The difference between the almost right word and the right word,” said Mark Twain, “is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” That’s especially true in the contest, but does the right word have to be funny? Neil Simon thought so. In his 1972 play, , an aging vaudeville comic gives his nephew a lesson in comedy by insisting that words with a hard “k” sound are funny.
“Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. Cab is funny.
Cockroach is funny.” The writers of mocked that advice repeatedly, first by having the inept Dr. Spaceman (pronounced spa-CHE-min) explain that he can’t stop giggling while discussing an organ transplant because of the hard “k” sound in kidney.
In another episode, Liz complains to her producer Pete that “Jenna accused me of trying to destroy her because her lines don’t have any ‘k’ sounds, which she thinks is the funniest sound.” Pete then checks his texts and says, “Oh, my God. My cousin Carl crashed his car, and now he’s in a coma at the Kendall Clinic.
” Meanwhile, Jenna narrowly escapes a falling stage light during a rehearsal of a sketch and exclaims, “I could have been killed! It’s the curse,” causing an intern to laugh and then apologize by saying, “Sorry. Hard ‘k’ sounds.” I don’t find words inherently funny.
In the context of a particular caption, however, some are definitely funnier than others. Before providing an example, I have to explain something about this Leo Cullum cartoon:.
