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AMBIGUITY, PUNS AND VISUAL AMBIVALENCE

by Don L. F. Nilsen andAlleen Pace Nilsen

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The Reindeer Conundrum

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Do you “like” this poem?

• Time flies like the wind.

• Fruit flies like bananas.

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Love Means Nothing in Tennis.

Love French L’oeuf (the egg)

Note that in English we have the expression “Goose egg” for zero.

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Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland

The mouse says, “I have a long and sad tale.”

Alice responds that she can see that the mouse’s tail is long, but asks, “why do you call it sad?”

This is ambiguous in speech, but not in writing.

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A NO. 1• Two graduates of Iona College in New Rochelle, New

York, started a pizza shop that they named A No. 1. This was “Iona” spelled backwards.

• The college sued on the grounds of “a misuse of the Iona identity.”

• The judge sided with the graduates, saying, “At best, the similarities that do exist can be interpreted as a satirical play on familiar symbolism.”

Visual Ambiguity: Personification

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THE AMBIGUITY PARADOX• Almost all words and sentences are ambiguous, if

they are not seen or heard in the larger context.

• However, the larger context (both linguistic and non-linguistic) resolves almost all of the ambiguities…

• Except when the speaker is intentionally trying to be ambiguous...

• As with linguists and politicians.

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AMBIGUITY• Flying planes can be dangerous.

• The missionaries are ready to eat.

• Jacob Mey says that in real life, there is no such thing as ambiguity—excepting in certain, rather special occasions, on which one tries to deceive one’s partner, or “keep the door open” to more than interpretation.

• This happens when we are trying to figure out a social situation.

• It also happens when we are teasing or seducing someone.

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A Triple PunThere is a ranch in Texas named “Focus.” The rancher on this farm is in charge of his three sons, who feed the cattle and mend the fences and make sure that the cattle make it to market.

When asked why he named his ranch Focus, the rancher replied,

“Because that’s where the sun’s rays meet.”

NOTE: It’s also where the “sons raise meat.” 16

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DEFINITION OF “PUN”• The English meaning of pun, which

comes from the Italian word puntiglio meaning “fine point,” is the humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound.

Pun or Metaphor?

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WHAT SAMUEL JOHNSON SAID ABOUT PUNS

• “People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks….

• They amuse themselves and the other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.”

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• In spite of this criticism, Johnson’s poetry contains many puns, just as Shakespeare’s does.

• The best puns are those that fit so well into a conversation that they increase the level of understanding for those who catch on without interrupting the conversation’s flow for those who miss the point.

• For example in Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio is bleeding to death he says, “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.”

• It was at this “point” that Romeo and Juliet changed from a comedy into a tragedy, because now the mercurial and comic Mercutio was dead.

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MARKETING TIME MAGAZINE

• Time flies (1924)• Time marches on! (1932)• Time to get the facts (1932)• Time it’s brief (1938)• It’s Time (1944)• Time---to get it straight (1951)• A man hardly ever has Time all for himself (1954)• This is the time to start reading Time (1960)• Make time for Time (1989)• Understanding comes with Time (1994)

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JOHNNY CARSON AS KARNAK THE MAGNIFICENT

• On his Tonight Show routine as Karnak the Magnificent, Johnny Carson was given the answers to which he would provide the questions, which often relied on puns.

• The answer is Catch-22

• The question is, “What would the Los Angeles Dodgers do if they were hit 100 pop flies?”

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BOAT NAMES• Nauti By Nature

• Ahoy-Vey

• Pier Pressure

• Berth Control

• Harvey Wharfbanger

Is this humorous?

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Putin on the Ritz

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PUBLIC CUTESPEAK• Mustard’s Last Stand (a hot dog restaurant)• The Wizard of Ooze (a septic tank cleaner)• Currier and Chives (a catering service)• Wreck-Amended (an auto body shop)• Curl Up and Dye (a beauty shop)

• Author Dennis Baron likens such names as these to “overripe camembert.” He calls them “public cutespeak” and conjectures that enjoying these names has to be “an acquired taste.”

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PUNS THAT WORK• The Ford V-8 was a car with a V-shaped

block and 8 cylinders.

• V8 Vegetable juice reapropriated the term.

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CULTURAL AMBIGUITY• In 1960, when Jack Paar told a mildly risque

story about a WC, the network censored him, causing him to walk off his show for a week.

• The story was about a Swiss schoolmaster who misunderstood a British woman’s request for information about the “W.C.”

• The school master thought the woman was asking about the “Wayside Chapel,” but was instead asking about the “Water Closet” (British for toilet).

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• The schoolmaster wrote, “The W.C. is situated nine miles from the house. It is capable of holding 229 people and is open on Sunday and Thursday only. I would suggest that you come early, although there is plenty of standing room as a rule. A good number of people bring their lunch and make a day of it. It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C., and it was there that she met her husband. I can remember the rush there was for seats. There were 10 people to a seat usually occupied by one.”

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LEXICAL AMBIGUITY

• On a Garbage Truck: “Our business is picking up.”

• Ad for Cheese: “Cheese can make you a hero this weekend.”

• On a Drapery Shop: “After 35 years, we’ve finally got the hang of it.”

• Optometrist’s Sign: “There’s more to a vision examination than meets the eye.”

• Ad for Aspirin: “We go to a lot of pains.”

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SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY• A man goes into a restaurant draggng a 10-

foot alligator. He manages to get the alligator stuffed under a table.

• When the waitress approaches, he asks her if they serve senior citizens here. “Of course,” she says.

• “Good,” he answers. “Give my alligator a senior citizen, and I’ll have a cheeseburger.”

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MORE SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY

• Stan Kenton wrote a song entitled, “Celery Stalks at midnight.”

• Charles Ulrich wrote a riddle: “Q: Do you know what good clean fun is? A: No. What good is it?”

• In the Frank and Ernest comic strip, Frank says to a real estate agent, “Sure, we’d like to see a model home. What time does she get off work?”

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The Unknown Bell RingerMany years ago the city of Paris awoke every morning to the ringing of bells. But the bell ringer was very old, and he decided to have his young and stupid brother take on the job as bell ringer.

On his first day, the younger brother slipped, and hit the bell with his head, and fell to the ground below. When the passersby were asked who he was, one of them responded, “I don’t know his name, but his face rings a bell.”

The young bell ringer recovered, and returned to the bell tower, but when he tried to ring the bell, he slipped again, and fell to the ground below. When the passersby were asked who he was, one of them responded, “I don’t know his name, but he’s a dead ringer for his brother.”

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• In Bud Blake’s Tiger comic strip, a little boy reports, “I’m gonna be in the school play.” When his mother asks, “What part?” he responds, “All of me.”

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FROM LINGUISTICS TEXTBOOKS

• The governor is a dirty street fighter.

• Did you ever see a horse fly?

• I cannot recommend him too highly.

• Could this be the invisible man’s hair tonic?

• He gave her dog biscuits.

• It’s the world’s largest war surplus store.

• Cynthia left directions for her Dad to follow.

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NORMAN STAGEBERG’S EXAMPLES

• Dance Hall Sign: “Clean and decent dancing every night except Monday.”

• Law School Questionnaire: “How many faculty members do you have, broken down by sex?”

• Conference Speech: “I have discussed the high cost of living with several women.

• Diner Sign: “Wanted: Man to scrub floor and two waitresses.”

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JOHN CROSBIE: THE PUNDIT• In 1979, John Crosbie, a Canadian writer and publisher, founded the

International Save the Pun Foundation, which publishes a monthly newsletter, The Pundit, and produces a list of the “Ten Best Stressed Puns of the Year.”

• After Crosbie’s death in 1994, Norman Gilbert, a financial planner in Toronto became “Chairman of the Bored.”

• More than 1,500 members from around the world belong to the organization, which also gives a POTY award to the Punster of the Year.

• The year that author and collector Richard Lederer won, he said as part of his acceptance speech at the annual April First dinner in Chicago, “A good pun is like a good Steak---a rare medium well done.”

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WEBSITES ON PUNS:BAD PUNS:http://www.badpuns.com

JOKES BASED ON PUNS:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tDRBb0apDg

PUN OF THE DAY:http://www.punoftheday.com/

PUNPUNPUN.COM:http://www.punpunpun.com/