)

shakespeare likes them

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:02 (twenty years ago)

Do you hate pun?

― estela (estela), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:04 (twenty years ago)

Estela tells the gag so I dont have to =)

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:05 (twenty years ago)

LOVE THE PUNNER, HATE THE PUN

― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:07 (twenty years ago)

Oh god please don't turn this into a pun thread.

― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:08 (twenty years ago)

they pass the time. that's the most important thing.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:12 (twenty years ago)

New Amsterdam it's become much too much
Till I have the possession of everything she touches
Till I step on the brakes to get out of her clutches
Till I speak double dutch to a real double duchess

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:13 (twenty years ago)

I never met a bad pun I didn't love.

― Atilleeeeeeee the Pun (Leee), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:35 (twenty years ago)

Defend the Indefensible: Nuns.

― jeffrey (johnson), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:37 (twenty years ago)

defend the indefensible: dunns

http://www.weinschenk.de/bb/images/person/d_dunn.jpg http://www.mandys-web.de/images/Jim%20Carrey/Filme/Almighty/noradunn.jpg

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:46 (twenty years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/images/300/desperation_man.jpg

I blame myself for all of this.

― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:50 (twenty years ago)

At least it's some kind of wit.

― Gross Punnage (Leee), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:54 (twenty years ago)

http://photos1.flickr.com/4230279_d975bde965.jpg

― jeffrey (johnson), Monday, 22 August 2005 02:58 (twenty years ago)

YES.

Punning = http://ring.freakycowbot.com/images/paste.gif

― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:05 (twenty years ago)

Funning =

http://buffoonery.org/moblog/images/1090178448Picture014.jpg ?

― jeffrey (johnson), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

that israeli funny

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:22 (twenty years ago)

i love puns

― webber (webber), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:34 (twenty years ago)

do you know about tennis balls? they've been 'round for years

― webber (webber), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:34 (twenty years ago)

i could singapore song about it, but now i moscow

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:35 (twenty years ago)

(my favourite pun)

xpost

― webber (webber), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:35 (twenty years ago)

More proof that puns are base and wrong: Fox News looooooves them.

― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:46 (twenty years ago)

No pun intended' annoys me. Usually it's said to someone who didn't intend to pun and can't be bothered with whatever pun is being inferred by the punster.
-- estela (estelaisale...), August 19th, 2005 11:04 AM. (later)

(that was from the 'phrases that annoy the shit out of you thread', see, I have been puntificating on this subject already this week.)

― estela (estela), Monday, 22 August 2005 04:05 (twenty years ago)

Rufus T. Firefly: (melodramatically) Look at Chicolini. He sits there alone. An abject figure.
Chicolini: I abject!
Firefly: Chicolini, give me a number from one to ten.
Chicolini: Eleven.
Firefly: Right!
Chicolini: Now I ask-a you one. What is it has a trunk, but no key, weighs 2,000 pounds and lives in the circus?
Prosecutor: That's irrelevant!
Chicolini: Irr-elephant? Hey, that's the answer! There's a whole lotta irr-elephants in the circus.
Judge: That sort of testimony we can eliminate.
Chicolini: Thats-a fine. I'll take some.
Judge: You'll take what?
Chicolini: Eliminate. A nice, cool glass eliminate.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 22 August 2005 04:07 (twenty years ago)

Mrs. Teasdale: What's that?
Rufus T. Firefly: Sounds to me like mice.
Mrs. Teasdale: Mice? Mice don't play music!
Rufus T. Firefly: No? How about the old maestro?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 22 August 2005 04:10 (twenty years ago)

there ain't no sanity clause!

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 22 August 2005 04:21 (twenty years ago)

Puns are often bad.

Except this one:

Junior year latin, the teacher, who was a bit of a crackpot, was going off about something, when a friend of mine in the class, Mr. D, made some forgettable pun.

Teacher: Did you know puns are the lowest form of humor?
D: I see. What's the highest?
Teacher: Satire.
D: Oh, really? I've always found it sort of juvenile.

Now, I am sure this joke has been made in many classics classes in some form or another, but it's still the only pun I've ever gotten a really big kick out of.

And Donald Duck Dunn needs no defense.

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Monday, 22 August 2005 04:46 (twenty years ago)

We're all Dunn here. Except for Tuomas -- he's Finnish.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 22 August 2005 04:53 (twenty years ago)

I don't get it, Scott.

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Monday, 22 August 2005 04:56 (twenty years ago)

(think Juvenal)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 22 August 2005 04:58 (twenty years ago)

http://www.yspp.org/media/libraryImages/stopSignLo.jpg http://www.ciadvertising.org/SA/fall_02/adv382j/ilovebamboo/donkey/image/donkey2.gif http://www.yspp.org/media/libraryImages/stopSignLo.jpg http://www.ciadvertising.org/SA/fall_02/adv382j/ilovebamboo/donkey/image/donkey2.gif http://www.yspp.org/media/libraryImages/stopSignLo.jpg http://www.ciadvertising.org/SA/fall_02/adv382j/ilovebamboo/donkey/image/donkey2.gif http://www.yspp.org/media/libraryImages/stopSignLo.jpg http://www.ciadvertising.org/SA/fall_02/adv382j/ilovebamboo/donkey/image/donkey2.gif http://www.yspp.org/media/libraryImages/stopSignLo.jpg http://www.ciadvertising.org/SA/fall_02/adv382j/ilovebamboo/donkey/image/donkey2.gif

― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 22 August 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Apparently Americans don't like puns but the British and the Irish love them (see Joyce, Beckett, Flann O'Brien etc etc etc)

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

... that was according to a worldwide study of what makes different nationalities laugh. Of course, if you call a pun "wordplay" then it autoamtically becomes more acceptable...

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

http://www.bigpunforever.com/8y.jpg

― stelf)xxxx, Monday, 22 August 2005 14:38 (twenty years ago)

Pun on pun crime.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Monday, 22 August 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

Opunration Puncrime

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 22 August 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)

Rocky: Do you know what an A-bomb is?
Bullwinkle: Certainly. A bomb is what some people call our show.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

That's not quite a pun but I couldn't find any better R&B quotes.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

Pun crock.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

The pun is mightier than the sword.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

"The two-fold word-play in ‘semantic’ as ‘mantic + seed’ illustrates the fundamental division into which puns can be classed. The most familiar are homophones or homonyms, which can be registered and ‘got’ by eye or ear: mantic. And then there are etymological puns, accessible only to those who can see or hear the semen in semantic. We can designate this ‘etymological wordplay.’ It chiefly consists in exposing, by a hint, the hidden, past, occluded sense of a word: to speak of a candidate turning pale, or a seed being sown in a seminar, is to lift the veil, to expose the latency of words. West is at his impressive best in the close reading of Thoreau, who says of the homophonic pun that there is no accidental relationship: in ‘charitable society’ he hears ‘chattable society’ and insists that “the analogies of words are never whimsical and meaningless, but stand for real likenesses.” This is to say that if we notice the similarity in the sound of two utterances, it must be because of some semantic similarity. There are far too many phonetic similarities for more than a fraction ever to be divulged to us. (Freud would make a similar claim against arbitrariness, though his ‘slips’ are truly puritanical in the forensic power they give to the investigator.)"

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

"Puns and plays-on-words can be tedious in the extreme; all self-conscious effect serves to lift the reader out of the spell of the poem, so they can give the poet a wee round of applause - and then you've lost them. One exception to this is the etymological pun, which, like all our most effective magical techniques, is too quiet for the reader to hear. This is simply when we use a word fully conscious of its ancestry; we play not on its present ambiguity, but on its history."

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, the problem with that is it's wrong.

Once you lift the reader out, you get to decide where you want your reader thrown.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

The problem with most puns in writing (not the etymological/Joycean puns cozen details above, OTM btw) is that they are so painfully obvious that reading them is usually like getting hit on the head with a mallet. They are the verbal equivalent of slapstick.

I suppose it's not that puns as a device have absolutely no place in writing or even discourse, but rather that they are so often poorly used by people without sufficient discernment or skill, too pleased with themselves and their prosaic wordplay to realize that it doesn't necessarily serve them well. They "lift" and distract without consciousness of its effect on the larger whole of their work. Or worse, they are simply not funny enough to carry it off.

― Laura H. (laurah), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

I too hate it when someone tries to lift and then can't carry it off.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 02:40 (twenty years ago)

That's not quite a pun but I couldn't find any better R&B quotes.

"Be with us next time for 'Avalanche Is Better Than None,' or 'Snow's Your Old Man'"

― weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 02:57 (twenty years ago)

http://www.motonews.com/tfs/_borders/peabody4.gif
"Of course, the waiter, whose name is James Edward Nasium, went on to open a very successful franchise of his own."
"I've never heard of him, Mr. Peabody."
"You never heard of...Jim Nasium?"

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 03:11 (twenty years ago)

people without sufficient discernment

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

http://www.qsl.net/kb9ypc/images/critic/wheel%20be%20right%20back.jpg
http://www.qsl.net/kb9ypc/images/critic/we

― pr00de descending a staircase (pr00de), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 03:28 (twenty years ago)

Thank you weather1ngda1eson and J.D. for saving me from a rocky start. I couldn't have punned it without you.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)

I like them in jokes. I don't like them in titles of academic works.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 04:36 (twenty years ago)

Now you're saying there's something wrong with slapstick?! Joyce:puns::Beckett:slapstick.

There's nothing wrong with puns, even "atrocious" puns can be awesome if they're done in the right way. Can someone do all of I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again's introductions to the Greek dinner party? "Euripedes... and his brother, Eiripados."

It's like any other genre or tool or gimmick ever: It can be used well, or it can be used poorly.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 06:48 (twenty years ago)

Casuistry OTM. "Countryside - killing Piers Morgan"

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

And anyway, the pun is the highest form of humour. If humour can be defined as a rapid change from one point of view to another. From Wikipedia on humor:

Perhaps the essence of humour lies in the presentation of something familiar to a person, so they think they know the natural follow-on thought or conclusion, then providing a twist through presentation something different from what the audience expected (see surprise), or else the natural result of interpreting the original situation in a different, less common, way.

A pun occupied two points of view at the same time, and your brain jumps from one POV to another. Hence puns are the best type, simply because they move from one POV to the other the quickest, hence the funniest.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

They are the verbal equivalent of slapstick

I would say that, in conversation, punning well relies on a rapidity of thought and the ability to bring two or more unconnected strands together in a "pleasing" way - it's not remotely "slapstick". A lot of the pleasure comes from the providing of some kind of "structure" where there was none before. But, I confess, I think in puns and interconnections constantly, there's probably something wrong with me! Oh and Barry Cryer = Britain's best punster.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 12:11 (twenty years ago)

Even if you like puns, saying they are the "highest" form of humor is pretty bold. They're pretty obviously one of the simplest. The "surprise" they give the reader is that two different words sound similar, and usually, that's all there is to the joke.

There is a lot linguistic potential in the "jump" you describe here, though, which is why I love metaphors and similes. However, more is usually asked of them. There has to be some resonance or relationship in the comparison between the two things beyond the mere sound of the words that represent them. If the phonological congruity is all you've got, that is pretty lame.

And of course, punning well (especially extemporaneously) requires cleverness. But my premise is that unfortunately most people do not pun well. I mean, if you're going to do it, at least pick words and images that contrast in interesting ways, or comparisons that are totally, totally absurd. Example of a pun I saw on ILX that was actually funny and ludicrous and awesome:

I LOVE A MAN IN UNICORN

-- Nordicskillz (t1nym1n...) (webmail), May 2nd, 2003 6:42 AM. (Nordicskillz) (link)

― Laura H. (laurah), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

Phew! I thought this was a racist thread about Punjabi gang members who talk really really loud no matter where they are, about getting pussy and BUDDY OVER HERE, even if front of your parents in your own house.... I FUCKING HATE YOU TEJPAUL THAT WAS SO EMBARASSING YOU"RE NEVER COMING OVER AGAIN

― LeCoq (LeCoq), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 02:53 (twenty years ago)

Nice to see "LeCoq" on the pun thread finally.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 02:59 (twenty years ago)

WHY ARE WE HIERARCHIZING HUMOR, WHICH ONLY PERPETUATES BINARISTIC PATRILINEAL CONCEPTS!!!

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

http://www.awsp.org/SLP/slp-images/top10.gif

― Laura H. (laurah), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:42 (twenty years ago)

http://www.aaronrhodes.org/images/food-pyramid-color.jpg

― Laura H. (laurah), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:46 (twenty years ago)

http://jamillan.com/geek.gif

― Laura H. (laurah), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:49 (twenty years ago)

I think Dat Phan used those diagrams.

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

― harry s tfuman (and what), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 21:45 (sixteen years ago)

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn0aq2pa8SY&feature=player_embedded

I don't get how this guy is the champion – "can Congo" is inexcusable even if this shit if off the cuff. Think longhair hat guy on the right had some plants in the audience but I think he did the best. I can't tell if the guy after glasses stache starts every time by pausing blankly because he was just having a hard time starting, or if he was recoiling from the badness that preceded him. Glasses stache was really bad.

― Col. Pinkney Lugenbeel (Abbbottt), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 04:09 (fourteen years ago)

My friend emailed me that vid with "thinking of you" as the subject.

― Col. Pinkney Lugenbeel (Abbbottt), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 04:11 (fourteen years ago)

I can't believe nobody used "Hungary".

― Telephoneface (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 04:13 (fourteen years ago)

Agree that pretty much the only funny puns are the really stupid ones ("Paddy O'Furniture") or the genuinely clever ones ("Turn Your Head and Coif".)

Me, I was fortunate enough to have been part of the all-time, breathtakingly awesome off-the-cuff pun. At the office years ago:

Mary: Scott, I'm tired. Will you go get my printouts?
Scott: Get 'em yourself! Who are you, the Queen?

(Lorrel, overhearing, seizes the moment)

Lorrel: "Mary, Queen of Scott!"

― a "goaty"-style beard (Myonga Vön Bontee), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 07:22 (fourteen years ago)

puns are all i know :(

― naches supreme (donna rouge), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 07:33 (fourteen years ago)

Surely if humour is the rapid turn from one meaning to another, then puns are indeed the highest form of humour, since they contain both points of view at the same time?

― Yossarian's sense of humour (NotEnough), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 08:07 (fourteen years ago)

The Mary Queen of Scott one reminds me of Alistair and Lucy's wedding party the other week:

Person 1: Look at Ali, he's hammered
Person 2: Haha! HAMMERED ALI!

― broodje kroket (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 10:26 (fourteen years ago)

I just tried to sb the thread starter and got an error message - damn coding screwing with my pointless symbolic gesture :(

― puppetry of the pulis (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 10:51 (fourteen years ago)

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