Metaphor and Humour

Metaphor and humour overlap when a comparison, an unexpected extension or a shift in interpretation produces a comic possibility. A metaphor need not be funny, and a joke need not use metaphor. Close reading benefits from identifying the particular language mechanism before explaining its possible effect.

This page connects Word Play, Mixed Metaphors and Coherence and Metaphor, Metonymy, Simile, Analogy and Symbol. The original examples below illustrate ways of constructing a comic reading; they are not evidence that every audience will find the sentences amusing.

Different ways of changing a reading

Consider the invented sentence “My inbox is a swamp.” It compares one thing with another, potentially drawing attention to difficult passage or accumulation. Adding “and the unread messages have started breeding” extends the scene in an unexpected direction. The possible joke depends on keeping the comparison recognisable while introducing a new implication.

Constructed example	Proposed mechanism	What the reader needs to recognise
“Our meeting was a roundabout with refreshments.”	A metaphor with an incongruous addition.	Repeated discussion and the unexpectedly practical detail.
“The plan is about as flexible as a concrete umbrella.”	An ironic simile.	A mismatch between the named quality and the imagined object.
“I need space.” “The planetarium is open.”	A reply shifts the sense of a word.	The first speaker's intended sense may differ from the reply's astronomical sense.
“Let's build on that idea.” “Who brought the bricks?”	A figurative expression receives a literal continuation.	Building an argument or proposal differs from building a physical structure.

These examples make different demands. The first develops a comparison; the third can work through the multiple meanings of a word without requiring one thing to be understood as another. An unexpected combination is a feature to examine, rather than a sufficient explanation of a joke's success.

Alice: a tale and a tail

In Chapter III of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Mouse begins to describe a sad tale. Alice looks at its tail and puzzles over how that could be sad. The account she imagines is then printed in a tapering, curved arrangement resembling a tail.

The shared sound of tale and tail supports the misunderstanding, while the page layout adds a visual resemblance. Calling the whole passage “a metaphor” would miss the distinct contribution of the pun and its typography. The scene also separates a reader's potential amusement from the Mouse's frustration with Alice.

Research on ironic comparisons

Tony Veale and Yanfen Hao's 2009 study examined two collections of similes gathered from the web. They investigated how wording helps signal a creative or ironic comparison, particularly the construction about as ... as .... Their analysis associated this construction with more elaborate comparisons and a higher proportion of ironic readings than their collection of simpler similes. They also explicitly rejected treating every occurrence of “about” as a guarantee of irony.

The study concerns patterns in collected expressions. It does not establish that a particular joke makes an audience laugh. The invented concrete-umbrella example above illustrates the form; it was not an item reported from that study.

Context, target and response

A comic comparison can be directed at a situation, a speaker's own predicament or someone else. Those targets affect what is at stake. In the inbox example, the apparent target is an accumulating task; changing the subject to a named colleague would change the social use of the comparison.

A useful record therefore preserves the surrounding exchange, the audience and any observed response. “This wording invites a comic reading” is an interpretive claim. “The audience laughed” is an observation requiring evidence. Neither alone establishes agreement with the speaker's judgement.

Questions for comparing a passage

• What initial expectation makes the later wording surprising?
• Does the effect depend on a comparison, a shared sound, several word senses or a literal continuation?
• What background knowledge is needed, and what might be lost in translation?
• Who is the apparent target, and what response is actually documented?

Related pages

• Word Play
• Mixed Metaphors and Coherence
• Metaphor, Metonymy, Simile, Analogy and Symbol
• Metaphor, Context and Speaker Meaning
• Metaphor Across Languages and Cultures
• The Trickster: Boundaries, Reversals and Disruption

Concepts and language | Stories and literature | Metaphor Research Library