To Pun or Not To Pun
Wikipedia aptly (albeit boringly) defines a pun as: “a form of wordplay that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or figurative language.”
To make things simple, Here are pun samples:
“I used to think I was indecisive, but now I am not so sure.”
“When I found out my toaster wasn’t waterproof… I was shocked.”
Paronomasia (abbreviated as puns), is one of those things that you can either hate or love, there is no in-between. People have divided views on whether puns, can be considered as a form of humour or not. But, it is not just the people who are divided. Even your brain gets divided, in order to process a pun.
A study was conducted on this by researchers at the University of Windsor in Ontario (that would have been one pun study to be a part of).
The left hemisphere of your brain is responsible for your linguistic skills. It kicks in first and, interprets the literal meaning of the sentence.
Then, the right hemisphere kicks in and tells you, “Hey! that sentence could be interpreted in another way as well”. That’s when you get the pun.
In 1986, Sperber and Wilson introduced the Relevance Theory. You may ask: Why is this relevant to us?
“According to the Principle of Relevance Theory, understanding the humour of puns requires extra effort because the communicator uses an ambiguous contextual assumption deliberately.”
In other words, your brain’s right hemisphere will scan through your entire encyclopedic knowledge to find the right intention of the pun.
Puns not only require you to use both sides of your brain but, also require you to flex your brain muscles. Next time, if your friend can’t understand a pun, you know where the problem is.
Here are some creative plays on words or just fools:
“ I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.”
“Q: How does Moses make his tea?
A: Hebrews it.”“An opinion without 3.142 is an onion.”
“ Q: What do you get when you cross a dyslexic, an insomniac and an agnostic?
A: Someone who lays awake at night wondering if there is a dog.”
The first two are fairly simple. The third requires you to have, the knowledge of basic math and, the constant Pi. Whereas, the fourth requires you to know what dyslexia, insomnia and being an agnostic is.
In order to punderstand, you will need a certain level of intellect. Nope, don’t take my word for it. But a study in the Journal of Intelligence found a correlation between participants’ sense of humour and an indicator of mental and mating aptitude. McGraw says, “[Puns] can be a demonstration of wit, of cleverness”.
Then, why do so many people hate it or get annoyed by it? There might be some logic behind this as well. According to Charlie Hopper, “A pun sidetracks you,”. He says while one may “laugh grimly” along with it, it’s not humour.
This sentiment is reflected in many, such as McGraw and John Pollack (communication consultant and author of The Pun Also Rises). They believe, the expected outcome is mostly an “Aha!” rather than a “Haha!”.
As another reason, for why some don’t like puns, Pollack points to controlling personalities in his book. He talks about how communication has certain predefined rules. Each word has a meaning and context. Some people feel threatened when this rule or meaning gets violated. As a result, they reject puns.
Amongst all the research and debate on puns and their credibility as a form of humour, Urban Dictionary puts it the best:
“Wielded by anyone but a true master, a pun is the lowest form of humour. However, wielded by a master, a pun is the highest, purest form of humour possible by humans.”
All puns are copied. Please do not try them at home or your killer sense of humour will get you killed and that will be a grave mistake.
