# Why are puns considered the lowest form of humor? Why do folks groan, even at good puns? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 19, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516 "2020-08-19T19:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/1 "2020-08-19T19:31:47Z")
I’ve never understood why puns get badmouthed so often. To me, the good ones are smart and witty and based on clever wordplay, hardly attributes that seem lowbrow. And why the groan in response? No other form of humor - not slapstick, not blue, not juvenile - elicits this groan of contempt. Anyone wanna cop to appreciating a good pun? mmm ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/2 "2020-08-19T19:34:59Z")
I proudly admit to loving puns. Sincerely, Theophilus Punoval ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/3 "2020-08-19T19:35:33Z")
I actually think that puns are high humor. They can be difficult to construct, especially off the cuff. As to the groans, it’s a traditional sign of respect for the pun, not to be confused with actual dislike. Puns are awesome. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/4 "2020-08-19T19:47:53Z")
People who groan at puns are just jealous that they didn’t think of them first. I’m an incorrigible punster. And yet people keep incorriging me. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/5 "2020-08-19T19:53:00Z")
Unrepentant punster checking in. I eat corrige for breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/6 "2020-08-19T20:23:26Z")
These are malapropisms not puns. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/8 "2020-08-19T20:47:23Z")
The palindrome of “Bolton” is “Notlob.” It don’t work! ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/9 "2020-08-19T21:46:28Z")
Easy. A good pun is it’s own reword. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/10 "2020-08-19T21:47:40Z")
I’ve had people stare at me in astonishment and compliment my mind, possibly because at times I can come up with puns and witty joke responses _instantly_. (It’s like my one skill. Monetizing it has been difficult.) As for groans, I believe they’re a ritualized acknowledgment of how you just destroyed the flow of conversation with your wittiness. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/11 "2020-08-19T21:49:51Z")
The good puns are fine. But a lot of punsters aren’t so good. Their speech exceeds their grasp. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/12 "2020-08-19T22:05:52Z")
I too have never understood why puns are considered low humor (certainly compared to sex, scatology, etc.). When I was a kid, I laughed at puns until I learned that you’re expected to groan. Maybe it’s mostly peer pressure? But that would still leave the question of how the expectation got started. I remember a thread here where someone asked if there was any humor which did not involve some form or quantity of ‘meanness’ and IIRC the consensus was that puns were about the only example. I was once asked what was my favorite joke, and I told the true story from Neil Armstrong’s biography “First Man” where the University of Cincinatti’s aerospace engineering department was getting its faculty photo taken, and the photographer at one point asked, “Mr. Armstrong, if you could take one small step forward”. That’s not exactly a pun, but close enough. ---
**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:** [August 19, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/13 "2020-08-19T22:09:27Z")
Possibly relevant is that puns are untranslatable. Any other sort of joke will have some degree of universal appeal, but a pun closes off the audience to a single language (or occasionally closely-related languages). ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/14 "2020-08-20T00:36:53Z")
There tends to be a pretty high correlation between people who drop puns, and people who think they are the smartest person in the room. That’s not a great combination for actual shared humor. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/15 "2020-08-20T00:36:56Z")
A vaillant cours (coeur), rien d’impassible (d’impossible)… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/16 "2020-08-20T00:52:58Z")
Puns are the highest form of humor. Even Jesus made them. But the main reason is that puns are the only form of humor that doesn’t depend on pain and humiliation. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/17 "2020-08-20T01:19:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Puns are the highest form of humor. Even Jesus made them. [Here is an explanation of one](https://abramkj.com/2013/01/26/jesus-makes-a-pun-in-the-synagogue/). > [@RealityChuck](#): > > But the main reason is that puns are the only form of humor that doesn’t depend on pain and humiliation. I never realized this until I read _Stanger in a Strange Land_, where Valentine said he finally understood humor as “Something bad that happens to someone else”. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2020, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/18 "2020-08-20T01:20:09Z")
I don’t know that it’s the _lowest_ form, but it’s in the bottom 50%. Most puns are actually not clever or interesting, just a contrived set of circumstances that lead to an equally contrived resolution. It doesn’t take much to come up with those. If a story is compelling and it is not obvious that it is heading for a pun, and the pun ending surprises me, I won’t groan. I do have an admiration for someone who can improvise reasonably clever puns on the spot, but most people who make puns do not make reasonably clever ones. ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/19 "2020-08-20T01:32:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > But the main reason is that puns are the only form of humor that doesn’t depend on pain and humiliation. Au contraire! They depend on the pain of the hearers and the humiliation of the speakers. But seriously, puns are the only true form of groan up humor. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Sponge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dark_sponge/32/121_2.png) [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/20 "2020-08-20T01:39:01Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Puns are the highest form of humor. Even Jesus made them… Actually the entire Bible is full of them. Most of them get lost in translation to English but there’s no doubt God likes puns. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2020, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516/21 "2020-08-20T01:47:37Z")
I was told by a teacher that sarcasm is the lowest form of humor. I certainly agree it’s lower then puns! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-puns-considered-the-lowest-form-of-humor-why-do-folks-groan-even-at-good-puns/918516.md?page=2)