Showing my slightly geeky side today is unofficially Star Wars day. It’s a well-known pun, but in case you haven’t seen the film Star Wars which came out in 1979, the play on words of today’s date (May the 4th) comes from the film’s immortal line ‘May the Force be with you’. The pun allegedly started when Margaret Thatcher came to power on May 4 1979; the London Evening News congratulated her inauguration with headline ‘May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie.’
Loosely defined as a play on the sound of words to achieve a certain effect, you either love or hate puns. They make us laugh and make us think, although many usually result in an audible grown.
However, a clever pun can be a great joke it its own right and, as shown by the London Evening News, they make amusing headlines. Literary figures have been using puns for millennia and they can even be found in the bible; Judges chapter 10 talks about ‘thirty sons, who rode around on thirty burros and lived in thirty boroughs.’ William Shakespeare also loved a good pun – ‘now is the winter of our discontent…made glorious summer by this sun [son] of York.’ (Richard III).
Returning to Star Wars puns, Count Duckula, a British children’s television program had an episode entitled ‘The Vampire Strikes back’ (1988) while the king of geeks TV show, The Big Bang Theory, also had a Star Wars themed episode where Raj introduces Admiral Ackbar’s Snack Bar.
The Menu included:
– R2-Decaf
– Cafe Au Leia
– Chai Tea-3PO
– Attack of the Scones
At the risk of sounding like your granddad or reading a cracker joke, here are a few more Star Wars puns:
Q. What’s for dinner dad? A. Wookie steak. Q. Is it any good? A. It’s a little Chewy
Q: How do Ewoks communicate over long distances? A: With Ewokie Talkies
Q: What is a jedi’s favorite toy? A: A yo-yoda
Q: What do you call a fight between film actors? A: Star Wars
I for one am looking forward to The Force Awakens due out at Christmas – so we’ll probably be seeing plenty more Star Wars puns over the coming months.
To my fellow Star Wars fans, if you haven’t seen it already, enjoy the new film’s official trailer.