{"id":20347,"date":"2014-12-10T05:31:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T10:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=20347"},"modified":"2014-12-09T19:31:27","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T00:31:27","slug":"pun-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/12\/pun-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Pun control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Chinese government is forbidding the use of puns in state-supported media.\u00a0 Alexandra Petri objects.\u00a0 (If you are one of those, like Chinese communists, who can\u2019t stand puns, do NOT read her punitive words after the jump.\u00a0 I invite you, though, to respond in kind in the comments.)<\/p>\n

From Alexandra Petri, Chinese media banning puns? End pun control! \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A loaded pun can be deadly.<\/p>\n

And now, in China, the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television is cracking down. \u201cRadio and television authorities at all levels must tighten up their regulations and crack down on the irregular and inaccurate use of the Chinese language, especially the misuse of idioms,\u201d it said in a press release.<\/p>\n

First a one-child policy, and now you can only make single entendres. This wisecrack-down must not stand.<\/p>\n

\n

The path of history is paved with terrible puns, both real and apocryphal. Jesus makes lots of them in the Bible, even though they made people a little cross with him. \u201cNow, you are fishermen,\u201d he told a disciple. \u201cBut I will make you fishers OF men.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot Angles, but angels! (Non angli, sed angeli),\u201d punned Pope Gregory I, hilariously, on seeing a native Angle for the first time.<\/p>\n

Puns can reinforce authority \u2013 \u201cThe peasants are revolting.\u201d \u201cYes, aren\u2019t they?\u201d \u2013 or undermine it, as they\u2019ve been doing in China lately, where, in a play on words, the benevolent era of \u201cDaddy Xi\u201d and \u201cMama Peng\u201d has been transformed into the homophone \u201cmarijuana era.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n

This is not just for me. It\u2019s on principle. Puns have groan so much. Without puns, language languishes. Life without puns is, like this sentence, a horrible sentence.<\/p>\n

I believe that puns should be available to everyone, unrestricted. We should start a Pun Rights association. Everyone deserves tickets to the pun show. Here in America, our right to carry puns with us to school and work and wave them around openly in Starbucks is protected by the first Amendment.<\/p>\n

We have to stand up to this. So don\u2019t be pun shy.<\/p>\n

Man the puns! Load your metaphors! Deploy your figures of speech! We must sink this censorship!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just pun and games.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chinese government is forbidding the use of puns in state-supported media.\u00a0 Alexandra Petri objects.\u00a0 (If you are one of those, like Chinese communists, who can\u2019t stand puns, do NOT read her punitive words after the jump.\u00a0 I invite you, though, to respond in kind in the comments.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,25],"tags":[426,2418],"class_list":["post-20347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-language","tag-china","tag-puns"],"yoast_head":"\nPun control<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Chinese government is forbidding the use of puns in state-supported media.\u00a0 Alexandra Petri objects.\u00a0 (If you are one of those, like Chinese\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/12\/pun-control\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pun control\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Chinese government is forbidding the use of puns in state-supported media.\u00a0 Alexandra Petri objects.\u00a0 (If you are one of those, like Chinese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/12\/pun-control\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-10T10:31:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-10T00:31:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/12\/pun-control\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/12\/pun-control\/\",\"name\":\"Pun control\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-10T10:31:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-10T00:31:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"The Chinese government is forbidding the use of puns in state-supported media.\u00a0 Alexandra Petri objects.\u00a0 (If you are one of those, like Chinese\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/12\/pun-control\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/12\/pun-control\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/12\/pun-control\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pun control\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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