Everybody hates puns, right? Drop a pun into your water cooler conversations, and
you'll instantly become a social piranha. But a pun can be an incredibly useful
way to load meaning into your writing, so how can you use a pun without making
people roll their eyes? Girl: Sometimes I sleep on the napkins when I get tired Steven: is that why they're called napkins?"
"Not really, no." Puns were not always bunder-appreciated.
As John Pollock points out in his book, "The Pun Also Rises," puns were respected
as a form of high rhetoric in ancient Greece. There are also multitudes of puns
in the Old Testament when you read it in the original Hebrew. And in the New
Testament, Jesus says "thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church."
The name Peter means rock. Pollock: For most of human history, the pun was a sign of
intelligence, of wit, of insight, of wisdom. During the Renaissance, which embraced
classical ideas, puns were also very penpular, and the major writers of the time
used as many puns as they could ink of. Pollock: Puns were just hugely popular.
Lawyers punned. Judges punned in their judgments. Even condemned criminals would pun on the
gallows to show that, "hey, I'm not so low. I still have eloquence, I still have wit.
I am a worthy human being." But then the Enlightenment dawned and while
rationalism lit the way into the modern era, it was a dark time for punsters.
Enlightenment thinkers believed that everything could be understood through
observation and logic, so a branch of them came to regard language, with all of
its contradictions, and ambiguities, as something that was mossy. Puns which
essentially point out this messiness, started to fall out of favor. This is
when the phrase "pardon the pun" started popping up. Even Samuel Johnson, the
writer of the first dictionary, called them, "the lowest form of wit," which is
ironic, since he is now mostly known for being an internet meme. But the first
thing you should know about writing puns is that they do not have to be funny.
Consider the work of the world's greatest punster, William Shakespeare who
uses puns for many reasons other than comedy. For instance, he uses them for
characterization by making his cleaverest characters pun like their knives
depended on it. Hamlet puns repeatedly as a way to rebel against his uncle without
being punished. Claudius: How now, my cousin, Hamlet, and my son. How is it that the clouds hang on you?
Hamlet: oh, no my lord I am too much in the sun. In other words, he is uncomfortable with being called
his uncle's son. The language offers him a loophole where he can be both
insulting and respectful at the same time, while telling the audience how big
is Denmark is. On the other hand, when Shakespeare's foolish characters pun,
they do so unmittingly. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Bottom starts making donkey
related puns ass-identally. Quill: Thou art changed, though I see on you. Bottom: What do you see,
an asshead of your own, do you? Sometimes, Shakespeare even uses puns for tragic
purposes. After being stabbed in Romeo and Juliet, the usually jovial Mercutio
says: Mercutio: "T'will serve. Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man."
but what if you do want to make your puns humorous, well then I'd build on the work
of Arrested Development. This show puns like it's going out of syndication.
The name of the show is a pun. Several characters names are puns. And one
character's only character trait, is that he puns at the worst possible time. Mother: How's my son?
Doctor: He's going to be all right. Crowd: oh oh thank god, finally some good news from this guy. There's no other way to take that.
Doctor: that's a great attitude I got to tell you, if I was given this news I
don't know that I'd take it this well. Mother: But you said he was all right. Doctor: yes he's
lost his left hand, so he's going to be all right.
One of the most brilliant ways the show uses puns is as foreshadowing. In
one plotline, Buster wants to escape the control of his domineering mother,
Lucille, but in doing so gets his hand eaten by a loose seal. Man: Loose seal! Watch out
for loose seal! This event is heavily foreshadowed with puns that are only
funny in hindsight. Buster: Oh my hand chair, I had one of my room. I wonder where it went?
Narrator: it went right there. Buster: I never thought I'd miss a hand so much.
Part of the reason people find puns distasteful is because they feel forced. People overemphasize
the pun, which makes them, hard to swallow Steven: it's not exactly healthy, but it's in a
stack, so I guess you could say it's a balanced breakfast.
But when you hide puns in a story, then discovering them feels like finding buried pleasure.
If however, you want to use them for humor, the question to remember is "what is the punchline?"
"Is this funny because of the wordplay, or is there another level to
the humor?" In Arrested Development the joke is almost always on the characters
themselves. We're laughing at how stupid they are or how petty they are.
Marta: He showed me the watch you gave him. Michael: The watch? GOB: I appreciate your time.
Miscommunications based around puns also formed the basis of a ton of conflicts
and plot lines in the show. Like when Michael is worried that someone is going
to break his brothers legs, Man: Tell him Rallo wants him to say goodbye to
his legs. But finds out that he is referring to the actress who plays the
legs in GOB's "saw a woman in half" magic trick. The characters are constantly the
victims of ambiguous language. And hey, you know what's always funny? Slapstick
comedy. So why not use a pun as the setup? Narrator: Michael would have walked away forever
but he was struck by something he remembered from his childhood.
But there is one place you are 100% allowed to pun and are even foolish not to: The title.
In probably the most influential book on screenwriting ever, "Shave the cat,"
Blake Snyder writes that a movie idea should have some form of irony to it.
The ironic twister is what stirs up the audience's desire to see the movie and
the title needs to thunder home that element of irony, hopefully in only one
or two words. Puns do all of this. Heck, some of these stories only exist because
of the pun. Next year, there's a movie coming out called "Monster Trucks" about
trucks with monsters in them. So in other words, in your writing embrace the pun.
Use them for titles, characterization, foreshadowing, tragedy, and comedy.
Thanks for watching everyone. If you liked this video make sure to subscribe for more
video essays on language and story. My name is Sage, and don't forget to
leaf a calm ent to lettuce know what your favorite pun is. Be leaf me, we tree-ly
appreciate it.