Saalim Chowdhury presents an argument in favor of puns and "pun-trepreneurship". The document discusses how puns are a natural part of human communication and reflect the dual meanings inherent in language. It also argues that puns can be a sign of creativity, intellectual flexibility, and a willingness to amuse others. While puns have been dismissed by some as low-form humor, the document makes the case that many great thinkers, writers and founders have engaged in the "bisociation" involved in punning.

1. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
An Introduction to
Pun-trapreneurship
Saalim Chowdhury (@hellochowders)
Chief Pun Officer 🇬🇧
“All men who possess at once
active fancy, imagination, and
a philosophical spirit, are
prone to punning”
Samuel Coleridge, Poet

2. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Puns are often involuntary
• Your friend mentions not being a fan of cats, and a connection
forms in your brain.
• Before you can stop yourself, the words have left your lips: You
must be kitten.
• You’re date says they are vegetarian and no longer wearing
leather – and you start thinking about meat…
• Out comes: “Are you sure you opinion can’t be suede?”

3. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Yeah, that’s
AWFUL.
You SUCK.
Saalim, that’s
funny, well
almost.

4. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders

5. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
You did actually like puns. Once.
• We loved them as kids, but
then some shittier person
(who probably couldn’t come
up with a pun quickly
enough) and said…
“Sorry, no pun intended.”

6. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
“Punning is the lowest form of wit”
Samuel Johnson, author of the
1755 Dictionary of the English Language
It took him nine years to nail 42,000
slippery definitions to the page
“Puns are threatening because
puns reveal the arbitrariness of
meaning, and the layers of
nuance that can be packed onto
a single word”
“To trifle with the vocabulary
which is the vehicle of social
intercourse is to tamper with
the currency of human
intelligence”

7. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Why people dislike puns.
• “So people who dislike puns tend to be
people who seek a level of control that
doesn’t exist.
• If you have an approach to the world that
is rules-based, driven by hierarchy and
threatened by irreverence, then you’re not
going to like puns.”
• “for most of Western history, puns were a
sign of high intellect. They were a tool,
and they remain a tool, to pack more
meaning into fewer words.” Pollack
Are we really afraid of the power of the pun?

8. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders

9. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Puns are two sided
• Fast means “to move quickly” (she
can run fast) as well as “to be
immobile” (she was stuck fast).
• Both meanings of cleave cohere: “to
split” (the paddle cleaves the water
with every stroke) and “to cling”
(we cleave to hope even when all
hope is gone).
• Off conveys both activity and
idleness: when the alarm went off, I
realized I had forgotten to turn
it off.
Simple words can sound the same but have
equal and often opposite meanings.

10. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Puns are a reflection of life
• Alexander Pope said of puns—they
speak “twice as much by being
split”—is true of language as a
whole, too.
• Everything does double duty. Doors
offer exits and entrances; tears
come from comedy and tragedy.
Language is equivocal, two faced, duplicitous.

11. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Shakespeare, was a punster.
Mercuito in Romeo and Juliet
“Ask for me tomorrow,. and
you shall find me a grave
man.”
Grave, as in about to die
Grave, as in serious situation
Adds lightness and depth, to be more memorable and considered

12. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Pundamentals of creative thinking
• Arthur Koestler “The Act of Creation” in
1964”
• Bisociation is central to creative thought,
Koestler believed, because
“the conscious and unconscious processes
underlying creativity are essentially
combinatorial activities—the bringing
together of previously separate areas of
knowledge and experience.”
Are puns brain exercises for intellectual elasticity?

13. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Bisociation
• A pun, or indeed any instance of
wit, “compels us to perceive the
situation in two self-consistent
but incompatible frames of
reference at the same time,”
• He described the pun as “two
strings of thought tied together
by an acoustic knot,” as among
the most powerful proofs of
“bisociation,”
Discovering similarity in the dissimilar that he
suspected was the foundation for all creativity

14. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Puns are for people who think
differently.
Isaac Newton was
bisociating when, as he
sat in contemplative mood
in Cambridge
Paul Cézanne was
bisociating when he
depicted his astonishing
apples
Many great founders have
a strong track record of
bisociating.
Bisociation = a sign for entrepreneurs or those who think different?

15. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Puns are signs that you care.
• You make a pun, to in general,
make some one laugh and hence
smile.
• It’s great for people who detest
traditional small talk.
• A laugh shared is more memorable
than a rigorous conversation
• No one remembers what you say,
everyone remembers how you made
them feel,
• Even if it falls flat, it’s a sign of
humility; you are willing to be
laughed at!
The dirty secret of puns is that people like them when they’re terrible as much
as they do when they’re great.

16. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Shamelessly borrowed from
• https://medium.com/@olivershiny/in-defense-of-puns-591260b0329e
• https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/11/15/in-defense-of-puns/
• https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/why-do-puns-
make-people-groan/398252/
• https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a15872842/in-defense-of-
puns/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtlm9sJFVEk
• Away With Words: An Irreverent Tour Through the World of Pun
Competitions.
• https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/05/20/arthur-koestler-creativity-
bisociation/

17. Saalim Chowdhury @hellochowders
Have Fun. Thank you!
@hellochowders
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