To be honest, I can’t recall ever reading the words “no pun intended” (present thread not withstanding). I hear it quite often, but actually, it is sincere more often than. That is, the person only realizes the tenuous pun after hearing the words come out of his/her mouth and clearly wants to point out that it wasn’t intentional. Yes, I do hear the occasional disingenuous “no pun intended”, but I think it is in the minority.
On the flipside, if a person tells a quality pun, he usually is more than willing to accept credit.
What irks me the very most about puns is when the writer feels the need to put them in quotes or italicize or somehow flag them, as if the reader is too stupid to recognize them. Pet peeve. If really in doubt, add “pun intended”.
@KDemo I get this, but sometimes it’s sort of necessary. There’s this game called Punderdome and you have to write your puns, and then the judge reads them. Sometimes you have to resort to underlining or circling things, because the pun doesn’t make sense unless you direct where the emphasis should be. But on the whole, puns are definitely just better off said than read.
@KDemo It sounded really fun when we first got it, but it’s actually not as great as it seems. The biggest issue is the way it’s played; there are two cards and your pun has to be related to those. Plus you’ve only got a minute and a half to come up with a pun. So you’ll sometimes get some ridiculous combination of cards and you just can’t come up with anything for it quick enough. Maybe if you have more people to play with (we’ve usually played with five or six) it might be better. I’d say it’s an interesting idea and fun premise but it’s not executed that well. Maybe make your own categories or something so that everyone has an easier time coming up with puns. And, as I (sort of) said before, the judge has to read them, so it can be hard to really capture the essence of what you’re trying to get at with the pun, be it the emphasis or timing or pronunciation, in writing.
TL;DR it sounds fun but it’s sort of poorly executed so I can’t really recommend it.
Come to think of it, did anyone watch “A Bit of Fry & Laurie”? They kept saying “if you pardon the pun” in various sketches randomly with no actual puns. Good times. Love British comedy.
Yeah, it really irks me when people try to be punny
More puns for the Pun God!
I’m not sure that was actually a pun.
Was this our punishment?
@KDemo That was our pun-irk-ment
I knew it was coming. Still didn’t expect it to be that bad.
One time I sent in ten puns to a contest. I thought I had a pretty good shot of winning, but no pun in ten did.
@Mehsturbator You dropped this: ‘no pun intended’
woooow
I came here to read the pun chain.
To be honest, I can’t recall ever reading the words “no pun intended” (present thread not withstanding). I hear it quite often, but actually, it is sincere more often than. That is, the person only realizes the tenuous pun after hearing the words come out of his/her mouth and clearly wants to point out that it wasn’t intentional. Yes, I do hear the occasional disingenuous “no pun intended”, but I think it is in the minority.
On the flipside, if a person tells a quality pun, he usually is more than willing to accept credit.
What irks me the very most about puns is when the writer feels the need to put them in quotes or italicize or somehow flag them, as if the reader is too stupid to recognize them. Pet peeve. If really in doubt, add “pun intended”.
@KDemo I get this, but sometimes it’s sort of necessary. There’s this game called Punderdome and you have to write your puns, and then the judge reads them. Sometimes you have to resort to underlining or circling things, because the pun doesn’t make sense unless you direct where the emphasis should be. But on the whole, puns are definitely just better off said than read.
@Mehsturbator - Is that game any good? Sounds way fun; cards for cards?
@KDemo It sounded really fun when we first got it, but it’s actually not as great as it seems. The biggest issue is the way it’s played; there are two cards and your pun has to be related to those. Plus you’ve only got a minute and a half to come up with a pun. So you’ll sometimes get some ridiculous combination of cards and you just can’t come up with anything for it quick enough. Maybe if you have more people to play with (we’ve usually played with five or six) it might be better. I’d say it’s an interesting idea and fun premise but it’s not executed that well. Maybe make your own categories or something so that everyone has an easier time coming up with puns. And, as I (sort of) said before, the judge has to read them, so it can be hard to really capture the essence of what you’re trying to get at with the pun, be it the emphasis or timing or pronunciation, in writing.
TL;DR it sounds fun but it’s sort of poorly executed so I can’t really recommend it.
If anyone is running low on puns, you can refill over here
Come to think of it, did anyone watch “A Bit of Fry & Laurie”? They kept saying “if you pardon the pun” in various sketches randomly with no actual puns. Good times. Love British comedy.