Puns. Some people love them, some people hate them.
But why do some people find puns so exasperating? And why do we make them anyway? What’s it like to be on the receiving end of a rapid-fire pun off?
Daniel and Kylie are going against the groan on this episode of Talk the Talk.
Listen to this episode
You can listen to all the episodes of Talk the Talk by pasting this URL into your podlistener.
http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlPromo
Our promo, ahead of the show.
Cutting Room Floor
Kylie’s back from her travels, and full of stories of the Cosmic Shambles, a science comedy show that toured Australia. But why did the airport have a shop that sells NÖÖÖDLES?
Hedvig Skirgård relates even more stats from her research with the Great Language Game. And Janani Krishnan-Jha mentions Shakespeare in connection with the great puns of literature.
Daniel drops some more puns that don’t work in other varieties of English. And why couldn’t the Grammar Sign guy have simply written a discreet letter informing shop owners of their apostrophic breaches?
Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/8820271
Patreon supporters
Mass props to our community of Patreon patrons, including
Julie,
Christopher F.
David W.
Zoe
Whitney
Matt
Christy
and the wonderful podcast Lingthusiasm.
We appreciate your support!
We’re Because Language now, and you can become a Patreon supporter!
Depending on your level, you can get bonus episodes, mailouts, shoutouts, come to live episodes, and of course have membership in our Discord community.
Show notes
The Great Language Game
https://greatlanguagegame.com
Paper: Why are some languages confused for others? Investigating data from the Great Language Game
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165934
The great language game: Confusing languages
http://www.replicatedtypo.com/the-great-language-game-confusing-languages/7926.html
Linguistic and cultural knowledge affect whether languages are identified correctly
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-linguistic-cultural-knowledge-affect-languages.html
Linquest
https://www.languageininteraction.nl/lingquest.html
College Humour: Puns Intended
https://www.facebook.com/CollegeHumor/videos/vb.6363207806/10154267590532807/?type=3&theater
O.Henry Pun-Off World Championships
http://punoff.com
Watch Janani in action at the O. Henry Pun-off!
2016 O.Henry Pun-Off World Championships semi-final round (Janani Krishna-Jha vs Jerzy Gwiazdowski
John Pollack: The Pun Also Rises
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/307465/the-pun-also-rises-by-john-pollack/9781592406753/
Linguistic Anarchy! It’s All Pun And Games Until Somebody Loses a Sign
https://daily.jstor.org/linguistic-anarchy-pun-games-somebody-loses-sign/
What is a pun?
http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/glossaryoflinguisticterms/whatisapun.htm
Goodreads: Quotes About Puns
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/puns
Monday Punday: A weekly game
http://mondaypunday.com/325
The Greatest Jokes Ever Told
http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a35136/greatest-jokes-ever-told/
Tearable Puns
http://www.tearablepuns.org
Why Do Puns Make People Groan?
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/why-do-puns-make-people-groan/398252/
Meet the ‘Grammar Vigilante’ of Bristol
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39459831
The ‘Apostrophiser’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08kys4c
Who do you think you’re apostrophising? The dark side of grammar pedantry
https://theconversation.com/who-do-you-think-youre-apostrophising-the-dark-side-of-grammar-pedantry-75793
Are you a friendly language police?
https://educationallinguist.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/are-you-a-friendly-language-police/
Image credit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2d/9d/e7/2d9de7137ef7bfedb28baf9faca3f751.jpg
Transcript
We’re working our way back through the archives. If you think we should prioritise a transcript of this episode, let us know!
