--- title: Puns and jokes that need a pun — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Puns and jokes that need a pun», a lesson of the language course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A pun is a joke that uses a word or sound with two meanings at once, so your brain flips between them and the flip is what makes you laugh --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / Puns and jokes that need a pun # Puns and jokes that need a pun Lesson 28 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/0/) — A pun is a joke that uses a word or sound with two meanings at once, so your brain flips between them and the flip is what makes you laugh (or groan). - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/2/) — To get a pun, hunt for the word with two meanings or two words that sound alike: "seven eight nine" sounds like "seven ate nine". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/3/) — Puns hardly ever survive translation, because the two meanings live in one language's words; a translator has to invent a new pun instead. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/4/) — A pun that makes everyone groan has still worked; the groan is part of the fun, which is the whole secret of dad jokes. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/5/) — A pun is a joke using a word or phrase with two meanings, or two words that sound the same; a bad pun that makes people groan is called a groaner. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/6/) — "It grew on me" means "I started to like it", and in the beard joke it also means the hair literally grew. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/7/) — "Two tired" in the bicycle joke sounds like "too tired", and a bike has two tyres (spelled "tires" in America). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/8/) — "A fish with no eyes is a fsh": take away the i, which sounds like "eye", and "fish" becomes "fsh". - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/9/) — In "Time flies like an arrow", "flies" is what time does and "like" means "in the same way as"; in "Fruit flies like a banana", fruit flies are small insects and "like" means "enjoy". - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/10/) — In the knock-knock joke, "Lettuce in" sounds like "let us in". - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/11/) — Puns usually depend on sounds or double meanings in one language, so when translated the double meaning disappears. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/12/) — "Impossible to put down" usually means very exciting to read; in the anti-gravity joke it also means the book floats away. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/13/) — "Why was 6 afraid of 7? - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/14/) — Because seven eight nine" works because "eight" and "ate" are homophones. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/15/) — "De-brie" sounds like "debris", the broken bits left after something breaks; brie is a soft French cheese. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/16/) — A dad joke is a simple, corny pun, like "I'm afraid for the calendar, its days are numbered"; part of the fun is that it's so bad. - ← previous: [Homophones: words that sound the same](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/) - next →: [Sarcasm and tone of voice](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/29-sarcasm-and-tone-of-voice/) - ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/)