

The Inglorious Pun: Lowest Form of Wit or Fun for the Loftiest Minds? - dpapathanasiou
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/opinion/28Tartakovsky.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

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brandnewlow
I'm hardly an inveterate punster, but I do bust one out from time to time when
around my family - my Dad always laughs, proud of the turn of phrase, my kid
brother thinks its cool and tries to remember it to pass off as his own, my
mom never gets it, and my kid sister gets really, really mad.

I think people who hate puns do so for a few reasons:

1\. Punning is self-centered, masturbatory humor. The punster is often not
trying to entertain anyone but himself. He/She's playing a small but pointed
gag on everyone listening, often to amuse no one but him/herself.
Understandably, this bothers people. It's self-indulgent humor.

2\. People who pun display a mastery and control of the English language that
annoys and intimidates others. It's like guitar players who have the ability
to launch off into a flurry of self-indulgent trills and finger-tap patterns.
The other guitar players think it's awesome. Most people think the guitarist's
a wanker.

3\. Punning is a form of hacking, and some people are never comfortable with
that. The punster hacks the English language to draw connections between words
that aren't typically seen there. A lot of people are made uncomfortable by
the idea that words have no meanings of their own, only those that people give
them. The pun points this out.

~~~
jamesbritt
"Punning is self-centered, masturbatory humor"

How so? How more so than any other form of humor? Most folks I know like puns.
Some groan, but that's part of the fun, like sweet+sour sauce.

A few folks get annoyed. My guess is they don't get language jokes, and they
feel stupid.

Puns have a show-off quality to them, but they're wasted if the audience can't
partake, so it's not simply self-centered.

Unlike guitar skills the crowd needs almost the same chops as the punster to
make it work.

