Puns and malapropisms are the highest, most erudite, most inventive, most nimble forms of humor. I regard a >groan< as a standing ovation. When you hit home runs, they're legendary.
True stories ...
Once upon a time, while working at Xerox in Rochester, I was walking along the office row and passed two secretaries huddled over an IBM Selectric typewriter. One was holding up a typing element. Just as I passed, the other said, "Oh! The Olde English ball!"
Without breaking stride, with nary a hesitation, I turned my head and said "Yes. The young English do, too."
Three or four steps further, I heard the delayed guffaws (mixed with groans) from the secretaries. It was like a ticker-tape parade down Broadway. A Triple!! (I figuratively put my shoulder out of joint patting myself on the back.)
My uncle's given names are "Benjamin Franklin ____." Having had enough teasing in school, he changed it while in the Army in WW2 to just "Frank." That hasn't stopped me from kidding him occasionally and calling him "Ben." (It's in the job description under "nephew.")
He lives in the Phoenix area and I used to visit him three times a year to go tubing on the Salt River. Over the years, I met one of his friends, who's my age, named Jack Rice.
Jack never came tubing. He'd say "I'd rather watch paint dry" or "I'd rather watch grass grow."
On one visit, however, Jack finally decided to come tubing with us at long last, after refusing for years! A pleasant surprise. Jack's good company.
I, of course, could make only one observation.
(Get ready for it.)
I said, "Oh! Uncle Ben's converted Rice!"
That's a Home Run! No hesitation. No slip or fumble. No "Oh I wish I'd said..." It was real time. All the planets were aligned. People don't get second chances at something like that. I could wait multiple lifetimes without another chance. To miss it would've been tragic beyond belief. One time at the plate. Blamm!! Over the wall! If only because of that, I can die happy!
Like I say, it's the
highest form of humor ... and I'd turn in my brain if I couldn't keep finding them.
(Names above have been slightly changed/masked to protect the innocent ... or the privacy of the not-so-innocent.)
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