Food for Thought #1

Sometimes life doesn't play out the way you want it to. Whenever you feel at a low point, you've got to remember that you can't predict what will happen in the future. Everything will always work out in the end. Every failure, every rejection always leads to new opportunities. Think of a time when you really failed. What insights did you gain from the experience? How had that changed your life positively? Would you have gotten those insights any other way? Looking on the positive side of things allows us to embrace our lives and accept reality.


"When you exercise your optimism, things will always work out"


- Louis

ALL FOR PUN AND PUN FOR ALL!

One of the most exciting things about puns is engaging in a battle of wits with others. Before you go out and pick fights, I've got to make sure you're well informed of the ground rules, once you've got those down, the sky's the limit. 

1. You must make a pun that is related to the pun you are attacking. The subject must be the same or you will be subject to ridicule, especially if the subject is ridiculous. 

2. You must not repeat a pun that has already been used previously. 

3. You must not use the phrase "That's Punny" 

4. You must allow the other person to respond before attacking again. 

5. Battle is over when one party fails to respond to an extremely good pun. 

6. Parties can call a truce when the battle becomes stagnant. 

Happy Hunting!

"A Battle of Twits"

La Lune, les crabes et l'acteur

When actor Joaquin Phoenix tries his hand at Michael Jackson's signature dance move, is he Moonjoaquin? When scuttling belly-up on all fours is he Crabjoaquin?

Lesson #3, Phonetic Puns, Homonyms, You Name It!

Probably the staple crop of all corny pun threads, all pun battles, is what I call the "phonetic" pun. Using a word's sound to form a second meaning.

For example the infamous chemistry thread that begins with "What do we do with dead chemists? Barium" The beauty of this kind of pun is its simplicity. You don't ever need the "meaning" of the actual word "barium," just its phonetic sound. My friend Kevin and I once battled for 30 minutes using puns of country names.

I use this technique consistently to make puns with people's names (which don't have definitions). Here's the breakdown of some basic techniques I've used.

1. Get the name, the word of interest, you want to use to make a pun.
2. Say it to yourself, ignoring the meaning, 5-10 times. (more if needed).
3. While saying it to yourself, try to jog your memory and think of words that sound like the name or may contain the sound of the name.
4. Weave a concise phrase around the second meaning that you just made. Using idioms helps bridge the understanding gap and ensure delivery of the pun.

 I'll demonstrate with "Evan" (Who occasionally posts as Vincent O'Hara II on the blog).

-Evan..Evan...Evan..."Evan-ge." "If you slay me in a battle of wits, my dear friend will surely Evan-ge me!"

-Evan...Evan....Evan..."Heaven" "If you manage to slay my friend too, i'm sure he'll soon arrive at the gates of "Evan" because he's a firm believer in "Evangelicalism"

5. Now the longer the name, the more foreign the name (indian names omg), the harder the pun making becomes. Very frequently, you've got to cut the word up, usually in two pieces. The first half of the word will be the first word, or the END of the first word. The second half of the word will become the second word, or the BEGINNING of the second word. With my friend "Ashish," I cut his name into "Ash" and ish." Using "Ash," I thought of "Ash" "Cash" and "Bash." With "ish," I only thought of "issue." Combining the thought process I came up with "Cash Issue" = "C-Ashih-use." All that's left is to weave a phrase. Try cutting the word up differently if you're stuck. I could have cut it up into "A" and "shish" and made the pun "A shish-kebab."

That's it! Those are the basics of how to make puns with people's names. This used to be one of my trademark tricks, but now the secret is out!


Thanks for reading!

Louis Cai



~Related Warning~
I have heard every possible pun made with my name**. Don't even try.


**Probably the best one ever made was made by my friend Camille: "B-Louis Cai"

You gotta hand it to me for this one....

"Playing video games could be considered a form of ...digital exercise."



Today I learned that fingers don't even have muscles! Muscles in your hand actually pull the strings (tendons)! I've always bragged about how strong my finger muscles were from playing violin...but there was really nothing to brag about!

(Picture courtesy of "lazydictionary" from Reddit)

A pun for your amusement...

The construction worker representative passionately demanded compensation for the carnival's poor work conditions. The scene could be summarized as "one charged a fair."



~Related Optical Illusion~

Is this ferris wheel turning to the right or to the left?

Chemical Favoritism of the Full Stop

We have periods and the periodic table of elements. Why do we leave the comma hanging without a comic table of elements?