# Why do puns cause pain? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 4, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304 "2009-11-04T18:29:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FishStampede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8797f3/32.png) [@FishStampede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FishStampede)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/1 "2009-11-04T18:29:46Z")
You know you’ve all felt it. Someone shows you a picture of a bruin afflicted with mange, and then, with a slight pause, describes it as a “BARE!” He laughs, you groan, and feel this strange pain in your chest like someone just punched your soul in the kidney. What causes that feeling? Is it related to similar emotional pains, like heartache and butterflies in your stomach? ---
**Author:** ![pan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@pan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pan1)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/2 "2009-11-04T18:42:10Z")
Its nothing more than stress induced muscle tension hitting a nerve. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/3 "2009-11-04T18:50:52Z")
I’ve never felt physical pain from puns, and what you’re describing is not physical pain. I always took it as a combination of “I’m laughing at how stupid that is” and “I should have guessed the punchline.” ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/4 "2009-11-04T18:55:20Z")
Isaac Asimov proposed an answer to this in his short story, “Jokester.”[spoiler]By computer analysis, the characters in the story investigate the origin of humor, particularly why there seems to be no such thing as an original joke, except for puns. Every normal joke is something you heard from someone else. The computer eventually tells them that humor is actually a psychological study tool imposed from without by extraterrestrials studying mankind. They needed to isolate the responses to their jokes from original ones, so they ‘programmed’ us to react differently to puns. They also find that figuring this fact out makes it useless as a tool, so the unidentified aliens turn off humor. Noting is ever funny again.[/spoiler]Not that I think that’s the real reason, of course. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/5 "2009-11-04T18:58:59Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > “I should have guessed the punchline.” You mean the _pun_chline!!! ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_Astronaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bad\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/6 "2009-11-04T19:58:37Z")
> [@FishStampede](#): > > You know you’ve all felt it. Someone shows you a picture of a bruin afflicted with mange, and then, with a slight pause, describes it as a “BARE!” He laughs, you groan, and feel this strange pain in your chest like someone just punched your soul in the kidney. What causes that feeling? Is it related to similar emotional pains, like heartache and butterflies in your stomach? The only pain I feel from a bad pun occurs in my brain and is not literally pain, just a sort of annoyance or disgust mixed with amusement. Is it possible that what you experience is some sort of psychosomatic response you’ve created for yourself based on the idea that puns are “painful” or that people groan in response to them? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/7 "2009-11-04T20:04:56Z")
It is only painful if I didn’t think of it first. ---
**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:** [November 4, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/8 "2009-11-04T20:06:53Z")
Puns don’t actually cause pain, of course. The reason why we groan at them is because that’s the socially accepted way to react. By groaning, you indicate you know the joke is a pun. ---
**Author:** ![Stathol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71e660/32.png) [@Stathol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stathol)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/9 "2009-11-04T20:07:45Z")
… no pain intended. /ducks ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/10 "2009-11-04T20:08:37Z")
Yeah, no physical pain here either. I think my response to bad puns is along the lines of “it fits the technical definition, but fails to meet the quality standard.” Furthermore, it’s demeaning to the entire art form to have such a hideous thing lumped in with other puns. For example, your kid’s malformed attempt to draw a dog/horse/thing is technically art because it meets every objective definition we have for art. But it’s just not _Art_. It’s only worth putting up on the wall when it’s your kid. You’d never stick it up next to the Mona Lisa because doing so would be demeaning to both of them. (Which is why I hate post-modernists, but that’s a topic for the pit). ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/11 "2009-11-04T20:14:20Z")
> [@Stathol](#): > > /ducks whut? Careful, don’t cause me pain or you will have some ducks in a row. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/12 "2009-11-04T20:17:24Z")
Wow what a coincidence, I was going to ask this question too. It seems odd that people hate puns. I don’t get it ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/13 "2009-11-04T20:49:05Z")
> [@FishStampede](#): > > You know you’ve all felt it. Someone shows you a picture of a bruin afflicted with mange, and then, with a slight pause, describes it as a “BARE!” He laughs, you groan, and feel this strange pain in your chest like someone just punched your soul in the kidney. What causes that feeling? Is it related to similar emotional pains, like heartache and butterflies in your stomach? That’s your _pun_ishment. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/14 "2009-11-04T21:10:28Z")
Puns are a mentally challenging form of humor. Some people just don’t have the background to understand certain puns, often due to a language barrier or lack of common reference. Similar to the way that going to the gym regularly strengthens your muscles, taking part in puns and other forms of word-play can strengthen your mental capacities. And, just like going to the gym, my friends all say … No pun, no gun! ---
**Author:** ![Textual\_Intercourse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Textual\_Intercourse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Textual_Intercourse)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/15 "2009-11-04T21:31:32Z")
It’s interesting to note that puns usually _are_ intended and as such, the phrase “pun not intended” often becomes a punner’s tool to make the actually intended (but not to clever) pun seem slightly more clever by making said pun seem to be the unintended lovechild of some otherwise logical (though punless) string of thought. I consider such practices highly suspect and they usually earn my “no punny business from you” stare. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/16 "2009-11-04T21:48:59Z")
WAG: I think it’s the same like every kind of bad humor that you \*know \*is bad, but yet you feel, at least, a little amused. It’s two inconsistent feelings at once, and that causes some irritation. Additionally, there may be an embarrassing admiration for the pun’s creator. ETA: And I knew there would be some very, very bad puns in this thread after reading the title. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/17 "2009-11-05T13:50:49Z")
I’ve never had pain from a pun. Perhaps the worst was a sinking feeling in my gut when I heard a really bad one, but nothing really _painful._ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/18 "2009-11-05T15:50:35Z")
It’s amusement contusement. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/19 "2009-11-05T19:35:47Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > That’s your _pun_ishment. Someone aughta _pun_ch you. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304/20 "2009-11-05T19:45:21Z")
> [@FishStampede](#): > > You know you’ve all felt it. Someone shows you a picture of a bruin afflicted with mange, and then, with a slight pause, describes it as a “BARE!” He laughs, you groan, and feel this strange pain in your chest like someone just **punched** your soul in the kidney. What causes that feeling? Is it related to similar emotional pains, like heartache and butterflies in your stomach? Not only is it a _ **pun** _ch line… it’s a _ **punch** _-line. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-puns-cause-pain/516304.md?page=2)