3 steps to writing a great pun
When the Federal Trade Commission needed to explain why the agency has decided not to develop a do-not-spam registry — officials feared that spammers would target people on the list — a spokesperson said:
“You’ll be spammed if we do — and spammed if we don’t.”
How can you craft such a good pun or play on words? One approach is to list, rhyme and twist. Here’s how:
1. List.
Write down the key or topic words from your article.
Then expand your list. The more words, the better. Try synonyms, antonyms and different forms of your keyword — spam, spams, spammed and spamming, for instance.
Visual Thesaurus and OneLook Reverse Dictionary are great tools for adding words to your list.
2. Rhyme.
Use rhyming dictionaries to find words that sound similar to your keywords. My favorite is RhymeZone.
Keep looking. RhymeZone doesn’t recognize “spammed.” But it did send me to OneLook Dictionary Search for words ending in “ammed.” (Input “*ammed.”)
I searched for one of them — slammed — back at RhymeZone, which gave me this list: crammed, dammed, damned, jammed, rammed, scammed.
Next, find phrases that include those rhyming words at Phrase Thesaurus or ClichéSite.com. In fact, I found another starting point for the FTC sound bite by doing this research:
Publish and be damned.
3. Twist.
Now substitute your key word for the rhyming word. Make it:
Publish and be spammed.
How can you list, rhyme and twist your way to a stellar sound bite?
How can you surprise and delight readers?
Neurologists call it “the pleasure of the text,” the reward readers get from figuring out figurative language. (It can be quite a reward: If your wordplay is funny enough, your readers’ brains even deliver a little dose of dopamine.) 
Learn to tap wordplay’s superpowers at Master the Art of Storytelling, our business-storytelling workshop starting March 3.
There, you’ll learn to flip phrases; compress details; sub sound-alikes; list, rhyme and twist — even coin new words with free online tools that do the work for you. You’ll get inspired by some of the world’s most creative headlines. And you’ll polish your skills in a wordplay workout, with recipes from anagram to oxymoron.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.
