danconnolly.co.uk

This is one for Jonny methinks.

The true punster’s mind cycles through homophones in search of a quip the way small children delight in rhymes or experiment babblingly with language. Accordingly, the least intolerable puns are those that avoid the pun’s essential puerility. Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, was a specialist. He could effortlessly execute the double pun: Noah’s Ark was made of gopher-wood, he would say, but Joan of Arc was maid of Orleans. Some Whately-isms are so complex that they nearly amount to honest jokes: “Why can a man never starve in the Great Desert? Because he can eat the sand which is there. But what brought the sandwiches there? Why, Noah sent Ham, and his descendants mustered and bred.”

It turns out that Watership Down (the film adaptation of which is the perfect tool to instil a fear of trains, old rabbits, black rabbits, snares, cats, dogs, the sun and more in any impressionable child) had a fantasy role-playing adaptation, Bunnies & Burrows:

Bunnies & Burrows was the first role-playing game to allow for non-humanoid play. In addition, it was also the first role-playing game to have detailed martial arts rules (known as “Bun Fu”) and the first attempt at a skill system. For its time, the game was considered “light years” ahead of the Original Dungeons & Dragons.

As attractive as ‘Bun Fu’ sounds I can see why perhaps it didn’t take off. World of Warrencraft anyone?

Clever UNICEF campaign to raise awareness of landmines and their victims.

*aptronym (n): A name that inadvertently describes its bearer’s occupation.

I think my personal favourites from this list have to be Dr. Kevin Blinder the Opthamologist, Les Plack the dentist, and Dr. Bonnie Beaver, the gynaecologist.