I sometimes stumble over a pun that doesn’t look like a pun unless you know the source material. I tried explaining this phenomenon to someone else the other day, and for some reason all the really good examples had disapeared from my head. I could only think of two:
In the Discworld book “Pyramids” (I know discworld is full of this, but I can’t remember any others!) where the protagonists come across two philosophers arguing. One of them says: "The trouble with you, Ibid, is that you think you’re an expert on everything.)
In the World of Warcraft game, there is a city called Booty Bay. Tucked away in a corner is a little clothes shop called “A Tailor to Cities”. That one cracked me up, and nobody else got it.
I may have related this before. My family went into the salt mines in Salzburg. I stayed topside to have some coffee. When they came back the kids told me that they had been on a boat on an underground salt-water lake. Said I: “So that would make it a saline ship?” Blank looks all around.
OK, I did know this (I’ve written a few papers in Chicago style and read my share of academic publications) and thought that might be it, but then I thought maybe a major character was just named Ibid for some reason and I’d have to know the books to get it cause it was based on something else.
Hrm, OK. “Tailor to cities” wouldn’t read that way for me, because I pronounce “to” like “tuh” in that particular grammatical context.
Sorry, I wrote my explanation wrong. In my accent, “to” and “two” sound the same, and I wouldn’t pronounce the R in “tailor”. Terry Pratchett has a similar English accent to me (in fact, he used to live down the road from me), so both phrases would sound almost the same, if either of us were to say them aloud.
Ibid was not a major character at all, I think thats the only time his name is mentioned. It’s funny because it spins off a common joke in university circles.
When you write a paper in the chicago style, you use footnotes to refer to a source. If two footnotes with the same authors name fall after each other, you can write “ibid” in the lower one, meaning that this footnote refers to the same thing as the one above. Acording to the joke, someone who does not now this (=an uneducated person) ask “So who is this Ibid guy, and why is he writing all these books?”
So someone called Ibid accused of being a know-it-all would be funny, if you know this, but wouldn’t even register as a joke if you don’t.
I mentioned Booty Bay, because I know there are people here who play WoW, and I wanted to point out where the shop was. It’s called " A Tailor to Cities", which to me sounds similar (not identical) to “A tale of two cities.” Its different enough to not be obvious, and most people would probably not see it.
I thought of one the other day: “His inattention to matters of dress was matched by his carelessness in hygeine; nothing could make him change his slovenly habit”.
Right. Ibid is a penname of that most prolific of writers, A. Nonymous.
I made a culinary pun the other day that was either overlooked for its brilliance or summarily ignored. I choose to believe the first. Duckster [The Set-Up]: So what vegetable is this place?
**chowder **[The Straight Guy]: Sorry forgot to add this place is Asparagus with melted butter, lots of melted butter. Jake: Yeah, but Clarified butter! OneCentStamp:Golly ghee, do you really mean it? Me: I bet the Moderators’ patience with pun thread hijacks is shortening these last couple of days.
It was even better because several of us had, in fact, been gently chastized two days before for temporarily derailing a thread with puns, so it was a Double Specialized Knowledge Pun with Cheese: Cooking Knowledge and Straight Dope Knowledge.
But explaining, of course, causes Humor Molecules to be leaked off into the atmosphere, so it’s no longer funny. (If it ever was funny to anyone but me.)
Hijack of hijack – “Disecting Humor is like disecting a frog in biology lab. Nobody really enjoys it, and the frog usually dies as a result”
[/ H.o.H.]
Another couple from Pyramids: In the scene where the two mummy-makers are removing the internal organs from the dead king one says to the other “look, your name in lights.” I didn’t notice the pun at first, until someone pointed out another meaning for lights.
Many Americans missed the point of the name Djellibaybi: jelly babies aren’t well known in America, I understand. So for the benefit of Americans,in a later book Pratchett invented another country called Hersheba, a pun that was missed by many Brits.
I noted the pun in question, and thought it was pretty clever, but am a firm believer in not encouraging puns–or at least not responding to clever wordplay with posts that consist of “Hey, nice puns”.
My greatest achievement in the punnery category. Fortunately, the target got it.
One hot summer day, back when I was a grad student, I was standing in a corridor in a classroom building, enjoying a nice crossbreeze and I looked up to see one of my professors walking in from an outside door. She fanned herself with a leaflet, it being well over 100° outside, hefted her carryall bag back onto her shoulder, and nodded politely as she passed me. “It would seem the dog days have arrived,” she said.
I nodded. “Seriously.”
She took three more steps, then stopped. She turned slowly, and shot me a conspiratorial grin. “Was that deliberate?” she asked.
The picture of (phony) innocence, I smiled quietly. “Was what deliberate?”
She resumed her course down the hallway. “I thought as much.”
