Lucy Vickery

Pundemic

issue 01 September 2018

In Competition No. 3063 you were invited to submit a poem about puns containing puns.
 
Dryden regarded paronomasia as ‘the lowest and most grovelling kind of wit’; Samuel Johnson took an equally dim view. But this most derided form of humour produced a witty and accomplished entry that elicited only the occasional groan.
 
Robert Schechter’s four-liner — ‘Opun and shut’ — caught my eye:



As the punster’s puns
were reaching a crescendo,
I said, ‘Take your puns
and stick them innuendo!’


Also displaying considerable punache were Bill Greenwell, Basil Ransome-Davies, Sylvia Fairley, Michael Jameson and Joseph Houlihan. They narrowly lost out to the winners, printed below, who pocket £25 apiece. W.J. Webster snaffles the extra fiver.

‘No hurry,’ said the nurse, ‘more haste less peed.

Get Britain's best politics newsletters

Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in