Arizona Pun

Homeowners in Arizona share their property with many critters you don't see just anywhere: scorpions, rattlesnakes, javelinas, bobcats, geckos, lizards, tarantulas, etc., along with a bunch of more familiar friends, such as birds, crickets, black widows, brown recluses, etc. Fortunately for this homeowner and his family, from these lists, we share with just geckos, crickets, birds, and maybe the occasional lizard or two.

Others aren't so fortunate, so are often discussing their battle and/or fascination with the goings-on of the wildlife they witness in their yards and houses. Just the other day at work I heard two colleagues discussing the circle of life and the way the various prey and predators kind of keep things in balance. It had gotten out of balance at one point, leading one of my colleagues to notice interesting proportions of critters.

September 25, 2013 In describing the new opportunities for the one critter to feast on another, he said: "Out of the clear blue sky the birds started eating all the geckos."

This had then led to further complications, since the geckos were now not around to eat the crickets, which then invaded his house.

I thought it was pretty funny in a gentle sort of way, but of course true to the philosophy of this blog, didn't point it out to anybody, knowing that would lead to boring and misunderstood explanations. This Unintended Pun Factors pretty nicely, since it is self-contained, doesn't need context to be a pun, and provides humor in and of itself.

Please leave your comments, especially if have come across any Unintended Puns in your daily life, or invading your house or conversations.

A Great Punkin of a Pun

Invoking one of my all time favorites, Charlie Brown and the gang by the great Charles Shultz, today's post involves none other than a Great Pumpkin. A man in Alaska has made it his main purpose in life to grow gargantuan pumpkins, and I don't use the word the word "gargantuan" lightly, if you'll pardon the pun, which I'm sure you will given the nature of this blog. The Pumpkin in question weighs over 1400 pounds.

Anyway, assuming the article still exists, read all about it here:

Great Pumpkin Article

August 27, 2013 In describing her brother-in-law's disappointment that his gigantic pumpkin would not be eligible for this year's weigh-off, she said: "It's just killing him," said Pam Elkins, Megchelsen's sister-in-law. "He eats, sleeps and dreams pumpkins. All he does is pumpkins."

I realize that this isn't one of the funnier or more knock'em dead puns that we've had here on the Unintended Pun blog. But the subject matter is so vivid and the man is so serious in his quest that I thought it deserved recognition. And the sister-in-law's quote certainly qualifies as a pun. Then throw in the fact that if Mr. Megchelsen really did eat his pumpkins, it would take him a very long time, and he would probably gain a lot of weight--it's a fairly humorous image.

And of course--it lets me talk about Charlie Brown and Snoopy--the best combination of a boy and his dog in history. Here's to you, Charles Shultz.

Please leave your comments, especially if have come across any Unintended Puns in your daily life.

A Very Tall Pun

I'm beginning to wonder if I should reference news pages. They seem to be actively edited, so that for the second pun in a row, I can't find the page I want to quote, even though this time I just read it the other day. I'm wondering if the writer or the editor had the pun pointed out, and that particular sentence was removed, or if more prosaically, the article was simply edited for brevity.

Anyway, once again, I can't point you to the actual utterance, almost certainly an Unintended Pun, and in this case, pretty funny if you can picture the context. So, you'll have to trust me, once again. But ask my friends--I'm pretty trustworthy.

As a fan of Cleveland sports teams, I have been following news of Cleveland's NBA team's pursuit of an oft-injured center named Andrew Bynum. He is 7 feet tall, and plays at a weight of about 280 pounds. He has had quite a bit of success early in his career, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers on several playoff teams alongside NBA great Kobe Bryant.

approximately July 18, 2013 At the press conference to introduce the newly signed Andrew Bynum, General Manager Chris Grant said: "It is a pleasure adding a player of Andrew's stature to our roster."

I was not in Chris Grant's mind when he said this, but I am positive when he said "stature," he was not referring to the player's height, but rather to his playoff experience and general success in the league. But, when you are standing next to a man who is 7 feet tall, and currently weighs over 300 pounds, what other word would come to mind? I submit this as a stellar example of the activation web at work--Mr. Grant's mind surveyed the landscape of words to capture his thought to express "success, experience, exposure to great players" and came up with the only word it could when in the presence of such a massive person.

Please leave your comments, especially if have come across any Unintended Puns in your daily life.

Huh? A Study in Obfuscation

approximately June 23, 2013 An NBA draft prospect said: "My weakness is my strength."

"My weakness is my strength." Without context, and even with context, this sentence can have so many different meanings, it's almost mind-numbing. In this case, I think the player was saying that he knew he needed to work out more so he could get physically stronger--he was using the word "weakness" in its metaphorical sense, and the word strength in its actual, physical sense. This play on words/almost-impossible-to-understand-sentence sent me on a research project, looking on the Web for "my weakness is my strength", resulting in a lot of hits. Apparently, most uses are the more standard fare, using both "weakness" and "strength" in their metaphorical senses--that is, "one of the worst things about me is one of the best things about me," and then the author explains what he or she means. In some cases, it has a spiritual meaning, others, some kind of internal awakening, in another, it was political of some kind. But I didn't find any cases where the words were mixed, as in the NBA prospect's quote above, so I think we have something of an Unintended Pun.

The multiple meanings I alluded to above:

• The one I already mentioned--my metaphorical weakness--the thing I'm not so great at, is my physical strength
• The opposite--my physical weakness is my metaphorical strength--because it keeps me humble, or relying on my family or God
• Both metaphorical (seems to be the most common)--my metaphorical weakness--the thing I am not very good at--is my metaphorical strength--is the thing I end up being the best at.
• And then it gets really interesting, because if we decide that the last item is the case, that both "weakness" and "strength" are being used metaphorically, we have then to learn what is the weakness and what is the strength. But the player was quoted only one more sentence, with no further explanation.

So I think the activation web comes into play here. The player knows he has an area of his basketball game that needs to improve--he needs to get physically stronger so he has more stamina, so he can withstand the more physical play at the NBA level vs. college, so he can drive to the basket and not have the ball knocked out of his hands as easily, etc. He chose the word "weakness" instead of "area of improvement" or some such because, of course, it is close in his mind's web to the word "strength." But the result is obfuscation, and a pretty good entry for our blog.

These Aren't Really Puns, So What Are They?

Today's entries don't seem to be exactly puns, but they nonetheless have the "feel" of somebody choosing words that "fit" the previous words they used, in the same way that I've tried to define and describe Unintended Puns. So I would appreciate your feedback on how they fit this blog's intent.

For the first one, I wrote it down, but don't have a link for it. If you find a link, please post it in a comment so we can give credit to the right person.

approximately May 15, 2013 One of the contestants on the reality TV show The Biggest Loser lost 120 pounds. She said: "I didn't know I had it in me."

She means, of course, that she didn't realize she had the courage and perseverance to lose that much weight. But here on the Unintended Pun Forum, we notice the irony in the world, especially in how people word things. So, as I said, it's not really a pun, though I suppose you could make a case that "it," if you look at it in the pun sense, refers to the weight she lost, and of course that is what she had in her, so in that sense, there is a pun. But I wouldn't usually allow that the word "it" can qualify as a pun, since it's a pronoun, and also very short. What do you think?

The second one came out of my mouth, as many of these puns do--I am quite a purposeful punster, and maybe that "practice" results in many Unintended Puns as well. This happened as I was driving on the notorious AZ Loop 101--I have referred to it as a NASCAR raceway in previous posts. I noticed a small, boxy car in my rear view mirror. It then disappeared in my blind spot. For some reason, I spoke out loud, though nobody else was in the car with me, and I chose a "jive" accent.

May 20, 2013 As I needed to move into the lane where the small, boxy car was, I said: "I see you, my Kia Soul Brotha'."

Why in the world did I choose the jive accent and wording? That one made me laugh out loud to myself. Of all the cars it could have been (I am something of a car buff, so I usually can recognize cars), it was a Kia Soul, and I chose to add "Brotha'" to my little expostulation. Again, not really a pun, but something happened in my brain to make me choose this combination. What was it? Was it the same activation web that results in Unintended Puns?