{"id":94459,"date":"2016-02-16T16:03:23","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T21:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=94459"},"modified":"2016-02-16T17:06:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T22:06:02","slug":"pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_94510\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-94510\" class=\"wp-image-94510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg\" alt=\"pun-summary_3195305a-large (1)\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-94510\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Via: <em>The Telegraph<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe only thing harder than crafting a good pun,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/20\/without-compunction\/\" target=\"_blank\">wrote Ted Trautman in these pages<\/a>, \u201cis finding someone to appreciate it.\u201d But as Trautman\u00a0makes clear, those people who love puns<em> really <\/em>love puns. They\u2019re the Peeps eaters of the wordplay world: few, proud, and defiant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The stronghold of the pun &#8212; besides our own ingenious puzzles, I mean &#8212; is, of course, the UK: if not king there, the pun is certainly a minor entry in <em>Debrett\u2019s<\/em>. And so it should come as no shock that from across the pond comes\u2014wait for it\u2014<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/comedy\/comedians\/funniest-puns-in-history\/the-big-bang\/\" target=\"_blank\">a history of the world in visual puns<\/a><\/em>. You didn\u2019t know you needed that in your life, did you? You didn\u2019t know you needed, say, a list of ten puns on the assassination of Julius Caesar. And maybe you hear,\u00a0<em>Why did Julius Caesar buy crayons? He wanted to mark Antony<\/em>,<em>\u00a0<\/em>and think, Wow, that\u2019s really lame. But then, Peeps lovers always do claim that they\u2019re better stale.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe only thing harder than crafting a good pun,\u201d wrote Ted Trautman in these pages, \u201cis finding someone to appreciate it.\u201d But as Trautman\u00a0makes clear, those people who love puns really love puns. They\u2019re the Peeps eaters of the wordplay world: few, proud, and defiant.\u00a0 The stronghold of the pun &#8212; besides our own ingenious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13633],"tags":[2861,10301,21182,7138,21180,21183],"class_list":["post-94459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-department-of-tomfoolery","tag-history","tag-puns","tag-ted-trautman","tag-uk","tag-visual-puns","tag-word-play"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The only thing harder than crafting a good pun is finding someone to appreciate it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February 16, 2016 \u2013 \u201cThe only thing harder than crafting a good pun,\u201d wrote Ted Trautman in these pages, \u201cis finding someone to appreciate it.\u201d But as Trautman\u00a0makes clear,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-16T21:03:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-16T22:06:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-16T21:03:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-16T22:06:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/\"},\"wordCount\":187,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"history\",\"puns\",\"Ted Trautman\",\"UK\",\"visual puns\",\"word play\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Department of Tomfoolery\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/\",\"name\":\"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-16T21:03:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-16T22:06:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"The only thing harder than crafting a good pun is finding someone to appreciate it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life","description":"The only thing harder than crafting a good pun is finding someone to appreciate it.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life by Sadie Stein","og_description":"February 16, 2016 \u2013 \u201cThe only thing harder than crafting a good pun,\u201d wrote Ted Trautman in these pages, \u201cis finding someone to appreciate it.\u201d But as Trautman\u00a0makes clear,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2016-02-16T21:03:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-02-16T22:06:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life","datePublished":"2016-02-16T21:03:23+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-16T22:06:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/"},"wordCount":187,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg","keywords":["history","puns","Ted Trautman","UK","visual puns","word play"],"articleSection":["Department of Tomfoolery"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/","name":"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg","datePublished":"2016-02-16T21:03:23+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-16T22:06:02+00:00","description":"The only thing harder than crafting a good pun is finding someone to appreciate it.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pun-summary_3195305a-large-1.jpg","width":720,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/pun-home-or-the-double-meaning-of-life\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pun Home: Or, The Double Meaning of Life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94459"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94486,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94459\/revisions\/94486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}