Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Great Paraprosdokian

I kind of wanted to write about something serious today. Maybe use some brilliant logic to ward off the dangerous "Whys" in the philosophical world. Instead, I'm going to talk about my favorite subject. Yes, that's right. The paraprosdokian.

I don't know how to pronounce that, but I do know what it is. A paraprosdokian is a type of sentence in which the second part is surprising or unexpected in such a way that the reader must reinterpret the first part.

This type of phrase is usually used by mistake or in humor, which is basically the same thing most of the time. It is used by mistake because the author or speaker did not fully think through their statement, and in humor because it's just funny.

Here are some examples:

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know." — Groucho Marx

"If I am reading this graph correctly, I would be very surprised." — Stephen Colbert

"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." — Emo Philips

"I want to die like my father, quietly, in his sleep—not screaming and terrified like his passengers." — Bob Monkhouse

These things make me smile. I hope that my smile can be shared by you, because also it makes me smile when other people do too. And now my challenge: use a paraprosdokian today in a conversation. It doesn't matter if you rip off one of the above, or if you create your own slice of brilliance. But if anything good comes of it...please, comment and tell me about it.

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