There were plenty of laughs at the quick-fire punning contest hosted by Lee Nelson,but the maligned art of wordplay deserves more of a rap-battle format“Some comedians don’t take puns seriously,” says the winner of this year’s UK Pun Championships, and Masai Graham,by way of a victory speech. “So it’s first-rate to fetch people who admire wordplay gathered together.” But while this evening of punning at Leicester comedy festival is thoroughly enjoyable, it doesn’t solve the problem Graham diagnoses. Far from it: even this event can’t bring itself to take puns seriously. The night would be more fun still if it drilled down into what differentiates first-rate and infamous puns, or what separates the gifted craftsman from the word-bending genius.
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Source: theguardian.com