Saturday, March 28, 2009

Pun for the Ages.




My buddy Brandt sent me this Joseph Tartakovsky article today from the NY Times. Very funny stuff...or should I say very punny?

THE inglorious pun! Dryden called it the “lowest and most groveling kind of wit.” To Ambrose Bierce it was a “form of wit to which wise men stoop and fools aspire.” Universal experience confirms the adage that puns don’t make us laugh, but groan. It is said that Caligula ordered an actor to be roasted alive for a bad pun. (Some believe he was inclined to extremes.)

Read the whole article here. Illustration by Craig Damrauer.