Verbal and Physical Slips--Unintended Pun Counterparts?

It occurred to me that verbal slips, as discussed in the previous two posts, based on Dr. Motley's research, probably have their equivalent in physical slips, with both probably coming from mental confusion and/or overlap of conflicting intentions. I'm thinking of the tennis player who has positioned herself to hit a lob, and then at the last second changes her mind in favor of a passing shot. The result is that she ends up hitting a perfect setup to the opponent waiting at the net, who then creams the cream puff (unintended pun) for a winner.

Or the baseball outfielder, who upon picking up the line drive base hit, looks up to see the lead runner rounding third. He wants to make a great play at the plate, but then remembers his team is ahead by four runs, so should keep the hitter at first. He attempts to stop his throwing motion, but instead of completely stopping, he only partially stops and lets go of the ball, so the ball ends up rolling toward home plate--and the hitter uses that delay to run to second, and the lead runner scores anyway.

When I mentioned these thoughts to my main sounding board, Claire suggested that this sounded a lot like the comedian Brian Regan, who discusses mixed up common sayings in one of his hilarious bits. See at 1:40 particularly: "Take luck."

Click here for a few good laughs.

Some of the "puns" I have collected are actually kind of like "mixed media"--not just "word play" but more like play between words and other stuff--the word "curry" said in the presence of the smell of the spice curry. The feeling of being tired combined with having trimmed hedges leading to saying "I'm bushed." In other words, so to speak, it seems that the brain doesn't just combine words in its "activation web." (Dr. Motley's term) It seems (to me, anyway), that it combines other things we are sensing or feeling--perhaps much like throwing the ball part way between two places we meant to, or saying parts of two things we meant to say, as in Brian Regan's piece, or smelling and saying "curry." The activation web takes over, and brings these elements together somehow, at a subconcious level.


Today's Unintended Pun, ripped from today's news:

February 19, 2011

Scientist finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer: “That report is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012.”

The irony is, of course, that "all will be well"--oh, you know what I mean.