What Punsters Are We

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Can puns ever be funny? Or are they are form of humour fit only for (i) the dustbin of history or (ii) yr dad?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Sometimes can be good but I have no interest in 'hur hur - that's really bad' puns.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 10:24 (twenty-two years ago)

heh once when i was v drunk i shouted about a broken-down escalator that we needed to get up that it was "out of order". me and my friend BtG were helpless with laughter for about 10 minutes - but we were v, v drunk!

― katie (katie), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Is that a pun?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, because the escalator was broken (= out of order) and we needed to get up it so the situation was unecessarily vexatious (= "that's well out of order!") DO YOU SEE?

― katie (katie), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:51 (twenty-two years ago)

(or course, yelling "that's WELL out of order" eastenders-stylee was also one of our then in-jokes)

― katie (katie), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:52 (twenty-two years ago)

No, I get the joke. I was just wondering how narrow the definition of a pun was.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

As quoted from Websters- "the humorous use of a word, or of words which are formed or sounded alike but have different meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the possible applications; a play on words."
so i reckon 'out of order' qualifies.

― Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Fair enough. People tend to just use it to mean plays on individual words rather than phrases though. Especially those that, at root, have only one meaning.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

hahahaha "root"

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I knew a guy that entered a pun competition in the local newspaper. He entered 10 seperate puns in an attempt to win, but, sadly, no pun in ten did.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Dom must die.

― RickyT (RickyT), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:17 (twenty-two years ago)

You see, what's with this bad pun -> kill them convention?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know, but I feel the same urge to commit homocide when pounced upon by one of those horrible puns.

Although I must say whenever I think of a really, really terrible joke or pun I just must tell someone. I can't help it.

― Andrew (enneff), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

poststructuralism=dad philosophy

― rockist scientist, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Buns are the lowest form of wheat. Apparently.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Andrew L's flatmate's dad, who I believe is in his sixties now, recounts that in his youth (in the '50s) the ability to come up with fresh and clever puns was a big factor in peer group esteem. It fits with some Brit lit of that kind of vintage and older.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I laugh at any pun -- the worse, the harder I laugh.

Ergo, "no pun in ten did" = Classic.

― Leee (Leee), Thursday, 10 October 2002 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

should people who make bad puns should be punished?

― gazza, Thursday, 10 October 2002 04:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Andrew L's flatmate's dad, who I believe is in his sixties now, recounts that in his youth (in the '50s) the ability to come up with fresh and clever puns was a big factor in peer group esteem

Ah, bless - it's funny how these things in cycles. Don't know if it's historically accurate, but in 'Ridicule', courtiers in the wit-trading milieu of Louis XVI's Versailles would cut dead anyone who resorted to puns. But a few years earlier, in Britain at least, they were clearly all the rage, if Shakespeare's terrible jokes are anything to go by.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Puns = the post-structuralism of humour.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

The response to 'puns are the lowest form of wit' is 'aphorisms are the lowest form of intelligence'. I've read a book about puns, a proper book, so puns can't be all that dumb..

― alix (alix), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

But what about the Paul Gascoigne books?

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

What about them? Are you a fan or something?

― alix (alix), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

No, but they are an excellent read.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Not sure about puns per se but am convinced that moment's like Katie's are sent by a higher and wider providence and proof that god exists and the main response to existence should be laughter.

This summer I got stuck rowing on Coniston Water. my friend said: 'looks like you're getting into deep water, there'. I laughed so much I nearly capsized.

― jon (jon), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, I don't know what the name for these jokes is, when you apply a cliched figurative term to its literal equivalent. They are funny. The first one I can remember hearing was in a Kenny Everett sketch. He played Tarzan, wrestling his way through the forest to get to his treehouse. When he got in he said to Jane 'IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE!' and I gurgled away.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

they're o.r. scrubs!

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 10 October 2002 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

O how philistine puns are, especially for those of us who know big words.

Truth be told, I don't know, something about them can really hit me hard. Anyone see that Captain Punishment deal on Conan a few years back?

― Mattattack (matt attack), Monday, 22 August 2005 05:49 (twenty years ago)

I find good puns irresistable. And I like really bad puns even more. I really don't get along with people who can't appreciate a really good pun; it speaks of a certain humourlessness...

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Monday, 22 August 2005 09:37 (twenty years ago)

It's all good pun.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 22 August 2005 10:20 (twenty years ago)

If it's good enough for James Joyce it's good enough for me

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

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