Performing Live Comedy by Ritchie Chris;

Author:Ritchie, Chris;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Puns and other wordplay

One of the most common language-based gags is the pun. In a pun one word or phrase is substituted for another that sounds similar. In Britain the pun is most often seen in the realm of commerce: a fish-and-chips shop called Jed’s Plaice, for example. So a comedian might use this idea to invent a vasectomy clinic called It’s a Snip or an adoption agency called Bastards. However, the pun is risky in live comedy, as jokes that rely on them can be predictable, weak or corny. With puns, the energy that is expended on the set-up always has to be justified by the effectiveness of the punchline. That is, if you are going to take a long time setting up the gag, the punchline had better be funny!

However, puns can be used effectively in the build-up to the punchline of a longer joke, rather than forming the punchline itself. In a longer anecdote about a disastrous holiday a pun can be dropped in to break up the preamble and keep the audience on track. Just be careful: if you use a corny pun you always need to highlight the fact that you know it is corny. Puns are not class A or even class B material, so acknowledge the fact, because the audience certainly will.

With puns and other wordplay there are subtle differences that we need to comprehend. Clever wordplay takes the pun up a notch. For example, Harry Hill did a gag about a stepladder – ‘not my real ladder’ – which is a clever play on ‘stepbrother’, etc. The following joke is similar to Hill’s and depends on the phrase ‘turn out’ having two meanings:

‘Did you hear about these new reversible jackets? I’m excited to see how they turn out.’

The next one is a pun where one word is replaced by a similar-sounding one but still maintains a comic logic:

‘My neighbour’s sprinkler is a constant irrigation to me.’

The words ‘sprinkler’ and ‘irrigation’ have a logical connection. But be aware that such simple forms of wordplay can be annoying unless they are particularly clever, and they should never be overdone. They are often merely amusing, rather than funny. British comedian Tim Vine does jokes that involve lots of clever wordplay, but he is also not embarrassed to point up a particularly groan-worthy pun. He intersperses these carefully into his stronger material. So long as you do not try to disguise inferior material as ‘A’ material, you can use it. A groan is often as good as a laugh and makes the set more varied and dynamic.

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