Double Meanings －ダブル・ミーニング－

1 - Why did a small European republic order a second helping of Christmas pudding?

Because it was Hungary. 

2 - Why does Santa always keep an umbrella in his sleigh? 

Because of all the rain, dear.

 

Those were two examples of the sort of puns you might find in a Christmas cracker.  A pun is a kind of joke which uses the fact that one sound or word can have two different meanings, or can be very similar to another word.  This gives the joke a double meaning. 

Since this is a blog for non-native speakers of English, I will spell out the double meanings in my simple puns.  “Hungary” sounds like “hungry” in the first one.  And “rain, dear” sounds like “reindeer” in the second. 

In Britain, we have a tradition of pulling crackers at Christmas with our families, which break apart with a little bang.  There is often a colourful paper party hat inside, and a Christmas themed pun.  They are not meant to be hilariously funny.  They are simple so that everyone in the family, including children and idiots can understand them. 

I read a news story today about an unfortunate and accidental pun which caused trouble in an Australian supermarket.  The supermarket wanted to encourage customers to eat ham instead of turkey or chicken for Christmas.  So they prepared a Christmas themed meal pack of ham, and wrote on the front, “Merry Ham-mas!” 

The Australian Jewish Association “politely suggested that it be removed from sale because of the unintentional likeness to Hamas, which is a proscribed terrorist group in Australia.”

 

Vocabulary:

to be proscribed – to be forbidden by law; to be illegal