Page 26 - The Language of Humour

‘I SAY, I SAY, I SAY’ 13
they are spoken, sometimes the appearance of letters and words can
imitate their sense, as in the following example:

Yo-Yos rule O
-
-
-
K

The notion of a running gag takes a particular known formula and
makes a series of variations on it, so it is essential to be aware of the
original formula, in this case: x rules OK.

Dyslexia lures KO
Amnesia rules O

Adding or changing the lettering of signs is a casual form of wordplay,
perhaps childish, as in the following examples.

TOLET -TOILET
BROOM CLOSE+T (on a street sign)

The archetypal bad boy cartoon character, Bart Simpson, re-arranges the
words on a display menu, changing COD PLATTER to COLD PET RAT.
Forming anagrams from well-known names can sometimes provide
delightfully incongruous yet apt reformulations; or witty variations on
familiar sayings.

Tony Blair, a PM=I’m a Tory, Plan B
Virginia Bottomley=I’m an evil Tory bigot
Bad spellers of the world untie

Like the ambiguity of word boundaries in spoken language, the
physical spaces between words can be blurred in written language to
provide ambiguities of meaning, as in the following printed in capitals
on a postcard.

THE PEN IS
MIGHTIER THAN
THE PENIS