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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,851 Likes: 2 |
The classic SDS relies on inordinate length, culminating in an atrocious inversion of initial letters (which AIN'T a pun!) - like the "Basques in one exit" story (in its many variations.)
My impression of a Shaggy Dog Story is different. It comes from the paradigm tale of a man who lost his dog - it was a very shaggy dog - and has promised a BIG reward, and the story chronicles the adventures of a man trying to find and retrieve this very very shaggy dog and claim the reward. It involves harrowing experiences, narrow escapes, near misses, anything you like to make the story longer, and then when the storyteller finally takes pity on the audience and brings the story to an end, Our Hero brings this enormously shaggy dog back to the man who offered the reward in the first place (this homeward journey with dog in tow can be another adventure in itself), and the owner says..."Oh, no, that's not my dog, my dog wasn't THAT shaggy!"
So a Shaggy Dog Story is any long convoluted story that ends in a major anticlimax. Sometimes it's an utter urrelevancy. Puns are nice but only incidental. The details of the saga are unimportant to being called an SDS, though they certainly add sparkle to the tale, but it's more the length and complexity, and then the letdown.
Selected punchlines include
--the extended search for the famous "Tiz" bottle that ends with a row of bottles that when gently struck sound out the notes "Mike on Tree Tiz..." (to the notes C, C, D, B...)
--the long-lost coat, sought and finally found by an anthropomorphized moth, that turns out to be synthetic, the final line being "Did you ever see a moth bawl?"
to name just two.
I'm confident you know others!
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
"Basques in one exit" ain't a pun?! But 'tis, ennit? A calembour by any other name is still paronomasiac no matter what. Shakes head: I've heard many a shaggy dog story that had a punning punchline. (Wanders off muttering ...)
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,851 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,851 Likes: 2 |
There is an Official Name for that kind of wordplay involving inversion of letters or sounds from a common phrase: Puzzlewonks call it "Chiasmus."
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428 |
Because there is a b in both and an n in neither.
you forgot "and each begins with e".
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Where the sun's rays meet.
TEd
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Where the sun's rays meet.That's not what I meant.  I was referring to your apostrophized plural in: "where the son's raise meat." 
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
>>>Am I correct in assuming that you reserve the term pun for those bon mots that use alternative spellings of words with the same pronunciation to invoke a groan from the audience?Gotta tell you folks, Puns, SDS, word switcheroos...they ALL make us groan. We just shake our heads, mime "cuckoo-puffs" to one-another while pointing this way, and carry on as if nothing ever happened. 
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 89
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 89 |
I got it! "Whats a mouse when it spins" is a anagram. But what does it mean? Follow the deciphering... What's a mouse when it spins rearrangingly becomes...A tsuwm's a hoe when it spins rearrangingly becomes..."a tsuwm's a hoe" ain't hip news This is strange because a tsuwm is not a hoe. Everyone knows that a tsuwm's a rake. 
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Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 1
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 1 |
I recall this from a children's book In and Out of Doors by Susan, Charlotte, Christopher, Amabel & Clough Williams-Ellis.
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Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 47
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 47 |
An Con-Man decided to try something new. He opened a medical clinic and put a sign up outside: "Get your treatment for $500, if not treated get back $1,000."
One Doctor thought this was a good opportunity to earn $1,000 and went to his clinic.
Doctor: "I have lost taste in my mouth."
Con-Man: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth."
Doctor: "This is gasoline!"
Con-Man: "Congratulations! You've got your taste back. That will be $500."
The Doctor gets annoyed and goes back after a couple of days later to recover his money.
Doctor: "I have lost my memory, I cannot remember anything."
Con-Man: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth."
Doctor: "But that is Gasoline!" That's what you gave me last time!
Con-Man: "Congratulations! You've got your memory back. That will be $500."
The Doctor leaves angrily and comes back after several more days.
Doctor: "My eyesight has become weak."
Con-Man: "Well, I don't have any medicine for this. Take this $1,000."
Doctor: "But this is $500..."
Con-Man: "Congratulations! You got your vision back! That will be $500."
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