Time to Have Some Pun

I came across this wine label the other day in a supermarket.

It brought puns to mind.  Puns, of course, are silly word jokes, greeted as often with groans as with laughter.

A quick internet scan showed me that the pun form is alive and well.

Okay.  Enough of this silliness.

In fact, there is a national event, the Pun-Off, to celebrate this humble humor.  The Pun-Off has been held annually since 1978 at the O. Henry Museum in Austin, Tex.

(Here's how out of it I am -- I've been to Austin, and I didn't even know there was an O. Henry Museum there.  I have enjoyed  his stories, though, particularly "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Ransom of Red Chief.")

Every May, punsters gather in Austin to compete.  Perhaps more amazing, audiences gather in Austin to listen to this stuff.

Of course the motto of the Pun-Off is "Jest for a Wordy Cause!"  Of course one of the prizes is named the Punslinger.

In fact, competition at the event sounds keen.  This year's winner "punned on the name of every U.S. president in chronological order." Pretty impressive when you think about it.

I won't go any further with this, but if you are interested, a number of the top 2014 puns can be found on Twitter at #punoff2014.

Oh, what the heck.  Here is one of the tweets:  "I ran into a beautiful woman yesterday in a Porsche.  I hope I dented a fender."