Stupid Pun Tricks

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 7:32 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> CNN reports that more men than women lost their jobs during the recession.
> So it was really a "HE-cession, a MAN-cession."
>
> "HE-cession" (note stress) is a pretty lame pun, but "MAN-cession" is just
> plain stupid.
>
> Of course, if you spell it "man-session" you can wax even more profound.

Here's Nancy Friedman on "man-cession":

http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2009/08/word-of-the-week-mancession.html
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/1979/

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org