A pun, or paronomasia, is a play on words which exploits the vagaries of language. Since many English words often sound alike, and have multiple meanings, puns are everywhere.

A pun may be a joke, but not all jokes are puns. Jokes may contain clever wordplay, but they don’t have to. All puns are made at the expense of language. It is wordplay at its most basic, though it may be a highly complex and obtuse joke.

Shakespeare adored puns. They highlighted both his wit, and his command of the English language. They also delighted his audiences, many of whom struggled to keep up with his wordplay, because they were often ribald (risqué). Here’s an example from Romeo and Juliet:

Gregory: The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
Sampson: ‘Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids, and cut off their heads.
Gregory: The heads of the maids?
Sampson: Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt.  

They weren’t all naughty, of course. Richard III says, “Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of York.” Richard is referring to himself, since he is the son of York, and sees himself as “glorious”. As with all puns, the purpose is often to draw attention to the punster, or person making the pun. “Look at me! I’m clever!”

There are several types of puns, depending on the method of wordplay employed to create it.

• Homographic pun uses two words which are spelled and sound the same, but have very different meanings. The following pun turns on two meanings for the word well. “Thanks to this drought my family has run out of water. Now everybody is unwell.”
• Homophonic pun utilizes words which sound alike, or have similar sounds, but aren’t spelled alike. “Seven days without food makes one weak.”
• Homonymic puns employ homographs and homophones. Douglas Adams famously wrote, “You can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish. Unless, of course, you play bass.”
• Compound pun is more than one pun put together. “Two cellphones got married yesterday. The service was pretty good, but the reception was even better.”
• Visual pun – Head out on the open road:

Photo by Jason Burrows from Flickr

• Recursive pun is often a story pun, where you need to understand one element of the story to get the whole pun. “Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during his root canal? He wanted to transcend dental medication.”

I confess that I love recursive puns, because of the complex nature required in getting to the pun. They also may result in the listener moaning with misery for having been subjected to a sometimes lengthy process for the payoff of a pun.

To deliver a pun properly, never announce that you’re about to tell a pun. Here’s one of my favorites:

A Native American chief has three wives. The first lived in a teepee made out of bear skin, and she bore him a son. The second lived under a buffalo skin, and she also had a son. The third lived in a teepee made out of hippo skin, and she gave birth to twin sons. Therefore, the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.

Of course, as with any witticism, there is nothing worse than having to explain a pun. If you have to explain it, a pun loses its charm. Good punsters don’t care if their puns are greeted by bursts of laughter, groans, or silence. The pleasure comes from having thought of it. Although, it is nice to hear someone say, “I got it.”

Blog Photo by Richard Masoner on Flickr