Page 32 - The Language of Humour

‘I SAY, I SAY, I SAY’ 19
Activity with texts
Analyse the following using the categories above and mark where the
ambiguity occurs. Use a good etymological dictionary to check whether
words are homonyms or polysemes.

1 Contraceptives should be used on every conceivable
occasion. (The Last Goon Show of All)
2 (Pointing to the cemetery) Did you know this is the dead
centre of Sheffield? People are dying to get in there.
3 My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my
net income. (Errol Flynn)
4 There are only two kinds of pedestrians—the quick and the
dead. (Lord Thomas Robert Dewar)
5 Asked if she had nothing on in the calendar photo, she said
‘I had the radio on.’ (Marilyn Monroe)
6 Some people are always late, like the late King George V.
(Spike Milligan)
7 Poem to my Goldfish Going round and round in a tank with
his mouth hanging open.
8 Bit like being in the army really. (Notice in a butcher’s
shop) Would mothers please not sit their babies
9 on the bacon slicer, as we are getting a little behind with
our orders. (Cartoon showing a person sitting at a table in
an exam, looking amazed as his pen escapes) While
answering a question on surrealism, his pen ran out.
10 Man in a bar: ‘I just got a bottle of gin for my mother-in-
law.’ ‘Sounds like a good swap.’

Commentary
The ambiguity lies in two possible interpretations of these words:
‘conceivable’, ‘dead’ and ‘dying’, ‘gross’, ‘quick’, ‘late’, ‘tank’,
‘behind’. You will find that they are all polysemes, where the earlier
meaning of the word has acquired a metaphorical sense, or, in the case
of ‘behind’, a euphemistic sense. 5, 9 and 10 are ambiguous because of
two possible interpretations of prepositions used in set phrases: ‘have x
on’, ‘run out’, ‘get x for’.