Oh, The Punishment!

Puns have been called the lowest form of wit. Granted, they do call for a single “HA!” reaction more than true laughter, but that certainly does not mean they lack humor or wit. Puns take surprising thought to create, and are in nearly all subject matters, which is quite impressive.

Like every good presentation, let’s start off with a joke. What did the tie say to the hat? You go on ahead, I’ll just hang around. *Pause for (lack of) laughter and allow crickets to chirp* Right now, you’re probably groaning “Oh God! Not another pun. Why did I ever try to read this paper.” I’ll admit, the puns on this paper may be quite tearable – sorry, I just can’t help myself. However, why are puns always considered so low? On occasion,  puns have been called the lowest form of wit. Granted, they do call for a single “HA!” reaction more than true laughter, but that certainly does not mean they lack humor or wit. Puns take surprising thought to create, and are in nearly all subject matters, which is quite impressive.

There are many types of puns, and all of them actually require an incredible amount of wit to create. There are homophonic puns, which rely on using words that sound the same, or similar, while having different meanings. For example, the pun “once you’ve seen one shopping center, you’ve seen the mall.” It uses a common saying, once you’ve seen one ____, you’ve seen them all, so it’s understandable and funny. Also, it uses the homophones of them all, and the mall. Now, just attempt to come up with two words that sound the same, or even just similar, where one could replace the other and the sentence could still make sense. Now, imagine doing all of that while involving a common expression or saying so that people find the pun humorous. So, I just can’t believe puns are the lowest form of wit. You may think I’m a skeptic, but I don’t believe a word you say.

There are also homographic puns, that use words that are spelled the same, and have different meanings. An example would be Douglas Adams’s line “you can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass.” These puns only work when written because they focus on the different sounding words that could be in them. However, they are as difficult, if not more so, to create as other puns because there’s a limited amount of different meaning words that are spelt the same. Some puns even combine both, using words that are spelt and sound the same, but have multiple meanings, or connotations. These are called homonymic puns and can get to be incredibly clever. One is “Did you hear about the man who strained himself running at a screen door?” It means both strained, as in physically exerted, and strained, as one would strain pasta through a screen. The more perfectly the puns match, in sounds or in the sentences, often, the more knowledge they take to understand. That is the true wit and glory of puns.

Puns that take an extra understanding of a subject are normally called recursive puns, and they are some of the best puns. They do something many other forms of humor can not. They can require intelligence and knowledge, and reach into nearly any subject. What other types of humor can find jokes in even psychology, and do so in a single sentence, at that. Puns can. Like, “A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.” It’s very clever because a Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean another, which is a recognizable phrase. However, if you know Freud, he studied, and named, the idea of the Oedipus complex, where young boys have sexual attraction and obsession with their mothers. So, the pun uses similar sounding words, and a connection that one must know about Freud to understand, which makes it that much more impressive and humorous when it is understood. Puns are very short as well, often a single line, which makes them, again, intricate, clever, and funny. However some use a short story before them to create the context to make the pun good. The longest joke ever, a giant story that can take nearly a half-hour to an hour to read, is actually all set up for the pun, “better Nate than lever.” Not many people would waste their thyme on that, but they might waste some oregano (puns go into EVERY subject, even spices).

While puns are, in depth, very witty and smart, their reputation isn’t changing anytime soon. Many puns can only be understood by the few, so they will not be popular. Also, their humor is normally slight and not based in being traditionally “funny,” but in wordplay. All I can ask is that you give these jokes pun more chance. So, while I may have put ten puns in here to make you laugh, sadly, I imagine no pun in ten did.