CODE of silence!. . .I'd like to dispel a common misconception about blu-ray discs...if I may. . .

[NewtonMP2100]

guitarist wrote:
Still doesn't explain the "CODE of silence" title, it's not even the usual tortured pun.

. . .I will try to dumb them down so you can better understand them. . .didn't mean to go beyond your abilities. . .try thinking you might eventually get it. . .

[guitarist]

NewtonMP2100 wrote:
[quote=guitarist]
Still doesn't explain the "CODE of silence" title, it's not even the usual tortured pun.

. . .I will try to dumb them down so you can better understand them. . .didn't mean to go beyond your abilities. . .try thinking you might eventually get it. . .
Gee, Newton, no place further you can go. You nut. A pun--even one that doesn't work--is celebrated as the lowest attempt at humor one can possibly aim for. You mean you know a lower one, or dumber one? Don't be silly. Of course you know there isn't one. I thought that was part of the pleasure of subjecting us to it.

This is well known. No one ever laughs, the idea is to make the reader groan. We assume that's why you're addicted to doing it.

But if you prefer us to believe you're aiming high, by all means, let's!



Cool article in NYT exploring the tradition:

Pun for the Ages

By JOSEPH TARTAKOVSK

The inglorious pun! Dryden called it the “lowest and most groveling kind of wit.” To Ambrose Bierce it was a “form of wit to which wise men stoop and fools aspire.” Universal experience confirms the adage that puns don’t make us laugh, but groan. It is said that Caligula ordered an actor to be roasted alive for a bad pun.

Puns are the feeblest species of humor because they are ephemeral: whatever comic force they possess never outlasts the split second it takes to resolve the semantic confusion. Most resemble mathematical formulas: clever, perhaps, but hardly occasion for knee-slapping. The worst smack of tawdriness, even indecency, which is why puns, like off-color jokes, are often followed by apologies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/opinio....html?_r=1&pagewanted=print