Lesson 10 — Activity 2: Puns and Sarcasm

As we saw in the activity on literal and figurative language, writers can use language several ways for various effects. Often writers use puns and sarcasm to achieve their purposes.

Puns
A pun is sometimes called a "play on words" and refers to the humorous use of a word by twisting its meaning. A pun may also switch words with similar sounds but different meanings to make a funny sentence. Many jokes use puns.


Here are some examples of puns:

• Why is a piano better than a fish? You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish!

• Did you see the guy in the knife costume? Does he ever look sharp!

• What kind of coffee was served on the Titanic? Sanka.

• I dreamed I was the author of The Lord of the Rings, but I guess I was only Tolkien in my sleep.

As you can see, puns vary in quality! Often, puns are met with groans from the audience, then laughter.

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Sarcasm
Another literary device that we might use is sarcasm. Sarcastic comments serve the purpose of teasing or criticizing someone or something, usually through the use of irony (that is, saying the opposite of what is meant). 

Sarcasm is often expressed by our tone of voice; that is, we may say something and mean it literally, or we may say the same thing and mean it sarcastically. The receiver of our message will be able to tell the difference by the way we say the sentence.

An example of a sentence that can be read as it is (literally) or read with different emphasis to be sarcastic follows:

• That was a very easy definition to understand. Thanks a lot!

• That was a very easy definition to understand. Thanks a lot!

The first sentence can be read as a sincere thank you; the second sentence actually says that the definition was not easy to understand at all.

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