It’s fun to play around with words, and puns are a great way to crack a joke by doing just that. A pun is a figure of speech that exploits the multiple meanings of a word, often to a humorous effect.
A pun is also known as “paronomasia,” a word whose roots come from the Greek word “paronomazein,” meaning “to make a change in a name.”
Examples of Puns in Daily Life
Take a look at the following sentences and see if you can find the puns.
- This vacuum cleaner sucks.
- I like dating musicians because they tend to be upbeat.
- Crabs don’t like to share; they’re shellfish.
- This season, I want to give more thyme to my herb garden.
- Make like a tree and leave.
The Function of Puns
Writers use puns to make their audiences laugh. Puns tend to be an obvious shot at being funny, and people usually laugh at the creative, well-made ones, and groan at the corny ones.
In written stories, the use of puns helps you create a character that’s intended to be silly or comical.
Nobody knows why we laugh when words are used in strange ways. But scientists who have looked into the phenomenon claim that puns activate a part of the brain different from those that react to other jokes.
First, the left hemisphere of the brain, which processes language, is activated, but the right hemisphere also becomes active in trying to figure out, like it would a puzzle, the double meaning of the word.
This challenge is what gives puns their appeal, because the word play aligns with the basic formula of humor: thwarted expectation results in laughter. Because the sentence prepares us to expect one thing from the word, the unexpected second meaning makes the experience amusing.
Types of Puns
Puns come in several types:
Homophonic Pun
These puns use homonyms, or words that have the same sound but different meanings. For example: “The library is the tallest building in the city, with thousands of stories.” The word “stories” can mean the stories in a book, or the stories (also spelled “storeys”) in a building.
Homographic Pun
Also known as heteronymic puns, these puns use words spelled the same way but pronounced differently. These are usually delivered in written form so as to trick the reader into thinking about the “wrong” sound of the word.
For example: “You can’t sing while fishing; they don’t like bass.”
The word “bass” comes in two pronunciations: when using the long a sound, it refers to a musical term. When used with the short a sound, it refers to a type of fish.
Compound Pun
When more than one pun type appears in the same sentence, we call it a compound pun. For example: “Don’t you dare try to trick the tribesmen; they can easily spot a cheetah.”
Visual Pun
Also known as a graphological pun, this pun relies on imagery and graphics rather than phonetic writing. See the example below, featuring two female books sitting at a bar, with a male library card at the other end of the bar.
Recursive Pun
A recursive pun requires that you understand the first element of the sentence in order to understand the second. For example, to understand the pun “May the Fourth be with you,” you will first need to understand the Star Wars reference to “May the force be with you,” as well as the fact that May 4th is known as Star Wars Day.
Examples of Puns in Literature and Pop Culture
Literature is also packed full of witty puns. Here are some of the most famous examples:
Example #1. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
In this famous play, the comedy revolves around many characters who all pretend to be named “Ernest,” but in so doing, they are actually not being earnest (sincere)!
Example #2. Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
In this example from Two Gentlemen of Verona, the play on words involves “tied” and “tied.”
Panthino: Away, ass! You’ll lose the tide if you tarry any longer.
Launce: It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied.
Panthino: What’s the unkindest tide?
Launce: Why, he that’s tied here, Crab, my dog.
Example #3. Richard III by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare uses the pun of “sun of York” to refer to the bright sun on the banner of Edward IV, as well as the fact that Edward IV is the son of the Duke of York.
“Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”
Example #4. Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Bill Watterson is one of the wittiest writers of comic strips. For example, in one strip, the boy Calvin asks his tiger Hobbes, “Do you want to see an antelope?” Hobbes runs after Calvin, excitedly asking, “Where?” Instead, Calvin kneels before an anthill and points. “See? She’s climbing down the ladder to her boyfriend’s car.”
The pun is “antelope” and “ant elope.”
Example #5. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
This excerpt from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland plays on “tale” and “tail.”
“Mine is a long and a sad tale!” said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. “It is a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?” And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking.
Example #6. Gnomeo and Juliet (film)
This cartoon movie title plays on Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet,” and features a community of gnomes, with Gnomeo and Juliet also undergoing similar love story problems as the Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet.
Other Terms Related to Pun
Another term largely synonymous with the word pun is “wordplay.” However, wordplay also includes things such as word games, like those that children play on long car rides.
One form of wordplay is the “double entendre,” which refers to words with double meanings, usually used in sexual allusions, deliberate misunderstanding, or comedy. It usually uses a single word and plays on its multiple meanings.
Using Puns
Learning to use puns is a great way to be witty in your writing and conversations.
Just make sure you don’t overdo it, because not everyone likes being with someone who’s always making puns, especially when they cross over to the corny side!
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- 32 Hilarious Library Puns to Brighten Your Day
- How to Write Comedy: 5 Tips for Making Readers Laugh
- 20 Funny Books for Teens: The Best Books to Entertain Young Adults
- How to Write a Limerick: Tips and Examples
Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
