85 Of The Spookiest Skeleton Puns

First of all, we asked Professor McInnis to share his thoughts on puns' popularity and elaborate on whether it's the play part or the it-makes-you-feel-smart part of puns that people find so alluring. And here's what he had to say. "I suppose some people might use puns to make themselves feel smarter, but I tend to think the joy of puns lies in the sharing of a journey or experience. The person who makes the pun anticipates how the other person will understand it in the first instance and enjoys watching the dawning realization of the double-meaning." 

He also added that "Yes, it's skillful -- to find two words that sound alike, but whose different meanings can both function intelligibly in the same sentence can be quite the achievement. But it's only a success if the listener gets the joke (hence it's a bonding exercise of sorts)." See, this explains everything - puns are so popular because they encircle many things that we, as humans, love. Shared experiences, laughter, and brain-teasers are the things that can instantly create a bond between people, so don't feel awkward if you ever feel the urge to blurt out a pun.

The next question that I asked has been keeping me awake at night for years, and to get an answer to it was like to itch an unreachable scratch. The thing that I so desperately wanted to know was why the lamer the pun, the funnier we find it. And thanks to Professor McInnis, I can now rest at night, knowing that "I'm a sucker for awful puns (I wonder, for example, what fool called it 'sparkling wine' instead of 'sham-pagne'). I think the worse the pun, the less risk of pretentiousness. But also, the worse the pun, the more it calls attention to the game being played -- we're seeing language being strained, almost breaking the rules, and to see the craft of communication being stretched is quite fun."

There's also another side to puns besides them being belly achingly funny, and Professor McInnis has kindly elaborated on that while also expanding our knowledge on the glorious works of Shakespeare. "There's a serious side to this too, I suppose: think of the opening scene of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, where two of the Capulets are making a series of just terrible puns about coal, colliers, choler, collars, etc. -- I don't think we're meant to find it funny; it's symptomatic of the breakdown of society, the failure of language and signification, and is thus an ominous foreshadowing of the civil strife that characterizes the play."

Lastly, I wanted to know whether Professor David McInnis had a favorite pun, to which he replied, "So many favorite puns to choose from... But rather than something funny, I think my favorite pun would have to be serious, and whose rhetorical effect is just a killer way to start a Shakespeare play: the opening lines of Richard III, spoken by Gloucester: 'Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York...' (where you get the metaphor of sunshine cutting through the winter cold and the 'son' of York transforming fortunes in war)." See, this means you can even use puns in your business emails without being snickered at! That is, if your writing expertise matches that of Shakespeare, I presume. 

Thank you, Prof. David McInnis, for talking to us and delivering this excellent information on puns. I know I've learned a lot of useful information and will continue to use puns with more background added. And now, scroll down below, and check out the rest of our bone-dry skeleton puns!