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Word of the Day: Pun
The most challenging aspect of a language to understand is humour.
When it comes to humour, a pun is very challenging for English language students to find funny.
Puns play with the multiple meanings and pronunciations of words.
They require intimate knowledge and understanding of a particular language.
In addition, the ability to think outside the box and not take things at their first meaning is helpful.
Language students tend to be so serious about understanding the meaning of a word that they forget about the context of the situation and cannot think of alternate meanings.
For example, think about this for a second – what do you call an alligator wearing a vest?
An investigator, of course. (in vest gator)
Sometimes to understand a pun, you also need to have cultural knowledge.
If I were to say to you: Dancing trees? Now that’s ENTertainment. Do you get it?
No?
Well, in the Lord of the Rings books and movies, there are tree creatures called Ents.
They can move.
If you know the stories, then you get the pun.
Then there are other times when knowledge of synonyms is required.
Try this one: What do you get from a pampered cow?
Spoiled milk. Ha, ha, ha!
You see, pamper and spoil have the similar meaning of giving a child so much that they always expect it.
Now you may think that these are jokes, but they are not.
The difference is that a pun plays with words, their meaning, and pronunciations.
Jokes, on the other hand, do not require wordplay.
On top of that, a joke must be funny to be a joke, but a pun doesn’t have to be funny.
For example, I overate Middle Eastern food for lunch.
Now I falafel (feel awful).
Native speakers may feel that this is cheesy and not funny.
The following is a funny joke:
Doctor: ‘You’re very sick.’
Patient: ‘I think I’d like to get a second opinion.’
Doctor: ‘OK. You’re ugly, too.’
That’s all I have for you today, everyone.
Just remember that a pun is a play on words.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 78.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.