Visual puns
May 29, 2010 10:11 PM   Subscribe

Visual puns combine two or more symbols (picture and/or text) to form a new meaning. The viewer must mentally elaborate on the visual stimulus to interpret the message. There are lots of examples, some good, some goofy, some bad.
posted by twoleftfeet (32 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is pun!
posted by iamkimiam at 10:16 PM on May 29, 2010


I liked the ones linked as "good." But the one with spam smeared along the side of the computer. What is that supposed to be?
posted by jeremy b at 10:35 PM on May 29, 2010


This is Cruel and Unusual Pun-ishment.

The Huge Manatee is old enough to be either an Internet Classic or Internet Cliché. Or both.

Interesting how many made one site's BEST list and another's WORST list. But then HuffPo never claimed to have a healthy sense of humor...

I have half a mind to post a bunch more of my favorites, but I'm too busy looking for the other half of my mind.

(I think it's just 'computer spam', jeremy b; they all can't be good...)
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:39 PM on May 29, 2010


Related to the "Walken" one: Wok, Rock and Simply Silly...
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:46 PM on May 29, 2010


I LOL'd at Putin on a Ritz. So much for maturity.
posted by fusinski at 10:49 PM on May 29, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, the HUGE MANATEE is good, goofy, and bad. It's exzeppelinary.
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:49 PM on May 29, 2010 [3 favorites]


Lost spoiler alert!
posted by champthom at 10:50 PM on May 29, 2010 [1 favorite]


As you can tell by the 'watermark', many of them were lifted from Worth1000 contests... fortunately, it doesn't take much googling to find the original source: One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Bonus Rounds!
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:58 PM on May 29, 2010 [2 favorites]


(I think it's just 'computer spam', jeremy b; they all can't be good...)

It was part of the ones linked as "good", so in this case I expect no less. ;)
posted by jeremy b at 11:19 PM on May 29, 2010


What about visual portmanteau? This seems a good a time as any to bring out my latter-day masterpiece: Jurassic Parkour
inspiration from Boo-Radley via twitter. Color by Guinness. Do you know how hard it is to draw a T-rex running up a wall?!
posted by hellojed at 11:37 PM on May 29, 2010


"Oh, the huge manatee!" and "Now is the winter of our discount tent" are probably some of the best images the Internet has created ever, for my money.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:37 PM on May 29, 2010


"Non-Stick Plans" (the second link) has a treasure trove of visual puns and other artistic/cartoony delights, by the blogger and many others. He even has some postcards even older than the ones from the recent "Bad Postcards" post...
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:44 PM on May 29, 2010




I LIKE PUNS
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 11:54 PM on May 29, 2010


A lot of those weren't very obvious. Some sort of captions would've helped.
posted by cmgonzalez at 12:14 AM on May 30, 2010


"Putin on the Ritz"...

By the laws of my tribe I must now find the creator of this image and destroy them.

My tribe has some weird laws.
posted by Grimgrin at 12:17 AM on May 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


The UK had a longrunning TV show called Catchphrase where two contestants would compete to solve visual puns. Sometimes it was quite funny.
posted by MuffinMan at 12:24 AM on May 30, 2010


cmgonzalez: "A lot of those weren't very obvious. Some sort of captions would've helped."

I agree. The ones under the 'goofy' link have captions, and I found them much more enjoyable that way.
posted by Gordafarin at 12:38 AM on May 30, 2010


I wanted to enjoy them – really I did – but these things seem to fill me with a blinding, incoherent rage.
posted by koeselitz at 1:09 AM on May 30, 2010


I don't understand the huge manatee one. Also, I thought it was a walrus and an oilspill... somehow related to BP.
posted by Netzapper at 1:50 AM on May 30, 2010


Oh, wait, I just got it. Not funny.
posted by Netzapper at 1:51 AM on May 30, 2010


IT'S GOOD BUT ITS NOT RIGHT
posted by Damienmce at 1:55 AM on May 30, 2010


The bread slippers seen in the good links, which as already pointed out is mainly stuff ripped from Worth1000, aren't a photoshop image, they're for sale at dadadastudio and created by R&E Praspaliauskas. Shame these compilations so often never link to source (probably because they don't know the source).
posted by dabitch at 3:10 AM on May 30, 2010


okay... but the "bread shoes" are really "loafers," right? Because the place that's selling them is selling them simply as Bread Shoes, which sort of surprises me. Maybe they weren't the first to come up with the idea, I'm thinking. o_0

Aaaaanyway. Putin on the Ritz. DAMMIT. I did not get that. I was all like, Ritz Putin = Rasputin????? Yeah, I thought it was "Rasputin." D'oh.
posted by taz at 3:54 AM on May 30, 2010


I believe that was a spam filter, Jeremy B.
posted by kyrademon at 4:13 AM on May 30, 2010


Also, can y'all help me out on this one? (also here) I thought maybe it was possibly "Raisin(g) Arizona" since the caption is "Are You Mad at Me for Some Raisin?" (referring to the AZ immigration enforcement law, maybe??)... but that's quite a ridiculous stretch.

Tell me!!
posted by taz at 4:14 AM on May 30, 2010


I like Russell Weekes' visual un-puns, i.e. fig 1, fig 2, pain, pie chat (mp4 video), greatest hits (mp4 video).
posted by progosk at 5:13 AM on May 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yep taz, they're loafers. They never call them that though, which makes it even funnier. Designers aye? Nutty.
posted by dabitch at 5:47 AM on May 30, 2010


Also, can y'all help me out on this one? (also here) I thought maybe it was possibly "Raisin(g) Arizona" since the caption is "Are You Mad at Me for Some Raisin?"

Unfortunately, Taz, that is it: "Are you made at me for some raisin" is the punny answer (in this case very punny) just like the "These boots were made for Walken" and "Become a fan" entries.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:10 AM on May 30, 2010


aaah. Tx, SLoG! :)
posted by taz at 8:48 AM on May 30, 2010


After seeing Dr. Pepper, I searched for something for TV's Current Favorite Doctor with a Visual Punnable Name and all I found was this.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:04 PM on May 30, 2010


The Spam one might be something about word processing (processed meat)... not jumping out to me as a known phrase, though.
posted by ecsh at 6:56 PM on May 30, 2010


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