# Subtle Puns **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 8, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735 "2006-10-08T19:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/41 "2006-10-13T03:14:18Z")
Can I brag? A couple of weeks ago, my GF texted me a reminder to pick up prophylactics. I sent back the single word “Roger.” She texted back “What means ‘roger?’” (English is not her first language.) I sent her back an explanatory link: > **[roger | Etymology, origin and meaning of the name roger by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/Roger)** > > ROGER Meaning: "famous with the spear," from hruod- "fame, glory" + ger "spear" (see gar (n.)). "The name was… See origin and meaning of roger. Subtle enough? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/42 "2006-10-15T14:24:12Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] 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](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=lights). [/QUOTE] Which one of the two dozen definitions applies? ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/43 "2006-10-15T15:11:25Z")
[QUOTE=Rilchiam] Which one of the two dozen definitions applies? [/QUOTE] Viscera. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/44 "2006-10-17T20:32:50Z")
lights = lungs and other entrails. So, “your name in lights” = using lungs and entrails to spell out a name in hieroglyphics. A very subtle pun indeed. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/45 "2006-10-17T20:50:31Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] **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. [/QUOTE] Aarrggh. I totally missed it, which is embarrassing considering I was the tool who produced the line about ghee. :smack: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/46 "2006-10-18T13:02:40Z")
Springfield’s high-end department store Costington’s stumped me for awhile. It was actually better before I figured out that it was a play on the words Costing tons, as simply having the “Cost” out there with a faux-old-money name sufficiently implied hoity-toityness. But then I woke up one day and realized it had to be a pun, and sure enough in about a minute I was :smack: Here’s one for ya that I made up on my way to work: _How to win friends and influence people_, by Dale Carnegie-Mellon. _Mellon_ is the Elvish word for _friend_ ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/47 "2006-10-18T13:41:49Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] Aarrggh. I totally missed it, which is embarrassing considering I was the tool who produced the line about ghee. :smack: 😃 [/QUOTE] Hee hee. It says something about the gentle art of punning that I’m happier to hear that “Aarrggh.” than the appreciative comments upthread (although those were nice and duly noted, thank you!). Or maybe it says something about me. It says something, anyway. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/48 "2006-10-18T13:59:16Z")
Around thanksgiving time, grocery stores put out free-standing racks of various herbs and spices for all the holiday cooking. I always found it appropriate that these were known as seasonal displays. Bagging groceries one day, a cashier scanned a loaf of bread and then rang up a watermelon. I saved the bread from being crushed and said, “Dude! watch it. That bread was almost toast.” ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735/49 "2006-10-18T14:08:19Z")
In the New Testament, maybe in Matthew, a leper touches the bottom of Jesus’ gown. He says, ‘Who touched me?’ The leper was cured of course. Cured of bleeding (hemorrhaging) by touching the bottom (hem) of the gown. I crack myself up sometimes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-puns/375735.md?page=2)