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The Art of Punning

Puns are a lost form of art.

  • When people watch a theatre production, they laugh and/or cry with appreciation.
  • When people see beautiful paintings; they gape, taking in every minute detail.
  • When people hear a symphony of music, they close their eyes and let the music flood their soul.

Puns, on the other hand, inspire a “different” type of response. As a longtime punner (yes, that’s a real word), I know that when I say a pun, I look for two signals that it was effective.

  1. The Groan. It should be from the back of the throat, hearty, and very prolonged. Ideally, the listener should sound as if they are in as much physical pain and discomfort as possible.
  2. The Facepalm. Face and palm unite in this epic form of pun appreciation. One palm signals enjoyment, but two palms signals twice as much pleasure! Combined with a deep groan of pain and misery, this is the pinnacle display of gratitude for a pun.
The ultimate reaction to a pun

 

NOTE: A slight modification to the facepalm involves slapping the person who delivers the puns. Not surprisingly, I get this often; and thoroughly savor the feeling of success.

You may be surprised that laughing wasn’t listed as a signal of an effective pun, but it’s rarely to be expected. “Punning is the lowest form of humor but the highest form of wit” holds true in this manner.

All puns posted on this website are 100% original. Each pun is painstakingly thought of, and I hope you have as much fun reading them as I do when writing them.

Enjoy~

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Hello world!

“Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!”

… What a beautiful moment. I now have the ability to instantly edit words, publish them on a website, and show them to the world… or at least the 2 family members which actually will read this (HI MOM!)

The greatest intellectual minds one century ago would marvel at this communication technology. I bet that when Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity, he would have loved to Tweet about it, update his status, post it on his blog, and tell the world. That is… if internet had been discovered.

But what is the point of  this blog, and what will be on it? Will I used it to reflect upon my travels? Am I just looking to improve my writing skills? Do I simply crave attention?

A great English teacher once started the school year by writing the following questions which humans have been trying to solve for centuries on the board:

  • Why am I here?
  • Is mankind good or evil?
  • Is there a God/s?
  • Is there life after death?

He told us that by the end of the year, we would know the answers to those questions along with much more because of his class. I was amazed at such a proposition because I didn’t think those questions even had any definite answers, but I believed him nonetheless.

Throughout the year we learned much, but the answers to the questions still evaded us. On the last day of school, we realized we had been duped. A classmate raised his hand and told the teacher that he hadn’t explained the question’s answers.

“Of course I have,” our teacher replied with shifty eyes. As the bell rang the teacher winked, and quickly whisked us out of the room.

I thought about the questions over the summer, because he never explicitly told us the answers to the questions. But what he did was show us that the answers are different for everyone, and that what matters isn’t the answer, but how you arrive at your own individual answer.

So what’s the point of this blog, and what will be on it? To tell you the truth, I don’t know; and don’t ever plan on knowing. But I’m not worried; for what matters isn’t the final result, but the journey taken to get there.