thedayhascome

I get a lot of my inspiration for writing on twitter from the comedy styles of Groucho Marx and Emo Phillips. They’re both famous for their use of paraprosdokians, which is a figure of speech that uses an unexpected ending to a phrase that causes the reader to reinterpret the first part. An especially clever paraprosdokian not only changes the meaning, but also plays on the double meaning of the earlier phrase.

This style of writing and humor requires greater thought and challenges my creative thought process everyday. Some days, I’ll have an idea that just never works and it goes into a repository to think about and come back to later. The other ideas usually just come to me and I’ll create several variations to make sure I’m not missing anything.

There are many great people that write in this manner and I strive everyday to keep the wit in my twitter.

Well, my brother says Hello. So, hooray for speech therapy.

— Emo Phillips

Before I speak, I have something important to say.

— Groucho Marx

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notes: 17

May 17th, 2009 @ 12:51 am

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”

— Groucho Marx

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notes: 9

May 12th, 2009 @ 3:50 pm

“When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.”

— Emo Philips

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notes: 14

Posts tagged "paraprosdokian"

“Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.”

“I was walking down fifth avenue today and I found a wallet, and I was gonna keep it, rather than return it, but I thought: well, if I lost a hundred and fifty dollars, how would I feel? And I realized I would want to be taught a lesson.”

“Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped.”

“I like going to the park and watching the children run and jump around, because you see, they don’t know I’m using blanks.”

“I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.”

“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”

“She got her looks from her father. He’s a plastic surgeon.”

An Unexpected Ending to a Phrase

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”

“When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.”