Pundemonium: The Step-by-Schlep Guide to Humour's Lowest Form

by Paul Clarke, Joan Sauers

The pun. Maligned, perverse ... irresistible. in Pundemonium Joan Sauers and Paul Clarke sweep from the verbal back alleys of Groucho Marx to the literary peaks of William Shakespeare, exploring the paradox of the pun.

At last, a book that answers the eternal questions: How do you make a pun? How many times did Hamlet pun? Can a decent pun get you laid?

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

262 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1996

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[SHR · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this too repetitive. Too much time spent slamming home the point that the pun is not dumb or bad, or cringe-worthy.

[Lynda Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun to read out loud
first read in 1996 and have been reading since every now and

[notgettingenough · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is fun.

pp. 12-13:

Chiasmus is a good one. It's not technically a pun, but is often associated with puns and known punsters. One of the best loved examples is Dorothy Parker's line...on having missed a deadline: 'I'm too fucking busy and too busy fucking.' Mae West was pretty handy with the old chiasmus as well: 'It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men.' It's interesting to not that while there aren't a lot of well-known women who go for the pun, they love a good chiasmus. What this means we have no idea, but undoubtedly some socio-linguist will blame it on gender repression. Then some bio-linguist will say women use a different part of their brain than men for langage, and it bypasses the punning centre. Frankly, we have a life, and we're not going to spend too much time on the issue. Back to the chiasmus....Groucho Marx was able to do something whch is a hanging offence in most Muslim countries; he punned within a chiasmus on a cliche. Catching sight of his former wife at a restaurant, he said, 'Marx spots the ex.'

Denoument: maybe not fun enough....it tries to explain humour. That just doesn't work ever, does it?