The Pun Also Rises, John Pollack - 9781592406234

A former word pun champion's funny, erudite, and provocative exploration of puns, the people who make them, and this derided wordplay's remarkable impact on history.

The pun is commonly dismissed as the lowest form of wit, and punsters are often unpopular for their obsessive wordplay. But such attitudes are relatively recent developments. In The Pun Also Rises, John Pollack-a former World Pun Champion and presidential speechwriter for Bill Clinton-explains why such wordplay is significant: It both revolutionized language and played a pivotal role in making the modern world possible. Skillfully weaving together stories and evidence from history, brain science, pop culture, literature, anthropology, and humor, The Pun Also Rises is an authoritative yet playful exploration of a practice that is common, in one form or another, to virtually every language on earth.

At once entertaining and educational, this engaging book answers fundamental questions: Just what is a pun, and why do people make them? How did punning impact the development of human language, and how did that drive creativity and progress? And why, after centuries of decline, does the pun still matter?

View more: http://bit.ly/gsm3jF

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• The Pun Also Rises
• John Pollack
• Puns
• Idiomatic
• Homophonic
• homographic
• Homonymic
• Heteronymic
• compound pun
• Recursive pun
• Visual pun
• Punning
• Joke
• Humor
• Verbal
• Speech
• Paronomasia
• Pun-off
• Wordplay
• Language
• Punster
• Knock-Knock

[jdemet1]

Enjoying the book, but how do you fail to mention the WSJ when it comes to punnning. They lead the league in their A-Head pieces. And that's just the headlines and sub-headings. Consider:

A Campaign to Clean Up politics Leaves Nigeria With Dirty Floors

Demand for Brooms, Waved at Rallies, Sweeps the Nation; Ms. Ibrahim Bristles as Price Triples.

And that's not a one-off. They do that kind of thing ALL the time.

John...

jdemet@aol.com

[tracymshelton1110]

YEAH JOHN! :)

[eviltimmy]

There were as many portmanteaus as puns, and none of the examples given were especially creative or humorous. If this is how you're trying to promote your book, it's time to try something different.

[aaarrrggghhh101]

You write a book on how puns deserve more credit, then promote it with a video showing primarily advertising, the lowest form of entertainment? Punacceptable

[desjd]

There is something fishy about a Pollack trying to hook us with the lines in this promo video!

[teiman]

The pun is not sleeping, just pinning for pjords.