Words are only as fun as we allow them to be.

It is estimated that the average native English speaker knows up to 35,000 words; that is a lot of different potential combinations to be used for humorous purposes. That is before we even consider that the Oxford English Dictionary has over 500,000 entries. Before we got ourselves tangled up with all of this newfangled brainrot, one of the most popular ways that people experienced humor was through puns and wordplay, and that isn’t going away just because the powers that be have decided that fewer of us should know how to read. There are pun appreciators everywhere, and the internet still reflects that. 

One of the best things about wordplay is that it has a lot of range. It can come in the form of an eye-roll-worthy dad joke, or it could be the vehicle for some surprisingly dark humor. Most of all, though, it takes pride in being silly in a way that relies on the audience understanding enough about language to get the joke. Honestly, it makes it a pretty good way for those who are learning to improve their English that is a lot less boring than simply memorizing vocabulary. Aside from that, though, it is also fun to marvel at all the ways that we can use language that twists the original meaning but still makes perfect sense. A word we may have never thought could ever be funny suddenly becomes the most obvious punchline with the right kind of setup.