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DateProcessResult
May 22, 2010Peer reviewReviewed

Top image as example, "kleptoruomania"

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I wonder if this is truly a pun or a malapropism, and I guess I don't fully understand the difference if the top image and example is "kleptoruomania"... Is there a reason why this is a pun while "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy" is malapropism or a spoonerism? Or the better example of "electric college" instead of electoral is a difference in a syllable or two, much like kleptoruomania, so I don't see how it is truly a pun. And maybe I am not getting the difference between these various terms, is it that "electric" is already a word? So using the wrong existing similar word is the distinction in humor? I thought what made a pun a pun was sounding the same or being the same word with different meaning. It seems adding "ruo" as an additional syllable doesn't make this the best example of a pun, because you can add syllables to any word or country to change its meaning entirely, "China up" would be a terrible example of pun for example. The most apt example should be given top billing, or none at all... I actually came to this page for a clearer understanding of what makes something a pun, and the showcased example doesn't really fit the differentiation between some of the similar word plays described. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of homonyms used without additional syllables, maybe from Groucho Marx or someone that could better exemplify this distinction. PJV (talk) 09:01, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think you're right, it's not pun at all. I think it's usually more difficult to imagine images for the puns, where the humour springs not from what it seen but just from what is heard. It is still possible, of course [1], [2] etc. Indeed the Violent Veg series of greetings card has made a big commercial success out of vegetable-related puns: [3]. One of these would be ideal, I guess, but they'll all be copyright protected. Somewhere in between the two, perhaps, is Graham Rawle and his well-known "Lost Consonants" series. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:19, 2 December 2015 (UTC) ... is this a big pun, or just a little Malapropism? [reply]
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In Spanish and other languages, puns are only linked to calambur, a joke that consists of uniting word sounds, not paronomasia. Calambur is actually a subset of paranomasia, and paranomasia a subset of pun. Seems to be a systematic link in at least 4 languages. So shouldn't there be a more complete original article and derivatives? As it was suggested before? Chibs007 (talk) 15:13, 27 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Tragedy on the Cliff by Eileen Dover

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Regarding Wikipedia:Reference desk/Entertainment#Tragedy on the Cliff:

If we can find out the name of these, or at least come up with a good section heading, we might be able to add something about them, sourced or not. After all, they have been around, everyone knows them, and other media refers to them.

Thoughts?

Anna Frodesiak (talk) 11:25, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Boldly added here. Please leave it, expand it, source it, or remove it. As you wish. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 12:39, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

(Adding link to thread once it gets archived, since I'll probably forget to do it in a few days when the link turns blue: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017_June_8#Tragedy_on_the_Cliff. ---Sluzzelin talk 04:55, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I have a reference if not a name...
Partington, Alan (2006). The Linguistics of Laughter: A Corpus-Assisted Study of Laughter-Talk. Routledge. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-41538166-6.
Quote: "A series of children's jokes based on the theme of 'the World's Greatest Books' work by metanalysing a seemingly innocuous author's name; the humour is in the relation between the new M2 and the book topic which often contains an element of taboo: The Haunted House by Hugo First ('you go first'), Cliff Tragedy by Eileen Dover ('I leaned over'), What Boys Love by E. Norma Stitts ('enormous tits')".
Alansplodge (talk) 23:10, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
And Booth, David (1990). Writers on Writing: Guide to Writing and Illustrating Childrens Books. Grolier Limited. p. 83. ISBN 978-0717223930.
Quote: "Beware, too, of the inadvertent pun. No character can survive a name like Gloria Mundy, Hugo Fast, or Marietta Lyon. (The unregenerate Peter DeVries must answer for Eileen Dover, Herbie Hind, and Justin Case.)".
Alansplodge (talk) 23:29, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Well bloody done, Alansplodge! I'm afraid I must leave it to you or others to add those refs because google books is blocked where I am. Good digging! Thank you! Anna Frodesiak (talk) 02:06, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Now done Anna. I wonder how long the "E. Norma Stitts" gag will stay in the article?  :-) Alansplodge (talk) 17:52, 11 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Pure Recursive Puns

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In the main Wikipedia article, all of the pun examples in the Recursive Pun section are what I believe to be in an Homophonic Pun format. Can someone provide a pun that isn't in a Homophonic format, preferably ones that don't take any form of the other pun types like Homographic or Compounded? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.66.31.58 (talk) 22:21, 11 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Morphological Pun Expansion

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The "Other" section talks of morphological puns like portmanteau. I would like to see more examples of this type other than portmanteaus but I would accept some of those.68.66.31.58 (talk) 03:07, 12 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Opening sentence

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The opening sentence of this article is rather complex for a first sentence of an article. I am sure that there must be an easier way of defining puns - such as saying that they are plays on words. Vorbee (talk) 17:47, 3 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]