There are no puns in this headline

This column ran in advance of a public appearance that has now passed but it might still be on interest.

The pun, you’ve probably heard, is the lowest form of humor, the verbal equivalent of a Three Stooges eye-poke. Don’t tell that to Richard Lederer.

“Edgar Allen Poe, of all people … wrote of puns: ‘It has been said that those who dislike them are those who are least able to utter them.’” he responded when I mentioned the puns-are-dumb stereotype.

Lederer, a former teacher at St. Paul’s school in Concord and Monitor columnist who has built a career around celebration of all types of wordplay, argues that the groan-inducing pun is a high-level method communication system, “a compression of meaning in an effort to be funny.”

His example: “A good pun is like a good steak: a rare medium well done.” Is he talking about a piece of meat that can be ordered at one of three cooking levels or is he talking about an unusual form of an agency that has been accomplished skillfully? Or both at once? Think too hard about it and your brain will hurt.

I was one of those kids who loved them – my poor parents – but like most people I grew out of it. Talking with Lederer made me reconsider, although I promise co-workers that I won’t make them listen to the shaggy dog story about yeast in the manes of racing horses even though it’s hilarious.

I’ve come to the conclusion that puns are the verbal equivalent of optical illusions. By not following the usual rules they force us to realize that the rules exist, something that we normally overlook.

It’s the cognitive dissonance of trying to embrace dissimilar meanings at once that gives puns their punch, although it’s up to you whether the response is to laugh, roll your eyes, or run out of the room with your hands over your ears.

“They are one of the glories of language,” said Lederer. “Other creatures can communicate but we have a creative, generative language that changes over time and very rapidly.” Puns are a way to see that creativity in a new light.

I talked to the 86-year-old Lederer because he is returning (make that “returned”)to Concord Sept. 25 as part of the Walker Lecture Series.

Now a California resident, Lederer has a long history here. He got a Ph.D. in English and Linguistics from the University of New Hampshire and taught English and media at St. Paul’s School for 27 years starting in 1962. His St. Paul’s stint included coaching tennis and girls’ basketball – he was there in 1971 when the school went co-ed – and led him to start writing a column called “Looking at Language” that long-time Monitor readers will remember since it ran in this paper through the early 1990s.

Eventually, he went national, writing books including the “Anguished English” series and works like “Get Thee to a Punnery” that celebrate, enjoy and analyze puns, palindromes, anagrams, oxymorons and other types of wordplay as well as word origins and grammar. He is a founding co-host of “A Way with Words,” broadcast on public radio.

Lederer also writes about history, pets and other topics. His latest book, “American History for Everyone” is, he says, “one of the most inclusive and diverse American history books ever written.”

“They are many people you haven’t heard of woven in with the usual suspects – George Washington, Abraham Lincoln – showing the larger roles they play in the great American tapestry,” he said.

You can find out more at his website, Verbivore.com (an excellent word that Lederer made up).