I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled editing and proposal writing (though I finally figured out how to fix my wonky margins... for now) to bring you a post about an obvious truth:
Journalists love puns. Even on the college level when we try to come up with headlines, the discussion almost always resorts to, "How about a clever pun?" I have seen many admirable examples of headline puns in newspapers, but the recent scandal involving the politician Anthony Weiner needs a post unto itself.
With a name like 'Weiner' the possibility for puns is simply too vast. Now, many newspapers have admirably stayed away from taking such juicy bait, but last night at the grocery store two papers caught my eye. One referred to 'sticking a fork' in Weiner because he's done, intentional or not, one could not help but think of the Oscar Mayer product when faced with this headline. Though it was not quite as good as the Huffington Post's headline "The Roasting of Weiner and the Public Good." Sounds like a community picnic.
Another paper on the stand referred to his 'rise and fall.' How can you print that without knowing the possible connotations? I'm sure everyone in the newsroom had a giggle over that one. That was the point where I rolled my eyes and walked away from the news stand.
Though I must admit that puns are no longer the lowest form of wit; 'your mom' jokes are.
No comments:
Post a Comment