The term ‘figure of speech’ belongs to language disciplines (linguistics, rhetoric, literature and related fields). It’s not owned by humor. Over the centuries many dozens have been identified. A small percentage of these can be used to create humor, although each instance is never automatically humorous.

Hyperbole generates exaggerated ATYPICAL deviations from normal, billions of times per second.

Portmanteau is a combination of two words, like forcing ‘giant’ and ‘enormous’ to become ‘ginormous’. Only some portmanteaus are sufficiently ATYPICAL to be seen as humorous.

Litotes, or understatement, makes a point by denying the opposite, like saying ‘not small’ to mean ‘large’. The humor potential for litotes is more ATYPICAL than SARCASTIC. Sarcasm, in contrast, would be saying ‘small’ to mean ‘large’.

Metaphor, when IRONIC, is as clear as a curtain and as sharp as a racquetball.

Oxymoron is an IRONIC combination of two contradictory terms. One of them is seriously funny.

Apophasis is bringing up a topic while claiming not to. I’m not even going to mention how this is generally IRONIC.

Paraprosdokian is a weird-looking name for a figure of speech, but as a humor construction device it’s fairly common. It describes cases in which words are re-interpreted. For a (non-funny) example, the sentence ‘The young man the wall.’ isn’t about a young man, it’s about a defensive wall manned by young people.

In this example, one set of words does have two meanings that clash. But since the initial impression (some unfinished statement about a young man and a wall) and the final interpretation (young people defending) are both highly unnatural, the resonance of both is weakened so much that almost all observers do not detect any humor.

When the interpretations resonate more strongly, paraprosdokian examples become humorous. “I haven’t slept for ten days, because that would be too long.” (Mitch Hedberg). The line from Airplane! discussed in Anatomy of a Humor Event is a paraprosdokian between two people:

Dr. Rumack: Can you fly this plane and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can’t be serious.
Dr. Rumack: I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.

Pun is a form of wordplay humor built around similar words or phrases with multiple supported meanings. “Don’t call me Shirley” is both a pun and a paraprosdokian (many humor examples fit comfortably into multiple categories). Puns count as a figure of speech, but one complex enough to get its own chapter in a book covering all humor.

Continue to the knottiest type of wordplay: the Pun

Return to the first major humor culture category Wordplay