I’m studying the use of puns in feature films and how they’re translated for the foreign releases. I’m trying to come up with some good case studies. Can anyone recommend some English-language movies that are particularly famous for their use of puns? Or alternatively, can anyone quote some particularly famous punning jokes from movie dialogue, even if the rest of the movie is not particularly punny? (Translations are not required—I can look into those myself.)
I’m particularly (but not exclusively) interested in puns that refer to something visible in the scene, as those are challenging to translate. In these cases, the translator can’t simply substitute a different joke with an entirely different meaning, but has to have the character say something (hopefully funny) about the visible item. An example would be the “I brought you flours” scene in Stranger than Fiction. The French version does a decent job on this, having Will Ferrell’s character bring “fleur de farine” (a type of fine flour whose name literally means “flower of flour”). By contrast, the German version abandons any attempt at wordplay, along with most of the humour, having Ferrell present flour (Mehl) with the excuse “Blumen schenkt jeder.” (“Everyone [else] gives flowers.”)
(Surely there must be other puns in Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker films, but I can’t think of good examples right now that have that visual element you want. And don’t call me Shirley!)
Here’s a real wild example for you. The movie La Victoire en chantant was titled Black and White in Color in the US (and won a foreign film Oscar). When it was reissued the next year, the title was changed to Noirs et Blancs en couleur, which puns on " Noirs et Blancs en coulere." The phrase translates to “Blacks and Whites Angry,” which is a pretty good description of the story.
One of my favorites from *The Great Race *(1965) after the hero (Leslie) has escaped with the help of a monk… Max: “Leslie escaped with a small friar!” General: “Leslie escaped with a chicken?!”
Cracks me up every time…
I am taking a wild guess that the film Bruce Almighty didn’t originally have that title, and that the name Bruce was substituted when someone decided that the name Gord (short for Gordon) made the title offensive.
Top Secret! is one of my favorite movies, with lots of visual humor, but I can only think of one other joke / pun that fits the OP’s request:
Hillary says, “I know a little German,” (in the context of needing to speak the language) then follows it with, “He’s sitting over there.” She then waves, and a little person in lederhosen stands up and waves back to her.
In the movie “Spaceballs”, there is a scene where the good guys jam the bad guys’ radar by launching a jar of raspberry jam at a radar dish (pun #1). Then they make a joke about “giving the raspberry” (pun #2).
When I watched “La folle histoire de l’espace” (French for “The crazy space story”), they didn’t even try to keep the wordplay. “De la confiture? Framboise!”
I don’t recall if this is from one of the Naked Gun movies, or from the related TV series. But Leslie Nielson and his crew storm into some sort of store or office with their guns and badges out. The large-breasted girl behind the counter says, “Is this some kind of bust?” Leslie looks at her chest and says, “Yes, ma’am, it’s very impressive, but we need to ask you a few questions.”
