JOKES ON YOU
From dog groomers & candle shops, to balti houses & locksmiths – is your local shop name one of best puns in Britain?
Innuendos and double entendres have been making us groan and chuckle for years
THE punniest performers from across Britain are gathering today to outwit each other with a tidal wave of terrible gags that are sure to be met with a groan or a giggle.
The tenth annual UK Pun Championships are being held in Leicester as part of the city’s comedy festival.
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Contestants from across the country go head to head, punning against each other in rounds until the final two are left to battle it out in the final.
The ultimate punner is decided by way of whoops and cheers from the audience.
Among the finalists are Stevie Vegas, who has reached the finals of the New York based Punderdome and has written a joke book called It’s A Punder Fool Life.
Double meaning
Last year, stand-up Kev Mud was crowned the winner with gags including: “I can’t go to the toilet without taking candles. I’m a party pooper.”
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He also came up with “What do Pompeii and Kim Kardashian have in common? Nobody would have heard of them if it wasn’t for their massive ash!”
Innuendos and double entendres have been making us groan and chuckle for years.
Indeed, history buffs believe the first cheesy puns are found in ancient Egypt where they were used to interpret dreams.
They also appear in Mayan hieroglyphic writing.
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Roman playwright Plautus was famous for his witty word games while closer to home, William Shakespeare was a punny guy.
He loved amazing audiences with more than 3,000 across his plays, including the line in Richard III, “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York”.
Brit girl's pun-tastic Facebook video gets 41 MILLION views
The word “pun” emerged around 1640 when early dictionaries defined it as ‘quibble, witty conceit, fancy.’
Today, it is described as: “a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.”
Puns now appear everywhere, from films and TV to high street shops and restaurants and big brand ads.
The Carry On films revolved around them, with almost every silly line having a suggestive double meaning.
Kenneth Williams’ Carry On pun “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!” from 1964’s Carry On Cleo has often been voted the funniest one-liner in movie history.
While in 2023, a pun about an unfaithful zookeeper was named the funniest gag at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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Comedian Lorna Rose Treen joked: “I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah.”
Even kids’ favourite Disney adds clever lines that will appeal to the adults, including “Cheetahs never prosper” in The Lion King, “If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it,” from Beauty And The Beast, and “I love how your fowl little mind works” is said by Jafar to parrot Iago in Aladdin.
Here at The Sun we are famous for our pun-derful headlines that make our front pages so eye-catching.
Some truly memorable headlines have included Don’t Cry For Me . . . Argie Cleaner when footballer Carlos Tevez was given community service for driving offences.
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Korea was the front page when dictator Kim Jong-Il held a nuke test.
In 2000 when thieves planned to steal a diamond from the Millennium Dome our headline was I’m Only Here For De Beers.
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Plus following Brexit, when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced in 2020 they would be stepping down as senior members of the Royal Family, we called it Megxit.
When it comes to big business, who could forget Warburtons “Bakers, born and bred” or tech company’s IBM’s “I think, therefore IBM’, plus Air Asia’s billboards reading “Cheap enough to say, Phuket, I’ll go”.
PUNNY HA-HA
SHOP owners also know the value of a witty pun when it comes to creating a memorable name to make their business stand out.
Here are just a few that can raise a smile and attract new customers.
- Bonnie Tiler – a tiler in Glamorgan, South Wales, is grout of this world
- In a nod to the Bard, a New York camping shop once advertised Now is the Winter of our Discount Tents’
- Jean Claude Van Man – the Southport removals firm
- Surelock Homes – Portsmouth based locksmith is a key move
- Austin Flowers – London-based florist, is blooming funny
- Farther Tread – a tyre shop, pays homage to TV’s Father Ted
- Tikka Chance On Me – Indian street food stall in Manchester
- Curl Up And Dye - hairdresser in New Malden, south-west London
- Darth Vaper – vape shop in Bridgend, Mid-Glamorgan
- Apocalypse Cow – BBQ street food in Birmingham
- Jason Donervan – from Bristol
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