Cortically Magnified

Some friends and I ran into a trivia question about an ice cream named after Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. A friend said that it must be a pun, so I suggested “Grapeful Dead”. The answer, of course, was “Cherry Garcia”.

The Economist is probably not the best place to look for rigorous scholarship on comparative punnology, but a recent article did ask a very good question: Why English is such a great language for puns? I am not sure if the superiority of English in punning is that obvious, but the argument seems to be convincing: For English is unusually good for puns. It has a large vocabulary and a rich stock of homophones from which puns can be made.

“Once I had a girl, or should I say, she once had me” sang John Lennon in Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), the second track of the classic Beatles album Rubber Soul. Released in 1965, this innovative composition, widely considered a Rock and Roll canon heralding the maturation of the relatively young art form, immortalized John Lennon’s extramarital affair with an unidentified woman, popularized the use of the sitar in Western music, and unintentionally led to the creation of one of the most clichéd imageries in Asia.

Really. Hey, like Godzilla always sez to Mothra — why don’t we go eat some place? — Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

Choose your next private key carefully, Mr. Bond. It may be your last. Do you expect me to talk? No. I expect you to prime.