# Discworld puns you missed the first time. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2018, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996 "2018-01-19T20:46:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/1 "2018-01-19T20:46:57Z")
I’ve been rereading a few Discworld books (starting with night watch books) and the current read, _Jingo_, mentions the Rats Chamber, which I immediately recognized that I originally quickly realized was a play on the Star Chamber (though I knew it more from [the movie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Chamber), not [the real thing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber).) That reminds me of puns that I didn’t get the first time I read the books. For instance, it was years after my first reading about Unseen University and the Scone of Stone before I ever heard of [the Invisible College](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_college) or [the Stone of Scone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_of_Scone). Anyone have any amusing blind spots that they are willing to mention? ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/2 "2018-01-19T20:54:23Z")
I didn’t miss it, but my favourite pun is the Ephebian philosopher Didactylos. Which means two fingers, or, for Americans, [up yours!](https://media.giphy.com/media/3QEQlQ8S5ezGE/giphy.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/3 "2018-01-19T21:58:52Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > For instance, it was years after my first reading about Unseen University and the Scone of Stone before I ever heard of [the Invisible College](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_college) or [the Stone of Scone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_of_Scone). Anyone have any amusing blind spots that they are willing to mention? I’d never heard of the Invisible College until your post, but I got the Stone of Scone reference immediately. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/4 "2018-01-19T22:04:52Z")
Überwald is Transylvania, but it took a while for me to realize that Überwald also _means_ ‘Transylvania’. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/5 "2018-01-19T22:14:48Z")
Don’t forget [Sator Square](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sator_Square). ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/6 "2018-01-19T22:23:50Z")
And looking up Latatian mottos, {Fabricati Diem, Pvnc}, I found this gem: > [@](#): > > Nunquam Vestimus - “We Never Clothe” - Guild of Ecdysiasts, Nautchers, Cancanieres and Exponents of Exotic Dance And yeah, I got Ecdysiasts from context, but I still had to look it up. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/7 "2018-01-19T22:30:39Z")
I always wonder if Americans and others get the snark implied in that well-known drinking song “A Wizard’s Staff has a Knob on the end” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/8 "2018-01-19T22:49:02Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I always wonder if Americans and others get the snark implied in that well-known drinking song “A Wizard’s Staff has a Knob on the end” Believe it or not, a significant percentage of Americans either have penises or have seen them. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/9 "2018-01-20T00:02:03Z")
I got the Rats Chamber _reference historical_ immediately, but it wasn’t until much later I realized that “rats” is “star” backwards. I just thought it was called “rats” because of Vetinari’s friendship with the rats that inhabit the building, along with the mosaic in the ceiling. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/10 "2018-01-20T00:08:34Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I got the Rats Chamber _reference historical_ immediately, but it wasn’t until much later I realized that “rats” is “star” backwards. I just thought it was called “rats” because of Vetinari’s friendship with the rats that inhabit the building, along with the mosaic in the ceiling. My dad’s old coffee mug from the navy has a cartoon on one side of it. (The other side is silver print: LT. [Johnny L.A.'s dad] N-5-2) The cartoon depicts a log raft with a teepee on it, a small fire, and an Indian sending smoke signals. If you read the Morse code smoke signals from left to right, they spell STAR. But the signals would have had to have been made such that they were read right to left: RATS. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/11 "2018-01-20T00:09:15Z")
Wouldn’t Überwald be “above the forest”, as opposed to Transylvania “across the forest”? I’m fond of Schmaltzburg, a town named for its fat mines, as opposed to Salzburg, a town named for its salt mines. And I’ve long felt like the philosopher “Ly Tin Wheedle” was meant to be a pun, but I’ve never been able to figure it out. Any help, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/12 "2018-01-20T00:29:58Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > And looking up Latatian mottos, {Fabricati Diem, Pvnc}, I found this gem: > > > [@](#): > > > > Nunquam Vestimus - “We Never Clothe” - Guild of Ecdysiasts, Nautchers, Cancanieres and Exponents of Exotic Dance > > And yeah, I got Ecdysiasts from context, but I still had to look it up. But did you spot that it was a reference to the motto of [The Windmill Theatre?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmill_Theatre) ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/13 "2018-01-20T01:47:54Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > But did you spot that it was a reference to the motto of [The Windmill Theatre?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmill_Theatre) I did not. That’s even more awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/14 "2018-01-20T01:52:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wouldn’t Überwald be “above the forest”, as opposed to Transylvania “across the forest”? > > I’m fond of Schmaltzburg, a town named for its fat mines, as opposed to Salzburg, a town named for its salt mines. > > And I’ve long felt like the philosopher “Ly Tin Wheedle” was meant to be a pun, but I’ve never been able to figure it out. Any help, anyone? I don’t know, but this is one of the funniest things Pratchett ever wrote: > [@](#): > > The only thing known to go faster than ordinary light is monarchy, according to the philosopher Ly Tin Wheedle. He reasoned like this: you can’t have more than one king, and tradition demands that there is no gap between kings, so when a king dies the succession must therefore pass to the heir instantaneously. Presumably, he said, there must be some elementary particles – kingons, or possibly queons – that do this job, but of course succession sometimes fails if, in mid-flight, they strike an anti-particle, or republicon. His ambitious plans to use his discovery to send messages, involving the careful torturing of a small king in order to modulate the signal, were never fully expanded because, at that point, the bar closed. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/15 "2018-01-20T01:57:46Z")
I have to reference L-space when I read his books because I miss almost allllll of them. To make myself feel better I just chalk it up to being American. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/16 "2018-01-20T02:02:36Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Believe it or not, a significant percentage of Americans either have penises or have seen them. If you think that it’s primarily a penis reference then you are indeed missing most of the flavour of the joke. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/17 "2018-01-20T02:14:16Z")
A friend of mine didn’t get the joke until I spoke the name of the City of the Gods at the center of the Disc - “Dunmanifestin” (“Done Manifesting”) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/18 "2018-01-20T02:19:59Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@Aspidistra](#): > > > > I always wonder if Americans and others get the snark implied in that well-known drinking song “A Wizard’s Staff has a Knob on the end” > > Believe it or not, a significant percentage of Americans either have penises or have seen them. A man points his stick at another. “There is an idiot at the end of this stick!” “Oh? Which end?” My favourite reference I didn’t get until my second reading was in _Maskerade_, where the character of Walter Plinge, the awkward kid who turns out to have a secret identity, is described as being a bit simple and clumsy and always wearing a trenchcoat and beret. I remember trying to imagine how he looked and immediately thought “Oh, he’s a bit like [Frank](https://www.google.com.au/search?q=frank+spencer&num=100&safe=off&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=1hwKOtyCPi8_iM%253A%252CjiMKfbll_UDBeM%252C_&usg=__V7ugESP7491pwO60B4YOmpUvYZM%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZqcb6u-XYAhUBp5QKHa6mCbIQ9QEISTAG&biw=1662&bih=1066#imgrc=1hwKOtyCPi8_iM:) [Spencer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaAFynsoZAs)” and that’s when I realised he was a direct steal of actor [Michael Crawford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crawford), who also famously played [the Phantom of the Opera](http://www.playbill.com/gallery/the-phantom-of-the-opera-production-photos-com-2000?slide=2). It may have been obvious to some, but when it finally hit me I thought it was genius! ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/19 "2018-01-20T02:26:55Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > A friend of mine didn’t get the joke until I spoke the name of the City of the Gods at the center of the Disc - “Dunmanifestin” (“Done Manifesting”) I don’t know how common this is kind of naming is in the US, but “Dunroamin” would be typically be the name above a [twee old couple’s retirement cottage.](https://www.stayz.com.au/accommodation/sa/yorke-peninsula/moontabay/159973) I think it was a Frank Muir joke that a Vandal’s retirement cottage was called “Done Rome In”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996/20 "2018-01-20T14:04:26Z")
Most Americans don’t name our homes. A pity, that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-puns-you-missed-the-first-time/806996.md?page=2)