52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 14: Language

 This week, on 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, the blogging prompt is Language.

Puns!

Alfred Hitchcock, of all people, is credited with having observed that "Puns are the highest form of literature."  Mary Livingstone, wife of 20th century comedian Jack Benny, wrote an article in "Liberty" magazine in 1942 giving humorous instruction on how to live with a comedian.  Every family has one, at least, she observed.  She remarked that there is also always at least one in a family who thinks puns are the lowest form of humor because he (or she) didn't think of them first.

Puns have a history in my family.  My grand-uncle, Perry Wilmer Reed, came from a literate and intelligent family.  He was apparently fond of puns, because in the midst of writing a number of hymns and popular songs as a side-hustle, he penned this humorous ditty to the tune of "Silver Threads Among the Gold:"

I learned of puns from my mother, who grew up in Perry Reed's household as his adopted daughter.  In the early days of the internet, as a member of a Bulletin Board System (BBS) group called The Bardroom, I developed an international reputation as a punster.  I passed this on to our daughters.  One day, after my daughters and I had exchanged a mass of puns derived from movie titles or dialogue and song lyrics, my son-in-law Karl sighed, "In this family, everything is either a movie quote or a song cue."

"You're welcome," I answered.

Karl grimaced.  "Or a pun."  Like he should talk; he's no slouch in the pun department.  And, with both parents being able punsters, our grandson has the gene.  He made his first pun at the age of 5.

Alas, grandma was too busy laughing to think of writing it down.

 Puns are language, too.  People either relish them or abhor them, it seems.  Puns are a complex form of humor that requires the involvement of both hemispheres of the brain, according to "Your Pun-divided Attention," a short article in Scientific American magazine (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-pun-divided-attention-how-the-brain-processes-wordplay/).  This leads some to conclude that puns require higher intelligence, a conclusion disputed by others.  

What puns require, according to the Scientific American article, is a functioning, unimpaired right hemisphere, which is the area that processes the meanings of the word being used in the pun.  

Which only goes to show that in order to be a successful punster, you have to be in your right mind.