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I’ve talked about homophones before, in the shape of dittograms. (If you don’t know what a dittogram is, you really must spend a few minutes in the old post. For any serious word-nut, they’re oodles of fun!)
As you recall, homophones are homonyms that share the same pronunciation, e.g.: to, too, and two. Rather than hosting another ditto-fest, today I thought we’d use the homophone to explore the land of the pun, which has been an ongoing theme recently in the Wrap.
One of my favorite corny jokes in the whole world involves a homophone pun and goes something like this:
Larry: Hey Jeff, wanna play tennis tonight?
Jeff: Nah, can’t. I’ve got a weak back.
Larry: Really? When did you get it?
Jeff: About a week back.
Here are two more classics:
- Being in politics is just like playing golf: you are trapped in one bad lie after another.
- Seven days without laughter makes one weak.
I thought I’d use the Wrap now to introduce a new video feature I’m calling Mishugas. Because this first 60-second episode happens to deal with this sort of pun, I thought it would be an appropriate way to introduce the new, periodic video feature I’m planning.
So for the interactive part of the Wrap, I invite you loyal Wrappers either to a) come up with or share your own homophonic pun or, b) after watching the video, leave a comment suggesting a homophonic pun you’d like to see me tackle in a future installment of Mishugas. I’ll pick one good one and try to make it happen.
David - maybe it is just me but I can’t get the video to load…..
posted by JaneM on 11-9-2007 at 8:00 am
hmmm. looks fine here. anyone else having trouble loading the video?
posted by David on 11-9-2007 at 8:18 am
Q. How did Peter Pan fare on the Oregon Trail?
A. He tried to fairy the river, but one of the oxen died…
posted by Ashley on 11-9-2007 at 10:09 am
Are you swimming IM today?
I am!
posted by April Fleming on 11-9-2007 at 10:13 am
Now that I think about it, I guess one of the oxen was more likely to die when you forded the river.
Oops.
Let’s try again
Q. What happened when they relied on the marketing major to ready the ship?
A. Sails fell by 15%.
posted by Ashley on 11-9-2007 at 10:32 am
There’s an old joke that ends with a piece of string saying, “No, I’m a frayed knot.”
posted by Karen on 11-9-2007 at 11:53 am
And another old joke about a mushroom that ends ‘Why not? I’m a fun guy’.
posted by JaneM on 11-9-2007 at 12:32 pm
How about this one from the movie “rushmore”?
“I like your nurse’s uniform, guy.”
“these are O.R. scrubs.”
“oh, are they?”
posted by Kaitlin on 11-9-2007 at 1:20 pm
There’s my sister’s favorite dumb joke:
Why don’t seagulls fly over the bay?
Because then they’d be bay gulls.
posted by Janel on 11-10-2007 at 1:24 am
Do you mind one in Spanish?
Cual es la diferencia entre una pera y la novia de un misionero mormon?
La una es pera, y la otra no espera.
True in many cases, if not mine.
posted by Denise on 11-10-2007 at 1:52 am
For some dumb reason, I’m particulary (man, I need to learn how to spell) fond of these two.
“Two fish are in a tank. One turns to the other and say, ‘Alright, how do you drive this thing?’”
“Two men walk into a bar. One turns to the other and says, ‘I didn’t see it either.’”
posted by jeffcomedy on 11-10-2007 at 3:19 pm
I know this isn’t part of the game, but this reminded me of something. When a certain movie came out, I went up to the ticket counter and said,
“Two for Seven for 9:30″
The poor girls head almost exploded trying to figure out if I was ordering tickets or giving her my phone number.
posted by jeffcomedy on 11-10-2007 at 3:42 pm
Muy comico lo de la pera y la que “no espera.” Ja ja ja!
I know it’s not the same thing but I always laugh when people say “What you do do is very important.”
“Do do.”
Good times.
posted by Kelly P on 11-10-2007 at 9:11 pm
A rather longish original pun, with apologies:
The zoo bought low maintenance artificial palm trees to place amongst the real palms in the monkey enclosure on an experimental basis. The chimpanzees accepted the very lifelike imitation trees for the most part, but when it rained they all climbed the genuine trees . Upon discovery of this action, it was determined by researchers that real trees offered better shelter because of the natural leaf structure. At the beginning of the experiment however , even the most experienced scientists had had diffulty discerning between real palms and very realistic fake palms until, on that rainy day , one them noticed that “when the chimps are down you find out where your real fronds are.
posted by Floyd King on 11-11-2007 at 11:35 am
I can’t load the video either.
posted by greenstrawberries on 11-11-2007 at 6:56 pm