MAD LIBS HUMOR

How To Come Up With Cheeky Puns

Chase them around in your head

Disclaimer: This story is intended to be random and humorous. It is published in Fill in the Blanks publication, inspired by the classic game, Mad Libs. Blank words contributed by Ashley Seaman, Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她), Shain Slepian, Elan Cassandra, Christopher Kokoski, Damon Ferrara, Shenbaga Lakshmi, Cara J. Stevens, Mari Moore, Deborah Weir, Victoria A. Fraser, Amanda Clark-Rudolph, Kayla Vokolek, Yve Laran, and Giulia.

Note: The filled-in words are in bold.

My daughter asked me how I came up with such cheeky puns.

“With a little bit of practice, you can do it, too,” I told her. “Give me a subject and I’ll show you.”

“Tinder matches!” she said, sneakily.

“How do you know about Tinder Matches?”

“YouTube.”

I nodded. “Well, the first thing I do is twist the word in my head. I repeat it at least 48 times. And I associate it with other words.”

“What’s associate mean?” she asked.

“It’s like a connection of panoplied linkage between two things. For instance. Did you know that Tinder matches can be another word for losers?”

She shook her head, no.

“That’s right. So a good pun might be this. We saw a group of Tinder Matches dazzle a bunch of losers.

“That’s not very funny,” she remarked.

“No. But it is cheeky.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Minutes later I heard her ask her mom how to come up with a cheeky pun.

Maybe my daughter looks at me crustily now. I still know a good pun when I come up with it.

Here’s how you can create your own as well.

Repeat the things you hear and read in your head.

Chase them around in your head, finding adorable ways of saying them. Think of rhymes, or similar sounding words, or words with the same sound but different meanings.

Also, consider different words that have similar or otherwise knavish meanings.

Eventually, with practice, you’ll find puns that work.

Example 1:

Someone asks if you how much coffee you want.

Your thought process might be ‘Coffee.’ ‘Smooth jazz.’ ‘Toffee.’ ‘Cough.’ ‘Coughing.’ Hmm. Nothing there. ‘Cappuccino.’ ‘Java.’ ‘Latte.’ Bingo. And you tell your joke.

To the observer it looks like this:

“How much coffee would you like?”

“A latte.”

Is that funny? I’d like to think so. It’s also a tad cliché. Can we keep it funny and also make it cheeky?

“How much coffee would you like?”

“A latte. And I want it sweetly.”

Now THAT is cheeky.

Want some more punny examples using countries?

• You could joke about how the Scots dress but that’s a good way to get kilt.
• What did Rihanna call her Canadian cat? Chloe. What did Chloe call Rihanna? Umbrella.
• If you told me you’re from South America, I wouldn’t Bolivia.
• What’s the difference between Bitcoin and Quy Ma? How many times you have to toss them to Mexico.
• Don’t toss me with that. Korean currency rubs me the Won way.
• Don’t get me started on sexy Russian dolls. They’re so full of themselves.
• Did you hear the one about the Australian executives? They all wore garter belts down under.
• I’m not French, but I do kiss that way.

You can cook puns this way any time you want. Be sure to share the ones you come up with.

These will be the most cheeky puns you’ve ever come up with. And if you don’t believe me, I’ll calibrate the puns for you.

Scott Hughey is a master punster.

Here’s another of his silly Fill in the Blanks stories.

Interested in writing a Fill in the Blanks story of your own?