The O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships is a yearly spoken word competition that takes place every May at the O. Henry Museum in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. Started in 1978, the Pun-Off gathers fans of wordplay to celebrate the

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

, which English poet and literary critic

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

called "the lowest and most groveling kind of wit." The event has been organized and run since 1990 by Austinite Gary Hallock. A support group of former and current contestants was formed in 1990 to formalize the unwritten rules of the competition(s) and provide guidance and support for future events. Under the umbrella title of "Punsters United Nearly Yearly" (a.k.a. PUNY) this collection of loosely knit wits continues to be the public face of the event through its website and social media. Gary Hallock retired as producer in 2015. He was replaced by emcee and 2006 Punslinger World Champion, David Gugenheim. The 40th Annual O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships were staged in 2017 and were promoted in Smithsonian Magazine. Videos of the 2016 champions can be found on that page. Former presidential speechwriter John Pollack documented his experience in the 1995 event in his 2011 book, "The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics." Participants in the annual event compete in one or both of the two areas of punning prowess: ''Punniest of Show'', which features individuals performing a 90-second prepared piece filled with puns; and ''PunSlingers'', which pits individual punsters in head-to-head bouts of spontaneous punning on a randomly selected variation of traditional topic themes. From its inception, the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships used a four-person panel of judges that offers scores of 1–10 based on performance, originality, and wit. The four scores were added together for a combined score of 4–40 for each participant. (Scores lower than 1 are raised to 1, and scores higher than 10 are lowered to 10.) The highest-scoring punster wins each event, with ties being decided by audience applause. Beginning in 2009, however, the judge panel was expanded to six people, with the highest and lowest scores discarded and the remaining four scores added together to form each participant's combined score of 4–40. This change was enacted to prevent any one judge from having the ability to disqualify a punster by giving a much lower score than the other judges. A separate award is also given yearly for the ''Most Viable Punster'', a title awarded by votes from each year's participants and given in honor of late punster George McClughan. The 43rd Pun-Off took place online in 2020 due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Inspiration

The O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships was inspired by the writings of

William Sydney Porter William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the M ...

who, while living in Austin, Texas, in the late 1800s, began using the pen name O. Henry. By the time of his death in 1910, O. Henry had published over 300 short stories including "

The Ransom of Red Chief "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a short story by O. Henry first published in the July 6, 1907, issue of ''The Saturday Evening Post''. It follows two men who kidnap and demand a ransom for a wealthy Alabamian's son. Eventually, the men are driven c ...

" and the Christmas classic " Gift of the Magi". His voracious vocabulary and love of language endeared him to a broad audience, but it was his trademark twisted endings that always kept curious readers coming back for more. Reading an O. Henry story is a participatory experience. Today, the Pun-Off keeps his name alive by offering lovers of wordplay and wit a platform for their literary shenanigans in front of an admiring, and sometimes mocking, audience.

Contest

For the purpose of competition and judging, a two-fold definition of a proper pun has been adopted by the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships. The first and most common form presented is wordplay using

homonyms In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition ...

that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect. The second accepted type of pun is a lesser used form of euphemism or

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

, where an alternate meaning is suggested for a word for comedic effect.

References

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External links

O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships Official Site

National Public Radio story on 2008 Pun-Off

2Camels.com article

Review of ''PunSmoke''
a documentary of the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships
O. Henry Pun-Off video
covering the 2009 event
Articles on the Pun-Off by and about six-time winner Steve Brooks
Competitions Festivals in Austin, Texas Puns Recurring events established in 1978 1978 establishments in Texas