We all love puns, right? They're cool. They're nice. This is a place to post those jokes, japes, and puns. Have pun!
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A Very Punny Thread
- Thread starter shedinjaenjoyer23
- Start date
I am the sole silver medalist in my region.
I genuinely have strong opinions about puns.
I think the pun is misused and overused, warped into a very selfish and predictable form of non-humor that betrays its potential.
Making a pun the lone focus of a message makes it almost devoid of any meaning beyond "look at me". Every time there's an awful pun one-liner, reactions are akin to someone farting loudly in a crowd, staring everyone else down with a big smirk, and going "Yup. Yup that was me. What are you going to do about it?"
Like you have to acknowledge they did something unpleasant before moving along to whatever else you were talking about. Your conversation hasn't been enriched at all in the process. No one laughed. All there is sits a moment of attention drawn someone's way encased in groans, like a stranger getting heated at the cashier in a grocery store; a moment of something unpleasant before we all move on with our lives and forget anything ever happened. God forbid they drop the "pun-ishment" line, freshly regurgitated again like an eternal cud in a fourth stomach ready to be chewed again.
Anecdotally, there have been had a number of users on Smogon that leaned into puns as their big gimmick for their posting habits. Some of them did other awesome things and are rightfully remembered for being fucking rad. The fact they told a bunch of puns has mostly slinked off of their legacies. Others didn't do a lot besides tell puns. I feel their names have more widely washed away from people's memories of fond interactions here that enriched their lives. It's not a terribly remarkable past. It's not hard to do, and it's not particularly interesting. Anyone can stare me in the eyes and start farting.
Puns aren't bad though, far from it. They just don't sit well as a main event, the same way even the darkest girl-dinners don't eat an entire plate of icing. I think puns are most effective once they're immediately trampled over as an element of a better joke, or just as some flavor in some other literary idea. Puns are best as drops of water in a storm. Let something else be the main event and let stupid puns pepper it. It should be a lone, unacknowledged chat message in a flurry of reactions to something hilarious that adds a deeper patina to a beautiful moment.
I'm begging people to treat puns with more respect. Have restraint and don't turn them into a burst of attention for yourself. I know I'm going against giants like Alfred Hitchcock with these literary opinions, but I also didn't torture a woman throwing birds at her every day, so maybe he sucks shit about some things that aren't making movies. Don't strain people's lives with puns they must begrudgingly acknowledge. Keep them as little easter eggs and make everyone's lives more pleasant.
I think the pun is misused and overused, warped into a very selfish and predictable form of non-humor that betrays its potential.
Making a pun the lone focus of a message makes it almost devoid of any meaning beyond "look at me". Every time there's an awful pun one-liner, reactions are akin to someone farting loudly in a crowd, staring everyone else down with a big smirk, and going "Yup. Yup that was me. What are you going to do about it?"
Like you have to acknowledge they did something unpleasant before moving along to whatever else you were talking about. Your conversation hasn't been enriched at all in the process. No one laughed. All there is sits a moment of attention drawn someone's way encased in groans, like a stranger getting heated at the cashier in a grocery store; a moment of something unpleasant before we all move on with our lives and forget anything ever happened. God forbid they drop the "pun-ishment" line, freshly regurgitated again like an eternal cud in a fourth stomach ready to be chewed again.
Anecdotally, there have been had a number of users on Smogon that leaned into puns as their big gimmick for their posting habits. Some of them did other awesome things and are rightfully remembered for being fucking rad. The fact they told a bunch of puns has mostly slinked off of their legacies. Others didn't do a lot besides tell puns. I feel their names have more widely washed away from people's memories of fond interactions here that enriched their lives. It's not a terribly remarkable past. It's not hard to do, and it's not particularly interesting. Anyone can stare me in the eyes and start farting.
Puns aren't bad though, far from it. They just don't sit well as a main event, the same way even the darkest girl-dinners don't eat an entire plate of icing. I think puns are most effective once they're immediately trampled over as an element of a better joke, or just as some flavor in some other literary idea. Puns are best as drops of water in a storm. Let something else be the main event and let stupid puns pepper it. It should be a lone, unacknowledged chat message in a flurry of reactions to something hilarious that adds a deeper patina to a beautiful moment.
I'm begging people to treat puns with more respect. Have restraint and don't turn them into a burst of attention for yourself. I know I'm going against giants like Alfred Hitchcock with these literary opinions, but I also didn't torture a woman throwing birds at her every day, so maybe he sucks shit about some things that aren't making movies. Don't strain people's lives with puns they must begrudgingly acknowledge. Keep them as little easter eggs and make everyone's lives more pleasant.
Gee, seems like you're crouch-y! badumtssssss
that's chucking funny
Begging people to treat puns with more respect after writing a four paragraph diatribe about how shit they are seems a bit insincere.
Personally I think the value in a pun is all in how much buildup there is. Just dropping a pun in the middle of a conversation is not that funny. But telling a five minute long story whose entire purpose is to setup a pun, that's art. This is also the principle by which action movie one-liners work.
Dude I thought this was going to be the moth joke but still an excellent pull
I deliberated about which to pick! Going in I thought of the long pun story as his signature art, but in retrospect he actually didn't do it that much. As much as I love the puns, it's hard for any joke to stand up to the glory of "You'll never believe who died – the Crocodile Hunter!"
One day, when the thought of this thread passes from the collective memory of Smogon, I will tell my favorite shaggy dog joke.
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