I don’t need to hear from groaners like you.

Some groaners are converted into running gags, as when Joel and his brother (Max Greenfield) get in a duel of parting, one-last-thing-before-you-go affirmations.

From the cleverest repartee to the worst groaner, people use and respond to puns, but sometimes find them hard to define.

In the '40s, I remember ludicrous puns thought to be funny and repeated by teenagers, sometimes to a chorus of laughter. Here is a groaner example: "Mother, get off the rafters. That is no way to get on the beam." Naturally, to understand the joke, it was necessary to know the idiom of the day. "Get on the beam" meant "get with it" or understand the situation.

"Ever heard a Terry sermon?" Delaine wanted to know. "He usually starts with a joke, almost always a groaner. I love his puns! Besides, he's not afraid to tackle any issue, and he makes fun of just about everything in sight."

Groaner

Meaning

Noun

Origin

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