Has anyone else noticed how easily puns seem to surface in conversation? I'm not talking about deliberate puns (the kind done on purpose by people who think they're clever and want everyone else to think so, too); I'm talking about the accidental puns that seem to come from the mouths of even the most serious people (the kind of people who try to ignore the pun when it pops out of their own mouth).In my amateur opinion, I think this is how it works:
When a topic of conversation is being discussed, your brain searches for every piece of vocabulary you own that is related to that topic. Because many words have multiple meanings and applications, some of the words related to the topic will slip into the conversation, but used for some of their other meanings.
For example, in a recent discussion thread relating to vampires, blood and technology, I replied with the expression "in another vein". I rarely use this expression, using something innocent like "How about this", or in another direction". But there was vein.
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