2008 Woodie Awards
Rudolf the 'red knows rain dear'
John Brownlee
Issue date: 12/5/02 Section: Opinion
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It's the time of year, too, when advertisers flood us with puns. Things like, 'Have a Beary Merry Christmas' in ads for stuffed toys. I even saw "Dodge the missile-toe, Have Kelly's Cleaners over on Dec. 26." in the Colorado Springs Independent.
A pun is a play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words, i. e. missile-toe instead of mistletoe.
Puns are often the ends of jokes. Stop me if you've heard this one, but this guy goes into his dentist's office, because something is wrong with his mouth. After a brief examination, the dentist exclaims, "Holy Smoke!
That plate I installed in your mouth about six months ago has nearly completely corroded! What on earth have you been eating?" "Well... the only thing I can think of is this... my wife made me some asparagus about four months ago with this stuff on it... Hollandaise sauce she called it... and doctor, I'm talking' DELICIOUS! I've never tasted anything like it, and ever since then I've been putting it on everything... meat, fish, toast, vegetables... you name it!" "That's probably it," replied the dentist. "Hollandaise sauce is made with lemon juice, which is acidic and highly corrosive. It seems as though I'll have to install a new plate, but made out of chrome this time."
"Why chrome?" the man asked. "Well," the dentist replied, "Everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise!" See? The season is drowning in them. Which brings us to our word of the week.
in·un·date (In'un-dat'e) tr.v.
in·un·dat·ed, in·un·dat·ing, in·un·dates
To overwhelm as if with a flood; swamp, such as "The theater was inundated with requests for tickets"
So, if you feel like the puns, (or the relatives, or the food, or the whiny children in Wal-Mart) have overwhelmed you completely, the world could be said to be inundated with just a little too much Christmas.