Away with Words: An Irreverent Tour Through the World of Pun Competitions

by Joe Berkowitz

Fast Company reporter Joe Berkowitz investigates the bizarre and hilarious world of pun competitions from the Punderdome 3000 in Brooklyn to the World competition in Austin.

When Joe Berkowitz witnessed his first Punderdome competition, it felt wrong in the best way. Something impossible seemed to be happening. The kinds of jokes we learn to repress through social conditioning were not only being aired out in public—they were being applauded. As it turned out, this monthly show was part of a subculture that’s been around in one form or another since at least the late ‘70s. Its pinnacle is the O. Henry Pun Off World Championship, an annual tournament in Austin, Texas. As someone who is terminally self-conscious, Joe was both awed and jealous of these people who confidently killed with the most maligned form of humor.

In this immersive ride into the subversive world of pun competitions, we meet punsters weird and wonderful and Berkowitz is our tour guide. Puns may show up in life in subtle ways sometimes, but once you start thinking in puns you discover they’re everywhere. Berkowitz’s search to discover who makes them the most, and why, leads him to the professional comedian competitors on @Midnight, a TV show with a pun competition built into it, the writing staff of Bob’s Burgers, the punniest show on TV, and even a humor research conference. With his new unlikely band of punster brothers, he finally heads to Austin to compete in the World Championship. Of course, in befriending these comic misfits he also ended up learning that when you embrace puns you become a more authentic version of yourself.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Language, Memoir, Adult, Linguistics, Words

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2017

About the author

Joe Berkowitz is a staff writer at Fast Company and an author. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two amazing cats.

Reviews

[Mainon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love this kind of microhistory (I think that might be the correct genre?). Basically I love learning about tiny niche hobby communities and the people who inhabit them. And this is the nichest of the niche -- who even knew pun competitions existed? I certainly didn't, despite having lived for several years apparently just a short distance from one of the main sites of such competitions in Brooklyn, NY. And there's another site in Milwaukee? I repeat, who knew?

When I get a chance, I will sit down and rewrite this review to contain a suitable number of puns. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at being punny on the fly.

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caution: this book is not for everybody. If you hate puns, you should not read this because it is overloaded with them. Prime example: my wife caught me snickering so I read some of them to her. She is not a fan of puns and gave me the death stare. If you love them and think they are the punderbelly of jokedom this is a very entertaining read. I enjoyed how the author gave very specific recitations of the puns used during the respective events that he attended. The only thing holding it back from being a 5 star book is that the writing is very simple - good effort though for someone who is not an author by trade.

[Danni Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who's ever spent more than 10 minutes with me could predict that I would love this book. In fact, the amount of how much I loved this book far exceeded all reason. I enjoyed this irreverent tour de force so tremendously that I bought a copy before I had even finished reading the library copy. If you like puns, this book is for you. If you're not that into puns, maybe you will understand better why some of us love them if you read it. If you're not sure how you feel about puns, but laughing your face off is a thing that you enjoy, get ready to face off with this book.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big thanks to Scott of Burton's Books for putting this on my radar. It's exactly the sort of whimsical, deep-diving niche nonfiction I like. A little sociology, a little biography, and the author is involved just the right amount to be a participant observer, but not hog the spotlight with stunts.

I wish I could come up with clever puns to write this review in kind... but having read the antics of these punsters, I know when I'm outclassed.

[Davina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was hilarious! I was already thrilled to see a book about competitive punning (Pundamonium was one of my favorite things about living in Minneapolis) but Berkowitz took it to the next level with his acerbic storytelling.

[Lisa the Tech · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be honest; the first jokes I heard were from my father and an uncle who was very much like my father. Were I a bowler, I'd say this book was right up my alley. I went from chuckling and snorting to outright laughter while reading this fascinating book at lunch. I had no idea that there were actual contests for people with my sense of humour. Many thank to Joe Berkowitz for opening my eyes and giving me hope. I know now that I'm not alone and I know now that there are places in the world were puns are not only appreciated but celebrated.
Were I an astronomer, I'd take no small constellation out of this shining star. Okay, before you all start throwing utensils at me, I'll get the fork outta here.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Putting this in literary criticism because puns do pop up in quite a few books.

I can honestly say this is not something I would have picked up on my own, and it was included in My Book Box for this month. Berkowitz takes the reader on a tour of Pun Competitions and brief history or look at puns in general. There is also a bit how puns are different than other comedy.

It's an interesting book, and give more respect to puns. Funny at times. If you like wordplay, read it. If you don't, you can skip it.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pun competition subculture… fans of rap and slam poetry will be relieved to learn that there are places they can go to hear people shout outrageously silly, rapid-fire homonyms at inebriated, appreciative audiences without suffering the intrusion of a good beat. This book follows the self-styled Punster S. Thompson's journey from shame to Punderdome regular to outright participation at the pinnacle of pun-offs. That would be the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships in Austin, TX, a competition whose clever motto is "Jest for a Wordy Cause!" The book's a hoot whatever your punsonal attitude: mine is that owl is fair in laugh and word, but that the best puns inktroject a dictional meaning.

From William Shakespeare to James Joyce, almost all champion letterateurs have delighted in ye wordplay. If there's linguistic explanation to be had for this, though, you won't find it here (and not for a lack of trying). The author valiantly attends a tedious academic conference on the "North East Texas" campus of A&M so we don't have to to interview a guy in the know. The results are disappointing to say the least. "'Maybe their mental lexicon is structured the wrong way?' Dr. Hempelmann says after a while…. 'You should only work with the meaning of language instead [of the sound], since that's what it's there for.' There is a chance that one of the world's experts on puns actually hates puns." (page 100)

When words elide! To each their own. Berkowitz's work is chock-a-block with cherce brainbending samples from his year-in-the-life. He calls out puns via italics, a technique I found a bit off-putting. Since competition puns are more often homophone-dependent than double-entendre-invoking (subject: airlines in movie titles, go!), what he shares can sometimes be tricky to parse. What makes a proper punnery sergeant? Consider this excerpt from the 2016 Punniest of Show routine, found in the book's penultimate chapter, and note that I'm attempting translation in lieu of italics (although I'm not sure that's a better approach).

[W]ith the squelch of microphone feedback… Jerzy launches into his opening line…. "Stop the wedding! I just walked through all 50 countries in Asia to be here. Actually, I ran [Iran]…. I been in a malaise since ya [Malaysia] left," he yells. "But I think the jig isn't up for me, because I think the jig is standing [Tajikistan] up for what you believe in. I've got to stand [Afghanistan] up for myself. Because I stand [Kazakhstan] here knowing I don't stand [Hindustan] alone, that's what gives me the courage to stand [Kyrgyzstan]. I look as John stands. I look as Becky stands [Uzbekistan]. And John, as you're by Becky and Becky as you're by John [Azerbaijan], now there are many of [Armenia] us, the whole pack is standing [Pakistan] up. Yeah, man! [Yemen]... Listen, here's what I'm trying to say, baby…. I can't go livin' on [Lebanon] without you, because what we have is real! [Israel]" The cheers that follow are Yankee Stadium-level, far surpassing Punderdome, and they go on and on.

Jerzy Gwiazdowski's whole routine can be found here, and it's worth listening to. If Berkowitz' rendering is not a perfect or complete transcription, credit him for rendering most of the basic flavor. Having read this, I'd even pay to attend a live pun performance. Fashionable address is always worth a fare hearing; I've been groomed to be well-acostumed to de-livery in all a-raiments of style.

Haberdashery! (Gazundheit.)

[Leigh Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, pun season!

Let's be brutally honest here: the book gets the fifth star simply because the reviewer has more bias than the average Simplicity sewing pattern. When I heard this book existed, my first thought was, "There are PUN competitions? Where the hell has this BEEN all my life?"

Brooklyn, apparently. And Austin, TX, but we'll get to that in a minute. First Berkowitz drops you in the middle of Punderdome, the once-monthly pun competition that launched the board game of the same name. You show up and sign up for a competition slot, registering with a punny name (Berkowitz chose Punter S. Thompson). 5 competitors per round. Everybody gets a whiteboard and a marker. A topic is announced and you have 90 seconds to write down as many puns on the topic you can think of. Then, one by one, you tell them to the audience. It's an improviser's dream. Which makes sense, because most of the people who do well at Punderdome are a) improv folks, and b) stand-up comedians.

This makes sense because the whole thing reminded me of FNI, making me sad-nostalgic, and half-tempted to hike up to Brooklyn and compete as Punnsylvania 6-5000 (steal it and die, bitches). The regulars, the joy of doing well, the fear of flopping, the brain freeze in which you forget every pun you know during those 90 seconds: it's all so much like Friday Nite Improvs it hurts. Berkowitz competes and hangs out with these people, trying to understand the allure, get better at puns, and--on at least one amusing occasion--get high and record a podcast.

Meanwhile, in Texas, there's the O. Henry Pun-off, which is a more serious competition, with strict rules about what, exactly, constitutes a pun, and a whole different vibe. Berkowitz travels there several times, first to get the scoop on the competition's history and structure, and then later to (maybe) compete (he gets wait-listed) along with a gang of rowdy Punderdomers who also qualified (or made the wait list). Although not nearly as funny, the chapters on the O. Henry competition are my favorites, because the Brooklyn crew clearly outclasses the Austin gang, and yet still struggle to prevail (too many damn rules, IMHO).

In between competitions, Berkowitz explores other realms in the world of puns, including academe and Bob's Burgers, and tries really hard to learn what makes some people pun, and why puns are funny. As we all come to learn, examining something closely is a lot less fun than actually doing it, so while interesting, the "studious" chapters are only mildly interesting, while the actual pun shows sparkle.

Or not. Again, I say, I am hella-biased, and you might really hate puns. If that's the case, pretend this is a two-star review and keep going. But I like big puns, and I cannot lie. I seriously might go to Punderdome. Though I bet, if I really try, I could go beyond that.

Ahem. Because Berkowitz writes for Fast Company, you probably want this in your pop nonfic section, particularly if you're in a hipstery part of town. If you like language and wordplay, you will eat this up with a spoon. And if you're really hard-core, you'll also buy the board game (yes, really!), add it to your collection, and do some clever programming around it. Recommended for all but the smallest collections.

[Mark]

Somehow, I ended up with an advanced review copy of this book, which won't be published until next month. I've wracked my brain in an attempt to figure out where I got it, and the best I can do is that I bought it from one of the booksellers who operate on the streets in Greenwich Village around New York University. One of the benefits (or curses, depending on one's view of these things) of living in a publishing capital is that one occasionally gets an early look at interesting books.

And an interesting book this is: because it is an uncorrected proof, it contains a number of spelling and grammatical errors which I'm sure a wary copyeditor has long since corrected; likewise, I'm confident a judicious fact checker caught the fact that Anthony Weiner, one of our more, uh, colorful politicians here in New York City, was never a United States Senator, but rather a Congressman. Before he disgraced himself, that is.

In any case, as its title suggests, this book reports on the world of pun competition, a lively subculture of whose existence I was entirely ignorant. I take exception to the use of the modifier "irreverent" in the title, as I think Mr. Berkowitz actually approaches this world with the reverence it is due, which is to say some, but maybe not too much. While this is a book, I suspect, written for a younger audience (there is a lot of exposition on the social relationships between the real-life characters, and some of it is a bit too chatty for my tastes), and I am an older person, I still found this book compelling in parts, and sufficiently interesting that I read all but the final twenty pages in one compulsive gulp. Incidentally, if you are young and interested in breaking into the world of comedy writing and performing, this book passively supplies an interesting look into the way that milieu operates

Using the conventions of sportswriting, Mr. Berkowitz manages to make the actual pun competitions he attends, and in which he participates, genuinely exciting. He moves his narrative at a brisk pace, making what would potentially induce torpor into a something that reads like, well, like the best descriptive writing about closely fought sporting events, which I suppose is what the pun competitions are.

I like the idea that books like this still have an audience, and therefore still get published. Despite observing several times that puns are generally regarded as the lowest form of comedy, Mr. Berkowitz shows, and doesn't tell--another of this book's strengths--the high but quirky intelligence engaged in participating in a pun competition. The contestants in this world are clearly both intelligent and interesting people, and they're well worth reading about.

[Bunny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Received via Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Okay, after receiving a polite message from the author, I've decided to come clarify my original review, which may have been a bit too hard on the snark, and light on the review.

I love puns. I love puns with the passion of a thousand firey suns. They are my favorite type of joke, and if you tell me a good pun, we'll be friends for life. So, to see this book, and discover that such a thing as a Pun Competition actually exists, I couldn't wait to get my hands on and read this book. Tell me of these award winning punners!

Here's the thing. There's chapters devoted to the competitions, the competitors. And there's a section here dedicated to speaking to professors about humor itself, about puns, about what makes a person sharp enough to come up with rapid fire puns. The professors are less than forth coming, very dry and jargony.

This book is too much professors, too little Punder Enlightening (best competitor name in the whole book, oh em gee). It's dry, and pretty much the opposite of irreverent.

This does not, of course, mean that this book won't appeal to the masses. It's just not what I want from a book about the world of punnery. I expected more, and felt really let down.


----
This book can best be summed up by a phrase common to everyone who loves a good pun.

If you have to explain why a joke is funny? It's not funny.

::makes ta-da hands::

[Seb Swann · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Puns are ephemeral, impermanent, temporary visitors. Whatever was said is almost besides the point - it’s the situation itself, the people who were there, the way that you laughed. And then it’s gone.”

If you enjoy sometimes groan-inducing, sometimes laugh-inducing humor; an immersion into puns and pun competitions that looks not just at the puns but the people behind them as well. The vulnerability Berkowitz brings by engrossing himself in the world of puns as a participant rather than merely an observer elevates the appreciation for the challenges of clever, quick wordplay, and truly, those who have a way with words.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this one up on a lark, and it was funny and entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the author's attempts at improving his pun technique, and, as a fan of language and picking things apart to see how they work, his dissection of what makes a bad pun was interesting.

This one's not going to stick with me, but it was not super heavy, which is what I wanted.

[Steve Hench · Rating 1 out of 5]

This should have been a longform article—not a book.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of two pun competitions, so… the best of times, the wurst of times (because things can get hammy, you see). If that doesn’t completely do your head in, or get on your nerves, you might be able to handle this book. Plus, your lobe of words indicates you have a lot of skull. Or something.

I have modestly nice things to say about this story, which is about the awful(ly fun) and groan-worthy competitive pun scene in the USA that largely seems to hinge on quantity over quality, unless somebody’s swinging for the fences or decides to pivot.

As the book accurately points out, however, you need to have been there for the best reception or acceptance of any given pun and trying to capture lightning in a bottle like this will Tesla anybody’s courage. Reading about a previously made pun tends to ground it relatively quickly.

The arc of the book revolves around the author dipping his toes into the sea of unusual personalities involved in the competitions, but unlike, say, the range of competitive Scrabble players, these are by and large a big bunch of dorks. Being a big dork myself, who likes puns, I feel competent to recognize my own kind.

But it runs too long, I think is the thing. There’s a lot here, but it oddly doesn’t have a lot in its lot (one could say that was its lot in life, but I would never). It’s basically a historical travelogue that’s trying to make a meal out of the hors d’ouevres and a really excellent magazine article stretched to the length of a book.

It has a moment here and there; I am glad the author succeeds but didn’t truly find anything especially exciting in their travails. Even the initial competitions don’t exactly generate a lot of heat and boils down to being told a joke that somebody else thought was rather bloody brilliant.

Things pick up in the denouement, where the New York competitors head to Austin for a pun throwdown, but by that point I was pretty much ready to move along to the next thing anyhoo. There’s not enough meat on the bone, yet the general good nature of it is probably why I have let it make a marrow escape.

Competent, yes. Underwhelming, also yes. As somebody whose wife will happily point out that he won’t ever shut up if a loaded pun is ready to go off, I think it says something that this didn’t make me race to get through it.

3 stars - it’s not bad, but it’s not great. I should be the target audience for this and even I took months to get through it, so I genuinely don’t know who exactly I would even recommend it to.

[Carol Blakeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't what I was expecting, I guess. It was a good story, and a good journey. He tells about his foray into punning and people he met along the way.

[Lenny D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly enjoyable reading experience that delivers on every attempted level. Joe Berkowitz did an incredible job capturing the spirit of punning and wordplay, and of embedding the reader in the posse of people who live to do it.

My introduction to the book came from briefly being a member of this posse. When I showed up to my first Punderdome earlier this year, I had no idea how intense a scene I was stepping into. I knew the show had existed for years, but I’d never gotten anyone to go with me and generally put off trying it. The first time I stepped into Littlefield, I signed up to participate and got paired with an established punster who had won four times. (Thank god; I would have fared horribly at coming up with two minutes worth of puns on my own, without even understanding the format.) We made it to the second round, but what I saw from the established punners that night blew me away.

The two finalists, who I would later learn were Jerzy and Sam—and would learn from this book are two of the best punners in the world—were astounding. Their face-off was a revelation. I’d already identified Jerzy as a cut above most of the other punners from the moment he said, in the “Bedroom and Bathroom” section, “I have a very zen stain inside my toilet. It can’t be pissed off.” Holy shit. But watching the two of them go back and forth in the finals, rap battle-style, was insane. I will never forget, when Jerzy seemed to be faltering in front of the sprightly, steamroller genius of Sam Corbin, he haltingly offered something about having clear headwear that allowed him to get a man hat tan. The subject was Cities & States. It was a crappy offering just so he could live to see another pun, but Sam clapped back without missing a goddamn beat: “I wish I was going up against a real man. This is just a Boi, see?” The crowd erupted as she gestured haughtily in Jerzy’s direction, and just like in the ending of Away With Words, Jerzy soon stepped up to the mic to announce, “I think we’re done here.”

Me and my pun partner ended up dating, and I started inching into the orbit of these friends who lived to pun. They went to every pun event in the city, launched their own pun show, and generally identified as having found their tribe. (There’s a great line on p. 196 that captures a feeling to which every New Yorker aspires. While being overtaken on the sidewalk by a wave of a psychotically fit running club, Berkowitz muses contentedly, “They’ve got their cult, and I’ve got mine.”) These pun people loved each other as much as they loved their chosen ministry in life. It was one of the healthiest, coolest groups of friends I’ve ever come across. Unfortunately, my relationship collapsed disastrously and they all hate me now. But just before it ended, I learned that my partner was actually in this book about punning. “Oh shit. I want to read a book that you’re in,” I said. My expectation was that this would be, you know, a cameo, maybe.

When this book dropped like a turd on my doorstep days later, I was like, ‘ah shit, I forgot about this. Fuck puns and fuck this book.’ But a week or two later, I picked it up and resolved to just get through it quickly and put all this to bed. Immediately I realized I was wrong.

This was no fucking cameo. This ex was one of the main characters. Here I was, holding a book about a group of friends who, at least the few of them who had reason to remember my name, hoped never to talk to me again. A few pages in, I realized this was going to be harder than anticipated.

Two things kept me going: it was a good way to process all the baggage that came from a promising, eagerly anticipated relationship curdled prematurely, and it was really fucking enjoyable to read.

The book, as mentioned, is the story of a group of young Brooklynites whose lives coalesce around participation in Punderdome. It tracks them as they set out to conquer the country’s “establishment” pun event, the O. Henry Pun-Off in Austin, TX. Jerzy Gwiazdowski is presented as the star of the group (I wonder if Sam just got better since this book was reported in 2016?) who was chasing his white whale: to beat supernerd Ben Ziek in the Punslingers competition.

If you wanted, you could read the book as a slice-of-life dispatch from arty, gentrifying Brooklyn: a place so suffused with post-intellectualism intellectuals that an organic community arose around punning, the way small towns spin up Elks lodges. You could read it as the story of how cosmopolitans are reclaiming nerd culture from actual, off-putting nerds. (The O. Henry organizers in this book are insufferable, pun-dantic chauvinists.)

But Away With Words never takes itself seriously, and all that exegesis is pretty much unnecessary. The meat of the reading experience is to be viscerally immersed in the world of Punderdome, because it's fun.

The book benefits from subject matter that translates very well to the written word, first of all. It’s fun to see him work more and more puns into the actual text as the book goes on: “Once the traction-less idea of a road trip was abandoned,” on 192, was pretty much the only “good” example, but the effort was enjoyable elsewhere. He’s a good writer.

Berkowitz’s real skill is impeccably and organically conjuring the qualia of both being in and attending Punderdome. The ecstatic howls that meet great puns; your sequence of thoughts while you’re trying to think of puns onstage for the first time; the light but not-endlessly-supportive vibe of the crowd; he just nailed so many aspects of punning in general and Punderdome in particular.

Regarding the dances everyone does to ham it up for the clap-o-meter: “There’s only so much galloping across the stage or pretend-lassoing the crowd you can do before you just feel dead inside.” (48) Well put.

“What we’re all building may be epically pointless and ephemeral—an inside joke that never catches on, a loud parade through a ghost town—but I am nonetheless fully invested in helping it come together.” (86) Because: “Pun competitions that seem like something that could only exist in the frivolous present.” (54) In a transient place like this part of Brooklyn, these ideas capture the zeitgeist of the Punder world.

Berkowitz's introduction to the Punslingers scene is a good example of his easy, generous approach to transportive detail and the gauzy metaphors that make this entire book about had-to-be-there moments possible.

The first round of Punslingers is endless. In what humans call time, it takes less than two hours. Considering we’d already sat through hours of puns beforehand, though, it feels more like the interminable unfolding in which yarn is knitted into fabric and sewn into clothes and those clothes go out of style.

It smells like sizzling pork sandwiches and gooey Mexican food under the tent. The crowd sits on unfurled blankets and towels, beside coffin-size coolers, shifting positions regularly like they’re stuck on pointy twigs. Frat bros, dungeon masters, and mommy bloggers all share the same facial expression. It’s anticipation of amusement—an agape-mouth-with-flies-moving-in-and-out kind of look. There’s also the occasional satisfied grin of someone memorizing a pun to repeat later.

These paragraphs usher in the climactic chapter of the entire book. They’re representative of the self-deprecation that pairs excellently with the entire exercise of writing and/or reading a book about puns. He layers this self-awareness richly in his text, but never too thick. This book could have been insufferable in both directions, but Berkowitz seems legitimately funny, and is a great, sympathetic friend throughout the whole text.

His description of people is even better. As someone who knows what this guy looks like, his description of one punner as “thin, wolfishly handsome, like the star of every student film ever submitted in good faith to a major film festival” (75) is absolutely friggin spot-on. I read that and kind of Owen Wilsoned a squinty wayyow in assent. There’s also the couple that looks like “different eras of Rachel Maddow” and countless other breezy metaphors.

But for as gently funny as the book is, it would all be for naught if it were not a brisk read. He could have easily overdone it and put every good pun he heard in his text. The edit job to take a lot of those out, I assume, wisely confined the puns to two primary usages: ‘what it feels like to pun’ and the plot-advancing ‘here’s who won this Punderdome.’ (I wonder if you could really do this book if there wasn’t a competitive aspect to it. I’ve never read The Pun Also Rises and I don’t want to.) Berkowitz does a great job of making you like him, and like puns.

Which brings me to the most significant thought I had throughout AWW: my own relationship with puns. Finishing this book (and this review, I guess) is a strange juncture in my linguistic life. I like puns enough—have always loved puns enough, I should say—that once, in 2013, I announced to my then-girlfriend that I had decided I needed to stop punning because I was starting to spend too much brainpower looking for potential puns, to literally no social benefit. (Ohh noooo, she cooed sadly, aware that I was painfully resigning an important part of my identity.)

And I still love puns. There is ample reason to pun. A good pun is an inimitable moment of frisson—a built-in dramatic that combines wit and luck. It both proves and rewards active listening, offering a sweet little eddy of engagement in the middle of a conversation. You feel the spring of providence when you make a good pun. And as I learned in this book,

English is uncontestably the best language to pun in. It has by far the largest vocabulary in history, having surpassed a million words in 2009—twice as many words as the second-place Germans. Punning in English is also easier because our vocabulary has absorbed elements of at least three hundred other languages, allowing for puns like “Paris is a site for soirees.” It is not an inflected language like Latin or Greek, where certain parts of speech are frozen in carbonite. That blind carpenter who picked up his hammer and saw? He is what happens when a noun is transformed into a verb, which in some other languages is simply not possible. Especially, it seems, the language of computers. (105)

But I wonder, now, how long it will be before I think about the idea of punning without returning to this weird, unsatisfying blip of 2019. Had you told me in high school that I would one day screw up the chance to date a hot, nerdy girl who puns competitively, I would have… well I probably would have just masturbated. But afterwards, I would have felt both happy to have been briefly accepted into such a person’s life, and sad that it didn’t work out.

Which is why this book was bittersweet the whole way through. One thing is for certain: I am SO glad I didn’t read this before blithely walking into Punderdome that day, planning to check out a casual nerdfest. I would have been star-struck to be in the presence of these "literary characters." But I’m glad I did.

Away With Words concludes a personal episode that was, itself, as joyful and ephemeral as a pun. In a realm ruled by “you had to be there,” I’m glad I was.

[Ed Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mediocre book about a fun subject. And yet, as a reader, a compelling subject can take you a long way. In this case, the topic is competitive punning (yup, you read that correctly). There are actually TWO major punning competitions in the US, one in Brooklyn and one in Austin TX, which simply could not be more fitting. We meet many of the competitors as the author himself immerses himself in their world. They feel like artists and the ones that have actual day jobs live on the creative periphery – comedy writers, ad writers, NY Post headline writers (a job in which you actually get paid to pun). Plus, puns … lots of really clever puns, several on nearly every page. What’s not to like? Well, the writing is extremely uneven – sometimes very compelling, other times aiming for and missing a certain tone. The characters are hard to sort out, a bit, and the author (a writer/editor for WIRED magazine) does not apply the non-fiction trick of reminding you who is who every so often – a shame, because I think I would like to know these folks better. Every night when I get ready for bed, I use an electric toothbrush and a water pik (kids, take care of your teeth when you’re young, or you’ll spend hours and hours in later life on home care), and I’ve started reading a light and fluffy book during these 5 minutes or so. That’s how I started with this one and, while it only graduated to “read during actual reading time” status at the end, I stuck with it in mere 5 minute chunks. So that speaks in its favor, I guess (and probably helps explain why I couldn’t keep the punners straight).

Grade: B

[Jim Razinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bill Watterson, in his Calvin and Hobbes strip, gave Calvin magazines on gum chewing to mock the niche magazine industry (An exchange...Hobbes: "I can't believe there's a magazine for gum chewers." Calvin: "Heck, there must be at least a dozen such magazines. ... Each appeals to a different faction. 'Chewing is high gloss, literate and sophisticated. 'Gum Action' goes for the gonzo chewers. 'Chewers Illustrated' aims at the vintage gum collectors, and so on. ... Each one encourages you to think you belong to an elite clique, so advertisers and appeal to your ego and get you to cultivate an image that sets you apart from the crowd. It's the divide and conquer trick." {excited face}. H: "I wonder what happened to the melting pot." C: "There's no money in it.") Obscure? I read Joshua Foer's book Moonwalking with Einstein, in part about extreme memory competitions. Talk about obscure...

And then there's this...about pun competitions.

I am an inveterate punster (yes, I could have said in vertebrate...), so when I saw this, I had to read it. It was painful. I love a well-crafted story leading up to a beautiful groaner of a pun. These competitions are about rapid fire punning to random categories. The champs groan them out and the audience response clap-o-meter determines who wins them. Berkowitz litters his narrative with examples.

Painful.

I'll stick to my Feghoots.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a paradoxical effect on me. I love puns and use them a lot on social media, and while reading this I found myself thinking of them even more than usual. But it also made me kind of hate them, and the people who can’t stop using them.
This is basically an article padded to book length. I should probably have read a book about puns in general rather than one about American competitive pun obsessives, but this was an impulse purchase so I didn’t have time to research what else was available. The few chapters which leave the world of pun contests to consider other areas, such as the headline writers at the New York Post, or gag writers for Bob’s Burgers, are much more insightful and interesting. But they’re over too soon and we rush back into the sweaty embrace of a bunch of smug Brooklyn hipsters as they prepare for the World Championships (a misnamed, exclusively American event).
Crucially, most of the puns aren’t even funny: tortured, convoluted, overly-reliant on obscure pop culture minutiae, and some barely even qualify as puns. Most of the competitions rely, as the competitors readily admit, on quantity rather than quality, and by half way through the climactic day-long battle even the audience is bored. And blow-by-blow descriptions of these contests takes up most of the book.
There’s probably an interesting book out there on the history, science and meaning of punning, but this isn’t it.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this would have been better as a long-form magazine article than it was as a book. The niche world of puns is definitely interesting, but not 270 pages interesting, and by the time I was halfway through, I found myself reading for completion rather than enjoyment.

But what bothered me more than the length/content was the author's writing style, marked by an over-reliance on similes, many of them poorly executed. For example, when describing an audience, he notes that there are "vape pens galore, like shiny pan flutes at a Ren fair.”

Ok, here's the deal: a good simile does more than note physical similarities; it adds an additional dimension to the thing being described. If I say that a tree's leaves are like butterfly wings, this communicates something about the shape of the leaves, sure, but also the essence of the leaves themselves, which are perhaps delicate, fluttering, tremulous, and ephemeral (like a butterfly).

In his description of the crowd, is the author trying to say that because the vape pens look like pan flutes, that the audience members themselves are similar to people who go to a Ren fair? I don't think so, and this is why the simile falls flat. These awkward analogies appear every few pages and detract from the narrative flow, which is already tenuous in a book about punners. In the end, I found myself relieved to have finished the book, mostly because I had finally escaped the limping parade of clumsy comparisons.

[Judie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some people like puns. Some people hate puns. And some people absolutely LOVE them. AWAY WITH WORDS is about the third group.
Last fall, my daughter and daughter-in-law gave my husband a game called Punderdome. Two words are drawn from a deck and the players have a short time to think of puns utilizing those words. The winners are those who come up with the best ones. Our pun party was very lively and a lot of fun.
Punderdome is also the name for a Brooklyn-based pun competition, one of several such gatherings in the US. Jay Berkowitz is an active participant. AWAY WITH WORDS tells how the competitions are formed, how they operate, and how people prepare to compete in them. It’s a lot more intense than most people would expect.
The participants get to know each other because of their frequent interaction. Many of the punsters work as writers for tv shows, movies, or newspapers or comedians. Some newspapers thrive on utilizing puns in their headlines and stories. At the competitions, a category is announced and the contestants have ninety seconds to come up with as many puns as they can. They then present them to live audiences and are judged by the audience’s response.
The latter half of the book has many examples of winning (and some not so funny) entries.
Since there is so much overlap among the competition and the competitors, the book does become repetitious

[Lynn Pribus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initially, this put me in mind of THE BIG YEAR about birders competing to have the longest list of birds seen in a single calendar year, but this didn't have the suspense or personalities. It did have a lot of puns and information about actual pun competitions.

But in the end, I closed it before I finished. I am a great fan of word play, but when contestants must come up with as many puns as possible in three minutes on a single topic such as BARNYARD ANIMALS or BAKING ITEMS a great many are really forced. In fact, the author acknowledges that they become funnier later in the evening when people have, well, imbibed a lot.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Away With Words is an interesting glimpse into a subculture that isn't exactly the most well-known. Pun Competitions - I would tell friends and coworkers what I was was reading about and they would roll their eyes "of course you are." While it was an interesting ride, about halfway through the book I was only reading for the jokes woven throughout the narrative. Solid for pun lovers, a pass for anyone who rolls their eyes at humor.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Goodreads First Reads.

[John Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the several pun-related gifts I received for my birthday this year, so people must know that I like puns, or have experienced too many of them. I wish I would have liked this book better. I think if it would have concentrated on puns, I would have, but instead most of the book was on pun competitions. It was interesting to hear about the type of people who enter these competitions and to think if I had anything in common with them. If you do want to find out more about pun competitions, this may be the only book you might find on them.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is a little generous. The book itself reads like a super long Atlantic article, which, as it turns out, work far better as appropriate length articles rather than books. But, I love puns. And, it pushed me attend to my first pun competition. So, I'm giving it a bit of a pass. If puns, or curiosity about the world of punning, aren't your jam, your time can very likely be spent in ways more enjoyable to you.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this book is kind of like Seinfeld - the show about nothing. " Who says you gotta have a story?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQnaR...

Hard to follow at times and slow moving at others; what kept me coming back was the recitation of great puns strewn here and about. I'm still not sure I understand who all the "players" are and almost wished I had kept notes while reading to refer back to as a "who's who"

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book for readers who enjoyed Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. Me! The author is a novice punster who enters the world of competitive punning. The puns are printed in italics just in case your mind wanders and you miss one. The explanation alone of the difference between a play on words and a pun makes the book worth reading. It is word-thy of your time.

[Xavier Shay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jodie and I met up with two friends who were excited to try a new game they'd bought, "Punderdome", which basically required you to come up with themed puns. We failed utterly at the game, even after cheating, and were led to speculate that in theory there must exist a group of people for which this game would be a) doable, and b) fun, but we certainly didn't know any.

Well, I found them.

[Blair Conrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining enough. I liked the puns. I enjoyed learning about the various punning competitions. I didn't really feel like the characters were differentiated enough, though. The book seemed to be poorly edited, with a number of obvious errors (possibly not in the actual puns, although some of them were weak enough that who can tell?).