When I need to pass a few minutes, I sometimes go on Reddit, a social news and entertainment website where users can submit posts and comments and rate others' submissions with "up" (good) votes and "down" (bad) votes.
Most of the time, there are interesting discussions taking place in posts with titles such as "What Is Something You've Seen that No One Will Ever Believe?" and "What is the Worst Thing You Have Ever Been Falsely Accused of?" However, more often than not, lying right in the middle of one of these discussions is a chain of user-submitted puns. For example, in response to a post discussing a surprising political move by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, a user commented "Kenya believe it?" This small pun inspired 51 punny responses, completely detracting from the discussion at hand. All of these replies received positive feedback, with upvotes on most replies ranging from amounts of 50-100 each.
Many new Reddit users are amused by these pun threads and even go out of their way to start them and comment on them. However, after a while, users find that these chains become boring and commonplace, more annoying than humorous or entertaining. I think this is because users realize what makes a pun funny in the first place - timing. Lack of timing is why punny headlines and punny Reddit posts aren't usually funny - because we know that a news writer or a Reddit user took his time to craft the pun. When we laugh at puns, we laugh because the person telling the pun came up with something clever against the pressure of time more than we laugh at the pun itself.
Coming to your post, I thought that it might deal with something being funny on Reddit no matter what. After reading, I realize the true nature of the title and appreciate the humor.
ReplyDeleteMore to the point, I simultaneously agree and disagree with your point. Puns are mostly based on correct (if not perfect) timing and require and excellent wit to be truly funny. However, a good pun can be funny regardless of the length it took to craft it. Newsroom puns are terrible, there's no denying that. There are gems out there though, particularly in a comic strip I enjoy: Pearls Before Swine. If your interested in seeing some, let me know. I have to say they're quite punny...excuse me, funny.
I've never understood people's hate for puns. Sure, it's annoying to see a pun that's been made about a thousand times before ("I did Nazi that coming"), but most original puns are great. Like you mentioned, a good pun takes time. Just today, we looked at a pun made in the Odyssey. In book 19, Penelope mentions that she prefers not to say the name of the city that her husband disappeared to, instead calling it "Destroy." This pun is hilarious, and it's especially clever because Robert Fagles had to translate the passage and come up with it entirely on his own. The Greek translation was completely different. That's the kind of dedication it takes to make a good pun, and that's why puns are definitely the highest form of comedy.
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