Visual Pun: Difference between revisions

{{trope|wppage=Visual pun}}

[[File:combthedesert 9573.jpg|link=Spaceballs|frame|"We were told to comb the desert, [[Exact Words|so we're combing it]]!"]]

 

When a phrase which is usually used as a metaphor is instead done, and shown as being performed literally. This can be because [[The Ditz]] didn't understand the statement, or can just be a simple gag. Often considered one of those "old-fashioned" forms of comedy, so its use nowadays rarely does little more than "produce some smiles." Occasionally this action can be performed literally but without much fanfare, implying what's going on. Can often be combined with a [[Literal Genie]].

Common versions include requests to "give me a hand" being met with disembodied hands and quotes of Marc Antony "lend me your ears"... well, [[Having a Heart|use your imagination]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* Used in combination with [[Gratuitous English]] in a Blu-Ray commercial starring ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]'''s Momotaros, who refers to it as "Blu-Ray Disc". Cue a bunch of Blu-Ray boxes disco-dancing.

* Axe's recent '''[[Beyond the Impossible|Clean]] [[Crosses the Line Twice|Your]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20131004214509/http://info.break.com/static/live/v1/pages/sponsors/axe-cyb/axe-cyb.html Balls]''' campaign.

* The logo for the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant features a buffalo with wings.

* An advertisement for a phone company had two girls promise a lap dance to two guys for Christmas (complete with a [[Something Else Also Rises]] [[Reaction Shot]]). Cut to the girls dancing a traditional Finnish dance and saying [[Don't Explain the Joke|"This is how they dance in Lapland."]]

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In episode 13 of [[Guilty Crown]], you see Ayase reaching for a shoe on the floor. It becomes significantly funnier when you remember that the main character's name is Shu.

 

* The ''[[Where's Waldo]]'' books have plenty of Visual Puns, which are spelled out in the checklists at the end of each book.

* [[Paul Jennings]], Ted Greenwood and Terry Denton produced a series of ''Where's Wally'' type books called ''Spooner or Later'', ''Duck for Cover'' and ''Freeze a Crowd''. All of them, especially in ''Duck for Cover'', ran on visual puns. The worst offender is the three-page spread involving gnus, with each one involving a "new" or "news" pun.

* ''[[Zenith]]'' Phase II sees a henchman, observing the main character, commenting "Strange...he has his mother's eyes." The [[Big Bad]] comments wryly, "Really?...I thought that WE did." Cue shot of a glass jar, with...well, guess what suspended in it.

* In the [[Anthology Comic]] ''[[The Beano]]'' in a Fatty Fudge strip (For a few dollops more) some outlaw cowboys say "we've got prices on our heads" whilst literrally having some prices drawn onto their heads (well hats).

* Moose Mason of ''[[Archie Comics]]'' is a gold mine for these gags. Here are a few:

** Girlfriend Midge is away on vacation, and Moose is depressed because she hasn't written to him yet? Archie tells Moose to make Midge jealous by sending her a picture of him surrounded by chicks. When Midge sees the picture, it's Moose surrounded by...[[Everything's Better with Chickens|baby chicks]].

** When his car was elected for carpool to take to the beach, Moose turns his car ''into'' a pool (by filling it up with water).

 

* ''[[AMV Hell]] 3'' has a "[[Unreal Tournament|MULTI KILL!]]"... only it's not three players being fragged in quick succession as per ''[[Unreal Tournament]]'' but rather Multi from ''[[To Heart]]'' killing.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In his opening narration for ''[[Love and Death]]'', [[Woody Allen]]'s character mentions the "valuable piece of land" owned by his father. We see an old man pulling out a hunk of sod from inside his coat.

{{quote|"This land is not for sale! Someday, I hope to build on it."}}

* In ''[[The Great Dictator]]'', the emblem of [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|Adenoid Hynkel and his followers]] is the Double Cross. [[Hilarious in Hindsight]], given the even more blatant backstab a year later: Barbarossa.

* French film ''Coco'' is entirely made of gags performed by its main actor (a humorist in life), but there's one glaring instance of a visual pun: Coco's teenage son wants to show his firend the house's "porcherie" (pigsty). Viewers start wondering why a jewish man would keep swine in his house, until we see that it was actually a ''porscherie'' (a room chock-full of Porsche cars!)

* In the final segment in the anthology horror-comedy ''Chillerama'', a man gets kicked so hard, he shits. So yes, he had the shit kicked out of him.

 

* When the Watch are arresting a villain in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld|Guards! Guards!]]'', Vimes tells Carrot to "[[Throw the Book At Them|throw the book at him]]". Carrot, who [[Literal-Minded|doesn't understand metaphor]], lobs ''The Laws and Ordinances of Ankh-Morpork'' in the villain's direction, causing the villain to {{spoiler|lose his balance and fall five stories to his death.}}

* The ''[[Amelia Bedelia]]'' series of illustrated children's books lives and breathes this trope; the titular maid is [[Literal-Minded]], so every request made of her invariably results in an end product constituting a visual pun on the desired result.

* ''How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers'' by Robert Williams Wood (<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&query=668 here] and [http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/How_to_Tell_the_Birds_from_the_Flowers/ here], in different editions</ref>) is [[Hurricane of Puns|composed almost entirely]] of plain puns "illustrated" by visual ones.

* In ''[[X Wing Series|Wedge's Gamble]]'', there's a bar on the lower levels of Coruscant called the Headquarters. Its marquee features a stormtrooper's helmet being torn into four pieces.

 

* [[Wayne and Shuster]] used the "lend me your ears" gag decades before [[Robin Hood: Men in Tights|Mel Brooks]] did, in their famous 'Rinse the Blood Off My Toga' sketch.

{{quote|"I said 'Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears!'"

* [[Merv Griffin]] Enterprises (''The Merv Griffin Show'', ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'', ''[[Jeopardy!]]'') used a [[wikipedia:File:Mge84.JPG|griffin]] in the logo.

* In a chapter of ''[[Castle]]'', Beckett and Castle have to go to a male striptease in order to arrest a suspect of the killing of a male stripper. The show at the moment is of strippers dressed as firemen, and one of them is the suspect. Beckett tells the suspect to "cool off", but he doesn't listen, and all the strippers surround Beckett. Then Castle appears with a fire extinguisher and cools them down enough for her.

* In ''[[Sherlock]]'', Watson at one point refers to {{spoiler|Mycroft's}} "bloody stupid power complex," immediately followed by a shot of the Battersea Power Station.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' made occasional use of this trope. One example was the animated link "One Dozen Communist Revolutions."

 

* Many album covers are built around visual puns based on their titles. For example, the cover of ''Moving Pictures'', an album by Canadian rock band [[Rush]], features up to three different puns: a group of men carrying paintings from a museum, as in ''moving'' the ''pictures'', a group of women crying at the sight of the paintings, being ''moved'' by said ''pictures'', and a person filming the whole thing, making a ''moving picture''.

** The cover image of ''Permanent Waves'' by Rush also has visual puns related to the title. There is a wave of water, the man is waving his hand, and the fabric of the woman's clothing is waving in the wind; all of these "waves" are permanent because it's a photograph. Also, "permanent wave" is the name for the woman's hairstyle.

* [[Brad Paisley]] plays a guitar with a paisley pattern on it.

* The cover of REO Speedwagon's "You Can Tune A Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish" shows a fish with a tuning fork in its mouth.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* A ''[[Far Side]]'' strip shows a couple driving around with a map of Nowhere, approaching a sign that reads "Now Entering The Middle."

 

** Look at the illustration for Bronze Calendar. {{spoiler|It's a bronze ''colander''.}}

 

* ''[[Spamalot]]'' has one during [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fstHSW9_zMs this musical number] at around 4:31.

** What's the... oh, [[Don't Explain the Joke|"Hay"]]. Duh.

* ''The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)'' includes Pontius Pilot and the Axe of the Apostles.

 

* ''[[Muppet*Vision 3D]]'' had Waldo, the new 3D Muppet, allowing his nose to jump off his face, grow legs, and start dashing in circles. "Don't cha just hate it when your nose runs?"

* ''[[The Haunted Mansion]]'' has the opera singers as a visual pun on [[The Phantom of the Opera]], and the Grand Ballroom scene contains a ghost of Caesar, as in "Great Caesar's ghost!"

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The title of ''[[VVVVVV]]'' doesn't just refer to the six members of Captain Viridian's crew. It also refers to [[Spikes of Doom|your most common obstacle]].

* In [[Katawa Shoujo]], there is a Visual Pun that [[What Could Have Been|refers to something that was cut from the final game]]. In Hanako's good ending, {{spoiler|the final images involve the camera zooming out from Hanako kissing Hisao until it is looking at the two from the inside of a bakery, with two muffins inside. This was supposed to imply that Hanako became pregnant (having "a bun in the oven") as a result of their having sex, but the scene was revised so that Hisao uses protection, and there is no indication that it failed}}.

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

(Moby reveals a Las Vegas slot machine in his compartment)

* ''[[How to Kill a Mockingbird]]'' uses a pickle to represent [[To Kill a Mockingbird|Dill]].

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'', there's a recurring strip with the (literal) Writer's {{spoiler|Lego}} Block.

* In ''[[The Heroes of Middlecenter]]'', [http://middlecenter.com/comic/display.php?pg=45 "Could somebody give me a hand?" while fighting zombie ninjas]. Was included in the amateur video that spawned the comic.

* Three of these in a [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2009/10/22/0105-all-puns-intended/ single strip] of ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'', all involving Woo's name in conjunction with movie or TV series titles.

* ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' has [https://web.archive.org/web/20160403103207/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-02-09%2F this splash page]

* In the ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' side-story ''City-Face 2'', the titular pigeon, who believes he is turning into a human businessman, is told "Every human businessman needs one of these" and given a blackberry. Which he eats.

* The [[Author Avatar]] in ''[[DAR]]'' describes herself as a "fairly hairy girl" in [http://www.darcomic.org/2008/09/30/shaved/ one strip], then proceeds with six panels involving various ways of shaving . . . a cat. This is returned to in a later strip at a [http://www.darcomic.org/2009/01/13/wax/ waxing party], where all the girls are drawn as carrying cats and a guy is drawn as carrying a squirrel.

** In a backstory side piece, Sal and Leeroy get a visit from [[Random Number God|Phred]]. He appears as a pair of [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|sweatpants]].

* ''[[The Whiteboard]]'': Like many a [[Time Travel]] story, a time travel arc in May 2011 contains a [http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1368.html pair o' Docs].<ref>Play on "parodox", for anyone who missed the "pun" part.</ref>

* ''[[VG Cats]]'' once [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=188 dropped a very literal F-bomb.]

* Diglett and pals is just a series of strips with visual puns on Pokémon attack names. One example would be a Voltorb attempting to flee from a fight with a Diglett who summons an arena in order to trap the Voltorb, this is followed by the text "Diglett's arena trap prevents escape".

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

** The previous image for this page illustrated his comment that ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' had "many interesting levels" with Mario looking at a pile of spirit levels and saying "How interesting." This was such a groaner that Yahtzee [[Lampshaded]] with a big sign reading "VISUAL PUN".

* Much like Yahtzee, [[Moviebob|The Game Overthinker]] often uses this, though he does this in combination with [[Running Gag]], such as using a picture of [[Justice League Unlimited|The Question]] when he uses the word question, using [[Shigeru Miyamoto]] for God, using a picture of a butt for but and others.

{{quote|'''AVGN:''' So, you've got the [[Canon]] of the games, with the canon of the novel - it's like taking two canons and putting them together!}}

** The last line is accompanied by two [[A Worldwide Punomenon|cannons put together.]]

{{quote|'''Spoony:''' "Man, this dimension sucks!"

'''Linkara:''' "Oh, don't be so '''negative'''." }}

* There's now a [http://somuchpun.com/?utm_source=network&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=directory website for these].

* This video, [http://www.tomscott.com/appalling-visual-puns/1/ "Appalling Visual Puns #1"], one of four. Did you get it before the caption?

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Avery's short ''The Cuckoo Clock'' also opens with a series of gags of this type.

* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'':

** ''Yankee Doodle Bugs'' has Bugs explaining American history to his nephew Clyde. Among other jokes, he says that Manhattan was bought from the Indians "for a song" (Indian being given sheet music) and describes the Boston Tea Party in terms of tea with "tacks" (which is both shown visually and made into a verbal pun).

** In ''The Daffy Doc'', [[Daffy Duck]] is a doctor's assistant and gets kicked out for causing trouble in the operating room. He expresses anger that anyone would do this to someone with a "sheepskin" (an actual sheep's skin) and a "license" (plate).

** Both "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Lighthouse Mouse" have Sylvester, faced with a monstrous bird/mouse, freeze in horror, and then collapse into a pile of cat bits on the floor. The Visual Pun is that he's "falling to pieces".

* Similar to the ''Sabrina'' example above, in an episode of ''[[Bonkers]]'', the title character was infected with a 'toon disease called "Literalitis".

* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' has The Earl of Lemongrab. He himself is a pun on the term "sourpuss;" he looks like a lemon and is obviously a very angry person. All of the clothes he wears are grey, so he's also a pun on "Earl Grey Tea."

** From Non Sequitur Scene Episode|"What's The Difference?"]]:

{{quote|'''Mandie:''' Prepare to meet your doom! *Holds up a sasauge* MEAT?!

** Turns out it's not limited to beans. He tried his darndest to get hired as Scrooge's new accountant, and when Scrooge tried to tell him no with a blunderbuss, Scrooge was amazed to hear, "465!" Turned out Fenton counted all the pellets that had been shot. After a quick check revealed he was just as good with counting money (a real plus when your money bin is so big it's a local landmark), Scrooge hired him.

** Later on, after he'd taken on duties as Gizmoduck, this is a [[Chekhov's Skill]]. The money bin is taken to a planet of robots ruled by a malicious supercomputer and its robot army. After trying the Gizmoduck frontal-assault approach, Fenton challenges the computer to a counting contest, winner takes all. And he outpaced the computer easily.

* In ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'', while Flapjack and K'nuckles are traveling ''wesssssst'', Bubbie comments that they're running low on food, water, and ''overall enthusiasm''. K'nuckles reveals that he's wearing his last pair of overalls with the word "ENTHUSIASM" on it, accompanied by some really creepy voices singing ''OVERALL ENTHUSIASM OVERALL ENTHUSIASM OVERALL ENTHUSIASM '''YEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWWWW.'''''

* ''[[Chowder]]'' has quite a few from time to time. In ''Banned from the Stand'', for example, Gazpacho bans Mung from every other fruit stands (apparently he has the power to do that, according to the "code") and keeps saying "Banned! Banned! Banned!". In the last "BANNED!" we then cut to a shot of a marching band looking at Gazpacho.

** When Mung teases his rival, Ms. Endive, that an ugly beast has just escaped the zoo, a bizarre monster appears out of nowhere and says "Oops, gotta go!" and jumps through a window.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': In a [[Stephen King]] ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'' parody, Peter (Andy) accuses Pewtershmidt (Norton) of being "so obtuse", then Norton is shown to be sitting in a geometrically obtuse position.

{{quote|'''Norton:''' How about now?

* In one episode of [[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]], Genie conjures up a sandwich on his head and says "Hey Al! Lunch is on me!"

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', Beezy, going through cell phone withdrawl, says he's cracking up. His body then literally breaks like glass and falls, in pieces, on the ground.

** And in "Feeling Pinkie Keen", Twilight Sparkle literally gets on a soap box to explain why she has a hard time believing in Pinkie's "Pinkie Sense".

** Another example in "Over a Barrel." During Braeburn's over-enthusiastic tour of Apple-loosa, he points out the "horse-drawn carriages" (which are driven by sapient ponies taking turns), then mentions "horse-drawn horse-drawn carriages". Cue a camera cut of several pony artists sketching out the horse-drawn carriages.

** From the episode "From Chunk to Hunk":

{{quote|'''Penny:''' ''(Giving Marty a sheet of paper)'' Goodbye Marty. I wrote you a letter. ''(Marty sees only the letter P written on the page)'' You can read it on the bus.}}

** For some, this is a potent source of [[Fridge Horror]]... the supposed hero of the story is shooting at his servants for fun.

*** With harmless arrows. He's basically playing paintball.

{{quote|'''Store PA:''' Attention shoppers! Come see our home theater system...

''Stitch launches a large television at Gantu''

* [[Running Gag]]

* [[Spoiler|Major Spoiler In This Image!]]

* [[Ship Sinking]]

** '''[[Ship-to-Ship Combat]]'''