AMBIGUITY, PUNS AND
VISUAL AMBIVALENCE
by Don L. F. Nilsen and
Alleen 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.”
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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 nonlinguistic) 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 Pun
There 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.”
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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.
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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
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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
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Is this humorous?
Putin on the Ritz
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PUBLIC CUTESPEAK
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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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Context is important!
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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 10foot 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 Ringer
Many 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
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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.”
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After Crosbie’s death in 1994, Norman Gilbert, a financial planner in
Toronto became “Chairman of the Bored.”
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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.
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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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Some Business Names
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In Conclusion:
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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/
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