ART OF USING HUMOUR IN YOUR WRITING

Puns intended! Puns are fun words or phrases used to add humor and intrigue to creative writing. With persistence and luck you might get a fun pun ready to make readers go into stitches of laughter. A touch here, a word there and a line added to the write up makes the reading humorous, interesting, perplexing — you know you’ve been outwitted and punned at.

A man who wants a pretty nurse, must be patient.

I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest!

When you come across an antique shop with a sign,’ Den of Antiquity’, – you’re being got at with a Pun.

A Pun is simply, a witty line on word meaning, and the practice of punning can become addictive. A Pun should be greeted with a groan: the better the Pun the louder the groan and laughter following it. Some puns will make you shake your heads in disbelief. Here are some to make a groan man cry.

Two antennas met on a roof and got married, the wedding was ok, but the reception was incredible.

Sleeping comes so naturally to me, I could do it with my eyes closed.

Not to mention this cliff hanger, a Prize winner – ‘Dawn crept slowly over the sparkling emerald expanse of the country golf course, trying in vain to remember where she had dropped her car keys.

Punning is a gloriously ancient art and Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift were all masters. Punning has nowadays reached new heights of sophistication with knock – knock jokes and interrogative Puns as riddles…. Who’s there? Not me….

What did one wall say to the other? We’ll meet at the next corner!

He was late and hardly had time to be on time for work. So he drove like the devil was at his tail. For sure, a man who drives like hell, is bound to get there. It is better to be late, than be the late Mr. So-n-so.

This little tale is full of quirky Puns and an idiom. Idiomatic speech helps to make the language colorful as well as make it smart and sharp. Idioms are expressions peculiar to a language, and must be learnt as a whole sentence to understand them properly. The metaphor enters largely into idiomatic phrases. In fact we speak idiomatically in our everyday lives.

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“There is no love lost between them”

“Hard work is sure to be rewarded in the long run”

And when someone is too sweet, without any reason,” I suspect he has an axe to grind.”

On the other hand, when someone is kind and sympathetic we would say, “He has his heart in the right place”, and a person being favored by fortune or popularity, “His star is in the ascendant.”

Irony is a tongue in cheek humor or criticism. It is a mode of speech in which the real meaning is exactly opposite of that conveyed. When someone is habitually late, the disapproving statement would be, “Think you are a bit early, aren’t you?

“Couldn’t you come later than this?” Sarcasm associated with irony.

Irony can be funny too. Make a silly statement and you will be reciprocated with a silly, ironical answer.

At a beach party, “Are we just going to look at the sea?” A naïve observance.

“No, we will jump into the sea and enjoy the party!” An ironical reprove.

Hyperbole is an exaggeration, an overstatement. Poetry and prose both become picturesque and often amusing when Hyperbole is used.

The playground was crowded with thousands of children on Sunday.

The froth in the sea seemed like icing on a cake.

She looked so ethereal, so beautiful, so divine in her sparkling robes, as though a celestial being had descended from her heavenly abode. We were all awed.

To add to this fun, we have Conundrums. They are riddles that turn on puns.

‘I the woman is always right, and a man is always wrong! Then, if a man tells a woman that she is right. Is the man right or wrong?’ that was funny!

Reading literature of this class will always keep you laughing, as with Winston Churchill, P.G. Wodehouse, guessing with Agatha Christie; Stephen Leacock at his hilarious essays and many other prolific great writers who have lead us into the wondrous land of laughter and happiness.

It is only fair to conclude with a salute to the master of Puns and Puzzles, Lewis Carroll, the creator of the classic, Alice in Wonderland. He has gifted Punland to English Literature!