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57th out of 186 books
—
55 voters
The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics
by
John Pollack
A former word pun champion's funny, erudite, and provocative exploration of puns, the people who make them, and this derided wordplay's remarkable impact on history. The pun is commonly dismissed as the lowest form of wit, and punsters are often unpopular for their obsessive wordplay. But such attitudes are relatively recent developments. In The Pun Also Rises, John Pollac...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
April 14th 2011
by Gotham
(first published January 1st 2011)
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What can I say? This is vindication for punsters everywhere.
Bird Brian's review was what got me interested in this, and since it's hard to top, I won't even try. The book had some engaging anecdotes, lots of historical facts and quotations, and even some lessons in brain physiology. And of course lots of wordplay.
All for pun, and pun for all!
Bird Brian's review was what got me interested in this, and since it's hard to top, I won't even try. The book had some engaging anecdotes, lots of historical facts and quotations, and even some lessons in brain physiology. And of course lots of wordplay.
All for pun, and pun for all!
Lots of stuff going on here. There were historical anecdotes about punning through the ages, and its varying cultural import; some pop science tidbits about how the brain processes language generally and puns specifically; a few miscellaneous personal stories (the best is the one about the pun competition at the beginning); and a ton of shameless, unapologetic, wholly gratuitous, thoroughly amazing puns. (My favorite, from a passage about the alphabet: "Yes, the Romans would later modify the Gre...more
I read this while I was on a plane to Austin, and, oddly enough, the first chapter details the author's trip to the Pun Off that happens there! His plane almost crashes; luckily, mine didn't. My students bought this for me as an end of the year present, and as I'm constantly impressing upon them all sorts of linguistic concepts, this book was quite appropriate.
The history of the pun isn't as groan inducing as actual puns can be. Pollock details what happens in the brain when a pun is constructe...more
The history of the pun isn't as groan inducing as actual puns can be. Pollock details what happens in the brain when a pun is constructe...more
Puntiful. Punlicious. Punderful. Puntastic. Punetrating. All describe this punny book. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near as punny as John Pollack. Considering his belief that punning is a sign of intelligence, I suppose that he would doubt mine. However, as clever as puns can be, not everyone has punability. Pollack says Noam Chomsky doesn't pun and whatever you may blame Chomsky for, stupidity isn't one of his flaws.
Pollack puns his way through this surprisingly scholarly examination of the socio...more
Pollack puns his way through this surprisingly scholarly examination of the socio...more
As an ambiguity pundit, I was drawn to this book, but slightly disappointed. The author views the pun as a subset of ambiguity in language, pointing out its possible evolutionary role and attempting to save its reputation from centuries of misalignment as low-brow humor. In an inconclusive attempt to describe what happens in the punning brain, he also offers a disappointing foray into pop science. All this adds up to a good start.
Where the book falls short is in its neglect of the subjective ex...more
Where the book falls short is in its neglect of the subjective ex...more
My father loved to pun, and he promoted such fun, zany good times punning together as a family. We were silly, true, but it was often smart humor, that made us think on our feet. Once my sister, father, and I tried to see how long we could keep a balloon up in the air, hitting it upward each time we made another pun. If you failed to make a pun when you hit the balloon, you were out. We kept it up for over an hour. The mental gynmastics it required to think like that are akin to speaking a forei...more
The idea of linguistic history titillates me intellectually, but I must admit to not having a lot of luck with it in practice. My linguistics courses in general while in college were universally boring. But deep down inside, I knew that linguistics could be absolutely fascinating if put in the right hands. This book definitely proves that. A historical and cultural look at the role of puns, The Pun Also Rises informed, entertained, and challenged me.
First, the challenging part. I have always tho...more
First, the challenging part. I have always tho...more
I was very excited to read this book when I ran across the title on a blog recently. It was fine, a nice little overview of how and why we may have come to pun. Neither obsessive and terribly thorough history nor simple humor writing, the book occupies for me a weird spot that falls short of rigorous scholarship (which would have been interesting) but goes beyond the simply light-hearted treatment. I sort of found myself wishing Pollack had picked one extreme or the other. It's a quick and prett...more
Terrific book! The pun is not the lowest form of humor. It's one of the highest forms because you have to be smart to recognize a pun. I've always loved puns. In graduate school, I put at least one pun in every term paper I wrote. A comparison of modern plays about Oedipus--"Complex Oedipus." My book Finding New Goddesses is filled with puns. These Found Goddesses are goddesses I made up. Here's my favorite:
Verbena: Goddess of Wordplay and Really Awful Verse
“I don’t get no respect,” Verbena com...more
Verbena: Goddess of Wordplay and Really Awful Verse
“I don’t get no respect,” Verbena com...more
More scholarly, less fun than I expected. My fault, not that of the book.
1 like · like · see review
Please excuse the puns below.
"The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics" by John Pollack is a non-fiction book, in which the author tells his-story of puns. Even though this book is short in pages, it is long in content.
John Pollack loves words and one could tell from the book. He is a former World Pun Champion and speech writer for President Bill Clinton. In the book Mr. Pollack explains the signifi...more
"The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics" by John Pollack is a non-fiction book, in which the author tells his-story of puns. Even though this book is short in pages, it is long in content.
John Pollack loves words and one could tell from the book. He is a former World Pun Champion and speech writer for President Bill Clinton. In the book Mr. Pollack explains the signifi...more
This book will probably only be interesting to those obsessed with language, or maybe history, but it was definitely an *extremely* well-written account of the history of puns (which is more complex and genuinely entertaining than you might think). Pollack was a presidential speech-writer, and an award-winning pun-nist (I don't know the official term), so if you're NOT into language/history, just read the introduction. You might be blown away! All in all, the book has tons of fun anecdotes and i...more
As you probably all know by now, I LOVE words, playing with words, and this book was just a delight.
I had no idea there was such a thing as a World Pun Championship. Words are your weapon, and you’d better be as quick as the guys at O.K. Corral if you want to win! John Pollack won it one year, and you will learn all about this competition at the beginning of the book.
The book is of course much more than that. It traces the phenomenon of puns back to Antiquity, when there were real life and death...more
I had no idea there was such a thing as a World Pun Championship. Words are your weapon, and you’d better be as quick as the guys at O.K. Corral if you want to win! John Pollack won it one year, and you will learn all about this competition at the beginning of the book.
The book is of course much more than that. It traces the phenomenon of puns back to Antiquity, when there were real life and death...more
Parts of this book rate 4 stars in my view: the examples of puns throughout history and how understanding puns requires a rather complex set of leaps by the brain kept my interest quite easily. The historical events associated with punning were just not as compellingly described in many cases. I kept wanting to skip ahead to the examples. Still, it was revealing to see how long puns have been with us, and certain moments of history, such as the rise of coffee houses in England, certainly allowed...more
My personal view is that puns fall into two categories: those whose wit and cleverness you appreciate slowly because they are based on some piece of esoteric knowledge - a Classical quote, a modern foreign language word play, scientific jargon - or they're sheer impudence takes you by surprise and causes you to burst out laughing even while realising that it's an awful pun. This is not to say that the pun "is the lowest form of wit", but some of the examples were groan-worthy.
I found the history...more
I found the history...more
At 154 pages, this incredibly well-researched little gem (the bibliography pushes it out another sixty-or-so pages) is an education, a revelation, and a kind of validation for anyone who believes a well-tailored play on words can reinforce the message of who one is trying to convey. While I can appreciate people not enjoying puns, I've never understood people who insist that they are somehow a lower or less worthy device. To me the pun represents perhaps the most respectful form of humour, as th...more
Parts of this book were 4 stars and parts were 2 stars, so I went with the average. As a pun lover, I was really excited to hear about this book. And there were many things I loved about it. Almost every section of the book was titled with a pun - like "Jewish Wry" or "Babble On". Also, there would be times where I thought the author was describing a historical event that had something to do with language and it would turn out to be a big set-up for a joke. Even when it was an actual event, he w...more
I am the kind of person who is always making (and then laughing at) their own puns, usually ones which aren't very good or clever but which I enjoy nonetheless. So of course I had to read John Pollack's history of the pun, The Pun Also Rises. The book provides a brief overview of how the pun developed, the origin of various puns, as well as peoples' perception of puns over time.
The Pun Also Rises is divided into five chapters with a prologue in which Pollack competes in the World Pun Championshi...more
The Pun Also Rises is divided into five chapters with a prologue in which Pollack competes in the World Pun Championshi...more
Let me pun-tificate a bit on my feelings about this book. It started out great, with the author telling of his experience winning a punning competition in Austin. It definitely made me want to go to watch that contest, because I do love a good pun. After the introduction, I had high hopes for a great book, but the rest of the book left me feeling a bit pun-derwhelmed. The author described the history of the pun and gave many examples of puns throughout the ages, but as he said, puns reflect the...more
I’m going to start this review with some self-indulgence, which is really par for the course when it comes to my style of reviewing. I’m just a tiny bit drunk, and I could swear I've already written a review for this book. But I can’t find that review anywhere. I have a phrase in my head, that I feel I must have written already, something about how John Pollack peppers The Pun Also Rises with puns, which is to be expected. But I can’t for the life of me find on any of my several hard drives and...more
This is more than just a history of puns, it is a history of language, a history of humour, and shows that social changes over the centuries around this form of humour. Puns are rich in the use of language and that is both the appeal and the fun of them. But because they play with language, puns are also seen as a threat by some. They've definitely been used subversively and politically and have been a tool of social and political change. They are also a great tool for literacy and language lear...more
When I saw there was a book about the history of puns at BN, I had to buy it immediately. It's a pretty quick and general, but interesting, read.
What is possibly my favorite part of the book is that there are so many puns within the narrative, as well as puns that he recounts. However there is also lots of historical information about why people now (erroneously?) consider the pun to be a "low" form of comedy.
There is also an amazing list of suggested readings which I'm looking forward to delvin...more
What is possibly my favorite part of the book is that there are so many puns within the narrative, as well as puns that he recounts. However there is also lots of historical information about why people now (erroneously?) consider the pun to be a "low" form of comedy.
There is also an amazing list of suggested readings which I'm looking forward to delvin...more
John Pollack opens his delightful, insightful look at puns with a recounting of his victory in the O. Henry Pun-Off in Austin, Texas in 1995, so you know he knows his stuff.
Then it's off on a ziggy, zaggy journey through evolutionary and linguistic history that entertains as it drops more than one or two unexpected facts on lovers of language. My favorite factoid? Learning that brain science has pinpointed the area that controls anagrams and initials. Finally, an explanation for the linguistic t...more
Then it's off on a ziggy, zaggy journey through evolutionary and linguistic history that entertains as it drops more than one or two unexpected facts on lovers of language. My favorite factoid? Learning that brain science has pinpointed the area that controls anagrams and initials. Finally, an explanation for the linguistic t...more
All Puns are not created equal. So says the amazing former world champion punster who won the pun-offs held in Austin, Texas in 1995. A pun is essentially a play on words. There are many different types of puns as Pollack explains and most people begin using puns as children.
Puns are everywhere. After I started reading this book, puns started stalking me. I heard them in songs, saw them in TV sitcoms, read them in the newspapers and on billboards. I'd fallen into the art of punning and I couldn...more
Puns are everywhere. After I started reading this book, puns started stalking me. I heard them in songs, saw them in TV sitcoms, read them in the newspapers and on billboards. I'd fallen into the art of punning and I couldn...more
2 stars does not mean I did not like this book- it was worth reading, and I did enjoy learning more about the history and use of puns. I just didn't realize how much of this book would be a history of all language, and all types of humor. I also think he stretched it just a BIT to say that puns are the reason we can think creatively/abstractly.
I would've liked it more if he focused on just puns, and told their history by giving several examples of puns from different eras. Also, cut out about 5...more
I would've liked it more if he focused on just puns, and told their history by giving several examples of puns from different eras. Also, cut out about 5...more
If all non-fiction was written with the casual wit with which John Pollack writes, I would be a much smarter person. While punctilious at its core, The Pun Also Rises is punctuated with punchy wordplay that keeps the mood light and prevents the book from ever feeling, as many non-fiction books feel, punitive. While remaining entirely accessible on its surface, Pollack's prose rewards the careful reader with clever little puns scattered throughout the text. One of my favorite passages discusses t...more
This book accomplishes the impossible: It takes a serious look at the pun and its evolution throughout history but manages to somehow still be entertaining. Anyone who has ever had to explain a joke's punchline knows what kind of challenge this can be. Pollack has done well, interspersing his very academic research with enough amusing anecdotes to remind us that puns are, after all, meant to be enjoyed. He clearly had fun writing this, which means those of us reading the fruit of his efforts can...more
(orginally posted at The Broke and the Bookish
When I was contacted by TLC Book Tours about reading a book about language, I jumped at the chance. I love language. Everything about it intrigues me, including puns. I’m not going to lie. Before I started reading this book, when someone said “pun”, I would think of the jokes that come on popsicle sticks. And yes, I would be one of groaners sometimes. But the interesting thing about this book is it leads you more into the depths of puns.
I learned a l...more
When I was contacted by TLC Book Tours about reading a book about language, I jumped at the chance. I love language. Everything about it intrigues me, including puns. I’m not going to lie. Before I started reading this book, when someone said “pun”, I would think of the jokes that come on popsicle sticks. And yes, I would be one of groaners sometimes. But the interesting thing about this book is it leads you more into the depths of puns.
I learned a l...more
If it's not too weird to spend a moment reviewing not just the content of the book but the actual physical book itself, I just want to say I really like the size of the hardbound edition. It's small enough to feel perfect as a "travel-size" book and feels comfortable in my hands. So great job there for the publishers.
The writing in the book is pretty good too. Puns are explained at as much length as you could expect puns to be explained, and maybe even then some. And yes, he slips his own puns i...more
The writing in the book is pretty good too. Puns are explained at as much length as you could expect puns to be explained, and maybe even then some. And yes, he slips his own puns i...more
I'm a punner, and my girlfriend got this book for me for Christmas. Which is weird, because I usually get the groan that Pollack talks about in this book whenever I have a clever remark. It's a remarkable book though, if only for its depths into history and culture of the humble pun.
Pollack does a good job talking about the culture of the pun, but it left me feeling disappointed. There was no narrative structure I could find, and I felt bored more than a few times reading the book.
Pollack does a good job talking about the culture of the pun, but it left me feeling disappointed. There was no narrative structure I could find, and I felt bored more than a few times reading the book.
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I think he's actually already been declared the Puntifex Maximus, but I s...more
Apr 28, 2013 12:56am
Apr 28, 2013 06:06am