Day 531: Freud's theory of puns

[eve_prime]

A couple of years ago, I bought J. a book, as a gift, that included Freud's theory of puns. Neither of us has read it, but today in Berlyne I came across the essence of the theory. Here's why Freud thinks we enjoy puns.

1. As children, we notice homonyms a lot more than we do as adults; adults have learned to make ongoing effort not to think in terms of homonyms. When we encounter a pun, we briefly don't have to do that work.
   
2. With puns, we get the pleasure of encountering something familiar when we are expecting to encounter something new.
   
3. Since puns are often absurd nonsense, they allow us briefly to "withdraw from the pressure of critical reason."

Berlyne uses the same logic elsewhere, and I don't doubt that it may work elsewhere, but I sure don't think it works with puns.

J. loves to make puns. I probably don't appreciate them as much as he'd like me to. Here, however, are two of my favorite puns: the title of an episode in the Gourmet Detective series, and a certain long story with a punchline.