Pinterest Trend: Pointless, Pathetic Puns

Before I begin my official rant, I would like to say that I really do love puns.  In conversation, they are hilarious, and I love when I find someone who enjoys them as much as I.  Recently at a dinner party, a guy was scooping up some corn and remarked that now his jokes would be cornier than ever, to which I replied, "Oh good, I'm all ears!"  I love puns and attempt to utilize them as much as is appropriate in my everyday conversation, but this trend on Pinterest is going too far.

Have you seen these?

These aren't just terrible puns.  These are stretching the definition of pun so far that it's now in physical therapy with a bad back.  And the ones that have reasonable puns are gifts you probably wouldn't give to someone!

And there are numerous blogs with huge lists of them.  Are they all completely awful?  No.  But way too many of them are!  And the unnecessary quotation marks, bold or italic fonts, bright colors, or enlarged text to emphasize the pun?  Just in case your recipient is too stupid to get the pun?  If they're really that dumb, maybe you should just give them a plate of "smart" cookies and be done with it.  (See what I did there?)

And what happened to the days when we really could just bring over a pun-free gift of homemade cookies to our neighbors and have it be considered a top-notch gift?  There's nothing wrong with a lot of the gift ideas (although carrots?  really?), but there's something so unnecessary about the printable, mass puns that makes them very unfunny.  

However, since "twiz" the season, I better "wash" Santa doesn't "chex" his list twice and put me on the naughty list.  Maybe I'll give my neighbors a bunch of grapes, in the hope that they'll have a "grape" holiday.  I don't know if I could "chews" a better way to be an encourage-"mint" to my "24 carrot" friends and neighbors.  I better just embrace these "cheese-y" puns and "nip" my cynicism in the bud.

(Seriously, have you ever read through those lists?  They're horrible.)

Love and Hope (or do I mean "soap"?),

Leah Joy

P.S.  I'm happy to report that my neighbors still appreciate pun-free baked goods!