Page 50 - ДЛЯ ФЛИПЕРА_Neat

CLICHÉS IN HUMOR

A cliché can be reformed with homonyms—words that look or sound the
same but have different meanings

I tried to give up heroin, but my efforts were all in vein. —George Carlin

THE DOUBLE ENTENDRE: AWAY WITH WORDS Double entendre is

the French term for an ambiguous word or phrase that allows for a se-
cond—usually spicy—interpretation

Art supplies advertisement: Honest, I Was Framed!

Three of the four words in the expression wire ahead for reserva¬ tions ha-

ve multiple meanings. (This phrase has been replaced in com¬ mon usage
by call ahead for reservations, but most people would still instinctively un-
derstand its meaning.) By imagining what-if scenarios and performing
mental calisthenics, the humor writer can recast this common phrase with

double entendres.

The most popular double entendre is the word it, which can be used to

mean a hundred different things, but is used most often in humor as a syno-
nym for intercourse. For example, Librarians do it with books, or Lawyers
do it in their briefs.

A malaprop (sometimes called a malapropism) is an unintentional misstate-
ment or misuse of a word or phrase, or an accidental substitution of an in-

correct word for a (similar) correct one—to humorous effect.

Humorists bless politicians who make their jobs easy by fracturing the En-
glish language, as did former Vice President Dan Quayle. His mala¬ props

include: If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure. What a waste
it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How
true that is. (A malaprop based on the United Negro College Fund slogan

A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste.)