The human tendency to pun is carved in stone

The title of this post comes from The Pun's Story, a recent book review on the history and significance of punning.

The review likens the 34,000 year old art of punning to modern day communication technologies: “Sumerian scribes began using pictographs...the result…was comparable to a modern text message…”; and, "the pun was humanity’s first hyperlink, a way to identify and articulate potential connections that aren’t necessarily or immediately apparent.”

Technology and punnery go hand in hand. On one hand, email can be open to misinterpretation with the reader potentially misreading the sender’s tone and intent of their email. On the other, to make a purposeful play on words in an email forces the punnee to decipher the double entendre of the punner’s email.

The first is an unintentionally ambiguous email which makes you crazy trying to figure out its meaning. The other is an intentionally ambiguous email which makes you crazy trying to figure out its meaning. Crazy with laughter!

Rachel Kagan March 16 at 4:12pm
Where did that sudden burst of delusional confidence come from? It must be my new glasses. It’s weird to call them ‘new’ when they are wood. Do you think that the first glasses ever were made of stone? Who could be able to rock that look?

Kathryn Rawson March 16, 2011 at 5:18pm
I like your new glasses! I have no idea who would be able to rock the stone look but it would have to be someone with the strength of marble. The quality of my stone-related joke is questionable, I am aware of this.

Rachel Kagan March 17 at 9:29am
The quality of your joke is not questionable. In fact, I think it really represents the cornerstone of the whole bit.

Kathryn Rawson March 17, 2011 at 10:30am
It's true, my joke is basically the Plymouth Rock of our times.

Rachel Kagan March 17 at 1:40pm
You have facilitated the bedrock that is this joke.

Kathryn Rawson March 17 at 2:21pm
I guess you could say I really boulder-d you over with my joke.

Rachel Kagan March 17 at 3:23pm
Yes, I would say that you did boulder-d me over, so much so that my laughter turned into lava. I think I just turned this joke into rubble.

Kathryn Rawson March 17 at 5:31pm
This joke is so dead it should have its own tombstone.

Rachel Kagan March 18 at 12:09pm
We just need to medicate this joke to bring it back to life. So we need to get it stoned.

Kathryn Rawson March 18 at 12:53pm
We are like the master masons of rock jokes.