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According to Sigmund Freud...
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Puns may be the lowest form of wit (and "therefore the foundation of all wit" according to Henry Erskine) but do they deserve the scorn that has been heaped upon them by their detractors down through the ages? Coleridge allowed that the pun was "harmless... because it never excites envy." Even Sigmund Freud waded in on the topic explaining the pun's lowly stature with the fact that they are "the cheapest- can be made with the least trouble." Leave it to Oscar Levant to astutely point out: "A pun is the lowest form of humor- if you didn't think of it first."
Puns are easy to make. Just find two words that sound alike and substitute one for the other in a phrase or sentence. For example: the glutton commented after wolfing down a doughnut: "I can't believe I ate the hole thing!"
Some authorities claim a pun is not, strictly speaking, a 'play on words'. They reserve this term for cases where an identical word with more than one meaning is used so it can be taken either way. For example, the woman who got a speeding ticket on her way home said: "It was a fine trip!"
The following relies on a pun:
My grandfather came from eastern Europe.
Russian?
No, he took his time.
Love 'em or loathe 'em, puns are here to stay and have been around since ancient times. Aristotle approved of them and Cicero, when a man ploughed up the field where his father was buried, commented: "This is truly to cultivate a father's memory."
Even Jesus couldn't resist an occasional pun (at least, not in translation). He said: "Thou art Peter (Greek Petros) and upon this rock (Greek petra) I will build my church."
Interestingly, though not likely, when the Spanish Armada was defeated, Sir Francis Drake is said to have sent the Queen one word: "Cantharides", the name of an aphrodisiac also known as "The Spanish Fly".
More likely is the one word message sent by General Napier after capturing the Indian province of Sind in 1843:
"Peccavi" (I have sinned).
Elizabethan playwrights loved puns as did poets such as Donne and Mervell. The mottoes and coats of arms of noblemen often contained puns. "Festina lente" (Make haste slowly) was the motto of the Onslows.
When Charles I's jester, Thomas Killigrew, said he could make a pun on any subject, the king said: "Make one on me." Killigrew replied that he couldn't because "the king is no subject."
In the 1700's, Jonathan Swift wrote, 'A Modest Defence of Punning' (1716) and Thomas Sheridan, who wrote 'The Art of Punning' (1719) went as far as to propose thirty-four rules for the use of puns. Among his commandments was the 'Rule of Interruption' (the punster may interrupt any conversation, at any time) and the 'Rule Of Risibility' (the punster must be the first to laugh at his own pun).
Not all puns are designed to elicit a laugh -or a groan depending upon your opunion (ouch!). Some are just merely clever. Hogarth sent out a dinner invitation which pictured a knife, a fork, and a pie with three Greek letters: eta, beta, pi.
Though considered vile by many, punsters abounded in the 19th century. Charles Lamb declared he "never knew an enemy to puns who was not an ill-natured man." His penchant for puns was so pronounced that he wished "the last breath drawn in... might be through a pipe and exhaled in a pun. " He also considered the worst puns to be the best puns: "It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect."
Thomas Hood, according to some, was "the last great man who really employed the pun." His poetry was full of them as this excerpt illustrates:
So each one upwards in the air
His shot he did expend
And may all other duels have
This upshot at the end.
In later life, when an undertaker offered him his services, he quipped: "He is trying to urn a lively Hood."
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Punstercide is justifiable...
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While G. K. Chesterton may have considered the pun a perfect type of art in a primary sense, Oliver Wendell Holmes went as far in the opposite direction. In 'The Autocrat of The Breakfast Table' (1858), he states that killing a punster is justifiable if the pun is bad enough. "(Punsters) are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks... their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism."
Puns have survived to this day thanks in large part to the brilliant minds of Groucho Marx, Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker, and James Thurber. Upon meeting T. S. Eliot, Marx said, "I discovered that Eliot and I had three things in common: (1) an affection for good cigars and (2) cats; and (3) a weakness for making puns- a weakness that for many years I have tried to overcome."
Online
No Pun Intended
Jim's Humor Archive (Puns)
The Laffatorium
FunTrivia.com
The Pun FAQtory
BadPuns.com
Books
Get Thee to a Punnery
by Richard, Lederer, Bill Thompson (Illustrator) (Paperback)
Fun With Puns: Creative Projects (Gr. 3-5)
by Joanne Richards, et al (Paperback)
Doggie Tales: Fun Puns
by Phyllis Forbes Kerr (Paperback)
Palindromes
Pursuit of the Perfect Pangram
If you enjoyed this article then you'll want to read "The Oxford Guide To Word Games" by Tony Augarde.
