On Miracles

[Baruch]

Hey, I made that hopium/unobtanian joke recently.  You owe me royalties.  I'll settle for a Dukedom...

Are you a big blue cat person, who voted for Obama?

[trdsf]

Hey, I made that hopium/unobtanian joke recently.  You owe me royalties.  I'll settle for a Dukedom...

If it's an Internet duchy, I suppose you'd have to be the Duke of URL...

[SGOS]

If it's an Internet duchy, I suppose you'd have to be the Duke of URL...

I've heard it said that puns are the highest form of humor, but my question is, "Then why do they always sound so dumb?"

Edit:  that was funny though.

[trdsf]

I've heard it said that puns are the highest form of humor, but my question is, "Then why do they always sound so dumb?"

Edit:  that was funny though.

Depends on who you talk to.  Some people (like me) love them, some loathe them.  I've also heard them called the lowest form of wit.  They're also one of the few forms of humor where a pained groan is an acceptable, sometimes even desired response.

In other words, the beauty of a pun is in the "Oy!" of its beholder.  :D

[SGOS]

They're also one of the few forms of humor where a pained groan is an acceptable, sometimes even desired response.

Almost everyone understands this.  And I always take the groan as a positive response.  How did that start?  Why only with puns?

In other words, the beauty of a pun is in the "Oy!" of its beholder.  :D

<groan>

[Cavebear]

If it's an Internet duchy, I suppose you'd have to be the Duke of URL...

Duke of URL?  Oh THAT is good!  I tip my hat to you Sir...

[Cavebear]

Are you a big blue cat person, who voted for Obama?

Yes.  Iza is a Tonky, blue.  And she IS big.  And voted for Obama as the smartest person on the podium. 

[Cavebear]

Depends on who you talk to.  Some people (like me) love them, some loathe them.  I've also heard them called the lowest form of wit.  They're also one of the few forms of humor where a pained groan is an acceptable, sometimes even desired response.

In other words, the beauty of a pun is in the "Oy!" of its beholder.  :D

You need to KNOW THINGS to make a good pun.  Dum De Dum people can't.

[trdsf]

Almost everyone understands this.  And I always take the groan as a positive response.  How did that start?  Why only with puns?

That's... an open question.  Even I, who adore a good pun (and even moreso a bad one), found myself facepalming at a couple exchanges on the Straight Dope message board discussing that very subject.

One idea is that it's a jealousy responseâ€"groaning at a pun is an adult behavior, while children are more likely to just laughâ€"where the hearer wishes on some level they'd thought of it first.

Another is that a punâ€"at least the ones that genuinely pop up on the spot and seem to strike from out of nowhereâ€"is a sort of intellectual sneak attack, and that to laugh at it would be to admit defeat.  A groan is more of a plea of no contest, and most punsters (certainly myself) have learned to accept the groan as being a laugh that isn't a laugh.

For the record: trying to look up research on pun responses invariably means slogging through articles written by people who think they're punsters... but aren't.  Yeesh.  Note for columnists: tacking a 'p' on to every word that starts 'un-' is a) predictable, b) been done by every other columnist writing an article on puns, so therefore c) not clever.  Also, we've already heard about pun-ishment and wea-puns of mass distraction.

<groan>

*cackle*!  Thank you!

[Baruch]

"where the hearer wishes on some level they'd thought of it first."

I find this matches my own experience.  We see these on an electronic display board at work ... and I usually groan that I should have thought of that!

[Cavebear]

That's... an open question.  Even I, who adore a good pun (and even moreso a bad one), found myself facepalming at a couple exchanges on the Straight Dope message board discussing that very subject.

One idea is that it's a jealousy responseâ€"groaning at a pun is an adult behavior, while children are more likely to just laughâ€"where the hearer wishes on some level they'd thought of it first.

Another is that a punâ€"at least the ones that genuinely pop up on the spot and seem to strike from out of nowhereâ€"is a sort of intellectual sneak attack, and that to laugh at it would be to admit defeat.  A groan is more of a plea of no contest, and most punsters (certainly myself) have learned to accept the groan as being a laugh that isn't a laugh.

For the record: trying to look up research on pun responses invariably means slogging through articles written by people who think they're punsters... but aren't.  Yeesh.  Note for columnists: tacking a 'p' on to every word that starts 'un-' is a) predictable, b) been done by every other columnist writing an article on puns, so therefore c) not clever.  Also, we've already heard about pun-ishment and wea-puns of mass distraction.
*cackle*!  Thank you!

Perhaps adults love puns and groan when they seem new for the cleverness, while children enjoy them more for the joke and repeatability.

[Unbeliever]

They are often subject to the law of pun-intended consequences...

[Cavebear]

They are often subject to the law of pun-intended consequences...

Shouldn't that be either "tended" or "unintended"?  I Shirley don't know.

[Unbeliever]

I wonder if puns are easier in English than other languages, given the many words that have double (or more) meanings?

[Cavebear]

I wonder if puns are easier in English than other languages, given the many words that have double (or more) meanings?

I suspect so.  I doubt Shakespeare could have written the same plays in French or Italian. 

I put "Not so wide as a church door, nor as deep as a well" into Google Translate to French.  Can anyone tell me if "Pas aussi large qu'une porte d'église, ni aussi profond qu'un puits" has the same ring and meaning to it?