English Puns

Hello, everyone. My name is Robin. 

And in this video we are  going to talk about ‘puns’. 

Okay. Now puns are very difficult to understand. 

Very difficult to hear. And very difficult to use. 

So this video is an advanced video  and I don't expect my students to  

start making their own puns very soon. So this video is more for fun just to understand  

a little bit of English word play. Now, what is a pun? 

Well, a ‘pun’ is kind of a word used in a joke. And the word has two meanings. 

Okay. So to help you,  

we're just going to jump into an example. And I have a very simple example here. 

‘Korea has Soul’ This is a pun. 

The word that is a pun is soul because  soul has two meanings of course. 

Now, when I say Korea has soul, this is s o u l. 

That soul means, Korea has  some spirit or some energy. 

But of course it has another meaning. Because, soul, the spelling is different  

but the sound is the same. Seoul is a city in Korea. 

So when we say ‘Korea has soul’, it's kind of  a joke because the ‘soul’ has two meanings. 

Okay. Now pun jokes are kind of not really haha funny. 

Usually when someone says a pun  joke, everyone is kind of quiet. 

And maybe we hear crickets. So if I said ‘Korea has soul’,  

maybe everyone's oh yeah. Okay. All right. 

So let's take a look at a couple other  examples of pun jokes to help you understand. 

I have two more examples here to  help you understand the pun jokes. 

Okay. The jokes, they use a pun. 

Again, they're not really haha funny. You just kind of okay. 

So the next one here. ‘My bicycle fell… my  

bicycle fell because it's two-tired.’ ‘My bicycle fell because it's two-tired.’ 

All right. So the blue word, that's the pun. 

And again, a pun has two meanings. So why is this funny? or not? 

So funny, too tired. Alright. 

So again, two meanings. The first meaning, my bicycle has ‘two tires’. 

Okay. The front tire and the back tire. 

So has only two tires. So it fell. 

But there's also a second meaning. It's ‘two tired’ sounds like t-o-o, very tired. 

So a bicycle fell because it's very tired. Alright. 

So ‘two tired’ sounds like ‘too tired’. And too tired, very tired. 

Alright. So that's what makes the pun funny. 

There's two meanings. The next one - 

‘I used to be a banker but I lost interest.’ ‘I used to be a banker but I lost interest.’ 

Okay. This is the pun. 

This word has two meanings. The first meaning is ‘interest’ - I'm interested. 

Okay. So he lost interest. 

He's no longer interested in banking. So he's not a banker anymore. 

That's one meaning. A second meaning is  

‘interest’ is actually a bank term bank. Vocabulary when you put money in the bank. 

Okay. Every year the bank will give you interest. 

For example, six percent or 4 percent. They give you interest every year. 

So he's not a banker anymore  because he lost interest. 

Which would mean he lost money. All right. 

So this is funny. ‘I used to be a bank but I lost interest’ 

Because ‘interest’ is a pun. It has two meanings. 

First meaning, he's not interested  in the banking business anymore. 

And the second meaning, he lost some money. Okay. 

All right, let's move on to one last one. All right, the last joke. 

I'm going to show you actually has two puns. And you can decide if it's funny or not. 

All right, here's the joke. So there's a question and answer. 

The question, ‘How do celebrities stay cool?’ ‘How do celebrities stay cool?’ 

Of course, celebrities are  famous people, stars, talents. 

‘How do celebrities stay cool?’ ‘They have many fans.’ 

Okay that's the joke. And as I said, there's actually two puns. 

So the question, ‘How do celebrities stay cool?’ Okay. 

So cool has two meanings. The first meaning is cool, cold. 

Okay. Not hot not warm. So how do they stay cold? 

The second meaning is, cool, you know  wearing sunglasses, they're cool. 

All right. Very good. Very cool. So the two meanings of cool. 

They have many fans of course. There's the pun. 

And the pun has two meanings. The first meaning is fan. 

When you're hot, you have the machine blowing air. That's the fan. 

And of course, the other meaning, the second  meaning of fan is, when you're very famous  

and popular people like you, they're your fans. They're screaming and they want your signature,  

your autograph. Those are fans. 

Okay. So, ‘How do a celebrity stay cool?’ 

‘They have many fans.’ All right. 

So this is funny because we can  recognize there's two meanings here. 

So you could read this the first way, ‘How do celebrities stay cool (not hot)?’ 

‘They have many fans,’  machines blowing to stay cool. 

Or ‘How do celebrity stay cool?’ ‘They have many fans,’ people screaming. 

All right. Funny? 

Okay, yeah, well, these are pun jokes. Some people like them - very advanced English. 

Okay because you have to know, you have to have  a very good vocabulary, you have to know the word  

and it's two meanings to understand the joke. All right. That's it. 

I hope you enjoyed the puns video. And I hope you can maybe create your  

own pun one day. Or understand it  

when someone tells you a pun joke. That's it and I'll see you next time.