Learn English – What do you call a pun that isn’t a pun

puns

I've just learned of the event within the (UK) Labour Party known as the 'Chicken Coup' and it made me wonder: is it still a pun if it's a play on writing, and not the spoken word?

According to the Oxford Living Dictionaries, a pun is:

A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.

Neither of those criteria apply here, so the answer would seem to be 'No'.

My question is: if it's not a pun, what is it?

Best Answer

I think that, in that definition, "words which sound alike" means words that sound similar, and may or may not be homonyms.

Other dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary (i.e. the premium dictionary at OED.com) make this clearer:

The use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations, or of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous effect; a play on words.

Wikipedia also mentions something to the same effect:

Often, puns are not strictly homophonic, but play on words of similar, not identical, sound as in the example from the Pinky and the Brain cartoon film series: "I think so, Brain, but if we give peas a chance, won't the lima beans feel left out?" which plays with the similar—but not identical—sound of peas and peace in the anti-war slogan "Give Peace a Chance".

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