I just got an email with this title and nothing else. So I looked it up and found Paraprosdokian - Wikipedia and thought it might make for a fun topic to add examples to.
Make up some if you have to.
How often do you run into such things? Were you familiar with the term before this?
Jonathan Katz, on a relative who died: “She was cremated. We think that’s what did it.”
Emo Philips, on going into comedy as a profession: “I thought, if I can make even just one person laugh… I’ll already be doing better than Tony Danza.”
Me, to various people at various times, about various movies: “I saw (whatever movie) this weekend. If you get a chance to see it, don’t.”
Have you been working out? You’re really strong… smelling.
There was a comedianne whose act was pretty much nothing but these. Pretty funny, but enough was too much.
I do know what you mean. Another category that Groucho almost beat to death is Zeugma – especially Syllepsis
Very true. Entertainers who build their whole routine around one figure of speech … shouldn’t.
Tom Lehrer: “His educational career began interestingly enough in agricultural school, where he majored in animal husbandry, until they caught him at it one day.”
[offtopic – some]
When I got that email with nothing but the word as text and title, my first thought was that there was some new family in Hollywood I was going to have to learn to loathe.
[/offtopic]
The classic example is “Take my wife. Please.” (Henny Youngman)
There’s the classic Douglas Adams “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”
But how about the opposite of the phenomenon - where you’re expecting paraprosdokian because of the context, but nothing comes. The only example of the phenomenon I can think of is the Northern Irish comedian Kevin McAleer, who did this to great - delayed - effect when he said:
I won’t say my aunt was fat, but she’s the only woman I know.
“It’s a good thing I don’t like spinach, because if I did I’d have to eat it, and I can’t stand the stuff.” – Pierrot le Fou
“The reason why you do not see much scoring is if you are a true soccer fan you would enjoy every move and counter move and the strategy - not the scoring - I am not a fan.” – anonymous internet being"
“We are made of dreams and dreams are made of us.” – Pierrot le Fou
.
I read about paraprosdokian only the other day, having never heard of it before.
I was going to say this is an example of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, but then I remembered that I read about it on World Wide Words, and on looking up the page I see it was only posted 6 days ago. So I guess that’s the explanation for the sudden interest.
That would be Wendy Liebman.
I never drink … wine. /Bela Lugosi
Why on earth is this making me laugh? Strange…
Because it’s thwarting your expectation of having your expectation thwarted. You, of all people, probably should have expected that. 
Another Emo Phillips: My brother says “hello”… so hooray for speech therapy!
One from Mitch “I used to do drugs…I still do, but I used to too”
Elvis Costello in the song “Alison”: “I don’t know if she’s been loving somebody…I only know it isn’t mine.”
Another Lehrism: “Of all the songs I sing, this is the one I get the most requests not to.”
[QUOTE=example from that Wiki article]
“If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.” —Dorothy Parker
[/quote]
Or: If all the virgins in the world were laid end to end, there wouldn’t be any more.
Buckaroo Banzai: Don’t be mean; we don’t have to be mean, cuz, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.