The Urge to Pun

The urge to pun can be something many people engage in. In some people, it might also be an involuntary reflex, something they can no more control than their breathing. Their medulla just sends out an automatic reflex signal that when a certain combination of words or images presents itself, they have to chime in with something, no matter how silly, profound, annoying, or perhaps even vulgar it might be. And since vulgar can be subjective, I usually take few precautions into letting my 'pun-side' take over in expressing myself.  There is usually no one around, so I usually just wind up entertaining myself.  But, sometimes I feel the need to share.  Be prepared.

As previously mentioned, there is an entertaining book out about puns: 'The Pun Also Rises,' by John Pollack.  It gives the pun scholarly and poplular treatment.  Mr Pollack remarkably recounts that his own punning started at two and a half years old.  Perhaps that kind of genetic hard wiring helped him win a World Championship title at punning.  (Yes, there apparently is one; his title coming in 1995, at the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships.)

But you don't have to be a punning prodigy to engage in the form.  As Mr. Pollack notes in his book, it's been going on since there were cave drawings.  Imagine that, as soon as mankind stood up, he did standup.

So, when @obitsman Tweets a reference to a legitimate news story coming out of Houston, well, the reflexes took over.

It seems a man in Houston took his neigbor to view something through a hole in his fence.  Through this hole, the neighbor pointed out what he had done with a chainsaw to another neighbor, who he claimed was stealing from him.

This of course can only be described as someone being lead "to look through a knot hole and seeing someone who was not whole."

I'm not aware of any treatment for this condition.

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