Puns of Steel

Puns of Steel

I once did a cat-loving friend a small favor. Her response, “Thank mew,” made me cringe. Sharing my skim milk with another friend got me a “Thank moo.” Again, I cringed.

Why? Why did I cringe, but also why did they need to respond with puns? Everybody knows I hate puns! Merriam-Webster Online defines a pun as “the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound.” It dates back to 1662, which means the world has suffered from that form of corniness for almost 400 years. Shakespeare was a champion “punner,” supposedly using over 3,000 puns in his plays. That may be why I was never a Shakespeare fan. But it saddened me to read that Joyce and Nabokov used puns in their work, too. According to MIStupid.com, the Online Knowledge Magazine, “Some people love them [puns], most people hate them, everyone groans when they hear them.” Samuel Johnson considered punning “the lowest form of humour.” Now that’s what I like to hear! And I was scared I was alone in this.

The British Theatre Blog article, “Gluttons for Pun-ishment,” said comic Tim Vine did an hour set that consisted mostly of puns, on the order of "So this cowboy walks in to a German car showroom and says Audi." The audience was in hysterics. (I would’ve asked for my money back.) The article went on to say, “While I, and the rest of the audience, happily spent time and money listening to an hour's worth of puns there are others who would have considered it punishing (sorry).” Figures they’d sneak another one in there! And “sneak” is right. As overused as they are, puns always catch you off-guard. Some “punners” feel the need to point out their puns, saying, “Heh-heh. Get it?” like they’re the clever ones and you're too stupid to “get it.” Then they explain their puns, to rub them in further. All I know is, we can’t avoid puns. They’re everywhere: in magazine titles, newspaper and tabloid headlines (The New York Post is notorious for theirs), and taglines for big-budget Hollywood films (Theatre Blog cites Chicken Run’s “Escape or Die Frying” as a hilarious example). And, whether you like puns or not, sometimes you can’t help using one, yourself. Like with this blog title. So just groan and bear it. (Heh-heh. Get it?)