EPILOGUE

FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER WINNING THE O. HENRY PUN-OFF WORLD Championships, I returned to Austin for the 2010 contest—not as a competitor, but as an observer. In one tough bout between an Australian and a Scotsman, the topic was horses. After several laps around the track, the Aussie said it was hard to get apples out of a tree sometimes, which is why he invented the Appaloosa. At the end of the day, though, it was a night auditor from California who out-punned the rest to claim the gilded trophy of the quarter horse.

I loved this Darwinian pun-off for its sheer entertainment value, and all the more so because I wasn’t competing. But having spent the better part of the previous year researching puns, evolution, neuroscience, wordplay and the history of language, I also had a sense that I was witnessing something greater—the echo of a story that was far older and richer than I could ever fully grasp.

When I first set out to explore the provenance and meaning of puns, I had no idea that the hunt would prove so challenging or yield such fundamental insights about language, wordplay, creativity, and the development of modern civilization. And while I had always loved making puns, I took them, ironically, at face value. Not anymore. Now I finally understand why bears go barefoot, and to me the pun will never be the same again.