Puns in the Headlines

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

When a new president moves into the White House, it’s traditional to change the decor of the Oval Office.

And you may remember last year, an interior designer did that for Barack Obama.

Now, this new color scheme was based on muted tones.

It was mostly beige and light browns.

And when the New York Times reported on this change, it used a great headline.

The audacity of taupe.

Now, see, you laughed.

You laughed.

Would you call that a bad pun or a good pun?

I think I laughed because it’s an unexpected reaction, right?

Yes.

Because it’s a play on the title of his book.

Sure.

His bestseller.

The audacity of hope with the audacity of taupe.

I love that.

And Grant, I was really eager to see your reaction because I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.

Specifically, why is it that puns in headlines seem different to me from just regular garden variety puns in conversation?

You know, I think those tend to elicit groans, whereas if I’m reading the newspaper and I see a headline that’s particularly clever using a pun or even an advertisement, I give it a second look.

You know, I just I think there’s something different and I’m not really sure what the difference is.

Is it that they’ve taken more care?

I’m not really sure. I’ve been puzzling over it because I’ve been reading this book on the history of puns.

It’s by John Pollack, and he’s done a lot of serious research on this subject.

The book has a bibliography and footnotes, believe it or not. It’s the world history of puns.

So it’s not just a compilation of goofy remarks.

It has those. He was a pun-off champion years ago, and he was also a former presidential speech writer.

But he’s done a lot of research in the same way that people write noun books, you know, like salt or cod, you know, sort of history through that one noun.

And I have to tell you, the title of the book is The Pun Also Rises.

That’s kind of a groaner, don’t you think?

The Pun Also Rises.

But it gets worse.

The subtitle is How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language Changed History and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics.

Ha ha.

So seriously, if you like puns and that kind of wordplay, you’re going to want to read it because it’s more interesting than you might think.

So it’s academic treatment of puns plus some popular treatments.

It’s a popular treatment with a lot of research.

But I want to talk about that a little bit later in the show.

Great.

But we also want to talk about all kinds of language.

You can call us at 877-929-9673 or send us emails to words@waywordradio.org.