A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
Interpretation
A pun is a form of humor that relies on wordplay, freeing itself from the constraints of more refined wit.
In this quote, Charles Lamb emphasizes the unique nature of puns as a type of humor that is spontaneous and unrestrained, contrasting them with more sophisticated forms of wit. He likens a pun to a sharp burst of noise, suggesting that it has a powerful impact, whereas more refined intellectual jokes are like a light tickle, requiring deeper thought and contemplation.
In practice
In a comedy club, using this quote can help set the audience's expectations for clever wordplay.
Thus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds.
As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see, So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee. As still to the star of its worship, though clouded, The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea, So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded, The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.
The most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is perhaps cowardice.
Oh, ever thus, from childhood's hour, I 've seen my fondest hopes decay; I never loved a tree or flower But 't was the first to fade away. I never nurs'd a dear gazelle, To glad me with its soft black eye, But when it came to know me well And love me, it was sure to die.
May my last breath be drawn through a pipe, and exhaled in a jest.
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
Nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness.
According to the rules of comedy, your suffering will be funny after an undetermined length of time. Maybe not while you're having your gangrenous leg sawed off, watching your home burn down or learning how to be intimate with your cellmate, but, in the big scheme of things, soon.
There may be a heaven, but if Joan Crawford is there, I'm not going.
This looks like a job for inadvisably applied magic if ever I saw one.
Any fool could be a witch with a runic knife, but it took skill to be one with an apple corer.
It's always good to take something that's happened in your life and make something of it comedically.
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