Stealth Pun - Television Tropes & Idioms

The Geneon dub of Lupin III once had Jigen describe a house-fly that turned out to be a listening device as "a flying pun".
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Nanoha is pursuing Jewel Seeds, which grant wishes. One such Jewel Seed had possessed a tree that was near a couple's confession of love, and it responded by turning into a massive maurdering monster, trapping them inside itself and trying to consume everything. The pun comes when you realise what the guy must have been wishing for: wood.
- A less dirty way of interpreting this was that they pined for each other. (This pun actually works in Japanese, too.)
- Because we're too old for "sitting in a tree" here.
During one of Adam Warren's Dirty Pair stories, a villain introduces a clone of "good girl" Yuri into the convention the girls are hosting, to shake things up. We first hear about "clone-Yuri's" antics from one of the con-goers (much to real Yuri's distress). Then we cut to Clone Yuri's room and we can clearly see (though the words are never spoken) that she has been literally "screwed, blued, and tattooed".
The main character of One Piece is named Monkey D. Luffy, and his first appearance in the anime was breaking out of a small barrel. Perhaps the implication is that the show will be more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
- Or about Donkey Kong.
Cowboy Bebop - Spike goes out with a bang.
Most crossover Fan Art of characters cosplaying as other characters with the same seiyuu for both characters is never said out loud unless someone actually asks. Like all those Shana, Louise, Nagi and Taiga Fan Art.

Close Anime and Manga

David Letterman did something along these lines when he gave a list of the top ten Bill Clinton jokes. He never actually got to the punchline, he just would trail off and look at the audience, who could figure it out for themselves and were hysterical by that point.
A somewhat well-known joke concerns a pair of hikers who die while rock-climbing. As their souls ascend to heaven, they see a pair of eagles and exclaim, "Ah, eagles!" The eagles, to be polite, say nothing.
- "Ah, souls!" (Say it out loud. Works best with a British accent.)

Close Stand Up Comedy

Two issues of James Robinson's Firearm involved the title character entering a virtual world based on Glasgow, mostly as a gift to Glaswegian artist Gary Erskine. In one panel, Erskine drew a figure that resembled Alex from A Clockwork Orange outside an underground station. The local nickname for Glasgow's underground railway is "the clockwork orange".
In Watchmen, Rorschach breaks Nite-Owl's lock to get into his apartment. It gets replaced. Then he does it again. It gets replaced. Then the police break in. The lock holds but the door is destroyed. The pun? The lock company was called Gordian Knot Lock Company.

Close Comic Books

Anyone remember the Charmin toilet paper commercials with the cartoon bears? Left entirely unsaid is they're all about bears shitting in the woods.
- Similarly, there's an advert currently airing in the UK which has an angry bear in the middle of a cubicle farm, who turns back into a flustered office worker when given a painkiller. Implying, of course, that she's acting like a bear with a sore head.
Boost Mobile has a commercial with Danica Patrick racing and going into the pit where her pit crew are a bunch of men dressed in outfits similar to the Dallas cowboy cheerleaders, one even has tan lines for a bikini. So it features drag racing.

Close Commercials

In the middle of Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Nick asks Russ where he learned artificial respiration after he delivers it to Amy. Russ replies, "In French class". Nick doesn't get it and the build-up is left unfinished...then, at the very end of the movie, right after the Fade To Black, Nick suddenly gets it and laughs hysterically.
In Evan Almighty, Evan's wife is called Joan. And the movie is about building an ark.
- This one may also count as a Genius Bonus. When God shows up in the back of Evan's car and scares the pants off him, God replies "Let it out, son. It's the beginning of wisdom." Proverbs 1:7 states "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom"
In Mamma Mia!, the action is set in Greece. Whenever the (English, Swedish, and American) main characters begin to sing, the townspeople join in at the refrain. Making it a Greek Chorus.
In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the meal the characters have been eating is suddenly revealed to be the remains of Eddie, played by the singer Meatloaf. The audience traditionally fills in the joke: "Not Meatloaf again!"
- "That's a rather tender subject."
- "That's a rather tasteless joke."
- And don't forget the well hung speakers.
In Scotland Pa, an adaptation of Macbeth, it is casually mentioned that Donald (Donalbain in Macbeth)' and Malcolm's father, Duncan, made most of his money through donut sales. Later, Donald takes over the restaurant, which had been renamed to McBeth's, and calls it, well, guess what... Mac Donalds, of course.
- Don't overlook the secondary stealth pun — Duncan Donuts.
In the recent Star Trek movie, the alien in the bar that sits between Uhura and Kirk has elongated features. So why didn't the bartender say "Why the long face?"
- The character was credited as "Long Face".
In Shrek, the evil Lord Farquaad is alleged to have been based partially upon then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who had a falling out in the mid-Nineties with Jeffrey Katzenberg, who would go on to found Dreamworks - the company that produced Shrek. 'Farquaad' is rumoured to be a cloaked insult aimed at Eisner, calling him a fuckwad.
- According to Word Of God, it's a reference to the "Far Quad" on the campus of the writer's alma mater, Notre Dame — full name Notre Dame du Lac (Dulac is the name given to Farquaad's little kingdom). However, the obvious pronunciation-gag was not missed by Fox Trot, which used the second meaning as a stealth punchline.
In Shrek 2 The potion given to the King to make Fiona fall in love with the first man she kisses is labeled "IX". It is not mentioned then that it must be Love Potion Number 9.
- A pun that caused this troper to burst into hysterical laughter in the middle of a crowded, completely silent cinema.
In Coraline, the seats of the theater are filled with small dogs — Scotties. Later, when the world shows its dark side, the dogs become skeletons... Night Terriers?
In Up, there is a scene in which several dogs pilot fighter planes, making them... dogfighter pilots.
In Disney's Robin Hood, Maid Marian (a vixen) has a hen as a nursemaid, but nobody references the aphorism about "setting a fox to watch the henhouse".
In The Incredibles, the name of Syndrome's island is only mentioned once: a passing reference to "current temperature on Nomanisan" during Mr. Incredible's second visit. "No-man-is-an Island"
- It could also serve as a Meaningful Name, if you consider the way Syndrome became who he is now.
In Corpse Bride, this◊ is the Head Waiter. Get it? Head waiter?
- Not to mention the bar where Victor first arrives is called the "Ball and Socket." Making it the Ball and Socket joint.
  - Which makes the bar a popular place, or a "hip joint."
In the new GI Joe movie, right before the chase scene in Paris kicks off, Duke gives Breaker his last stick of gum. This is obviously a reference to Breaker's gum-chewing habit from the cartoon, but this troper's wife pointed out that Duke has come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and he's all out of bubblegum.
Its A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, the guy at the beginning of the movie, who tells the four drivers about the treasure burried under a big W, as he dies, his foot kicks a bucket.
The Muppet Christmas Carol. In order to get both Statler and Waldorf into the movie, they had to invent a brother for Jacob Marley. They called him Robert. Think about that for a second. Get up, stand up...
In The Dark Knight, the police convoy is diverted by a large vehicle that had been set ablaze. When you see the vehicle up close, you realise what it is and the stealth pun indicates it as one of the Joker's jokes. It's a fire engine
- This Troper realized it right away and deemed it ironic.
In A New Hope, Obi-Wan defends Luke in a barfight by slicing off the hand of his aggressor. Several minutes later, when some Stormtroopers arrive, Han casually says "Looks like someone's taking an interest in your handiwork."

Close Film

In The Wee Free Men, a talking toad is introduced as a guide for Tiffany Aching. Although it was explained that said toad's yellow colour was caused by his being unwell, nobody ever actually told her to "follow the yellow sick toad". As the author said:
Terry Pratchett: I just happened to note a toad had a skin which had had unfortunately gone a bit yellow because it had been ill. Far be it from me to make a pun. You did that.
- This was played as a straight Pun in Moving Pictures, where a man in half a lion suit says "I don't know what it's called, but we're doing one about going to see a wizard. Something about following a yellow sick toad."
- Similarly, in Jingo!, when Carrot is investigating an attempted political killing with strong similarities to the Kennedy assassination, he interviews a gnoll. In addition to being an informant, the creature has plants growing on it. That's two possible routes to the phrase "grassy gnoll", but it never happens.
  - The worst offender has got to be Soul Music. There's a scene where the main character, Imp Y Celyn, explains his name- imp being a term for new growth at the end of a stalk, and celyn being a member of the holly family. The entire book is full of music puns like that, some more subtle than others. Of course this is made even more obvious when he starts going by the name Buddy.
  - Later on in the book, the Dean of UU spends several scenes constructing an elaborate coat. Later, Death, knowing that some things have to look right, borrows it before going very quickly to an important place. When he gets there, he kills The Music. None of this is ever spelled out.
  - The Dean also pends a lot of time riveting trousers out of denim. The Archchancellor complains, and the Dean replies that soon everyone will be wearing them, and they certainly won't be called Archchancellors. This troper didn't get this one for years, but the implication is that they will be called 'Deans' = Jeans.
  - Or perhaps DEANims.
  - One of the bands manages to acquire a leopard, which is a bit hard of hearing.
  - Don't forget Death riding to the rescue on a motorcycle, which turns ghostly as parts break off...meaning that by the end, he's hitting the highway like a battering ram on a silver-black phantom bike. (Like a Bat out of Hell...)
  - Plus, the motorcycle was built in the basement, so Death gets it out of the building via the ceiling ... through the ground above◊.
- In Witches Abroad, there's a couple of puns where the first two witches give an outright pun or Allusion but Nanny Ogg delivers the stealth pun.
  - The three of them are deliberating on the idea of a transport system built on broomsticks. Their ideas for names are puns on well know real world airlines but Nanny Ogg gets cut off before she says hers. However, note she is looking at Magrat and being rather coquettish. Consider Magrat's role in The Hecate Sisters trio. Virgin.
  - In a later scene, while stuck in a Wizard of Oz parody, Magrat and Granny have a falling out. As they walk along the obligatory yellow brick road, Magrat says "some people" need a little more heart, Granny Weatherwax says "some people" need a lot more brain, and Nanny Ogg, both literally and figuratively stuck between the two, thinks to herself that she needs a drink. i.e., Dutch Courage
  - There's also a recurrence of Granny trying to tell a joke about an alligator sandwich ("...and make it snappy!"), but she keeps blowing the punchline ("...and do it fast!").
- In Good Omens he gets a clever one with a character whose last name is "Pulsifer". As those familiar with Christian theology know, Lucifer translates roughly into "Bringer of Light," or "Bringer of Peace". The "Puls" in Pulsifer, however, translates into legumes, ergo: "Bringer of Peas".
- In Pyramids, a voting system involving each elector placing round beads into a jar is described as giving rise to a popular saying about politics. Presumably that it's a load of balls.
  - I always thought that was a reference to being blackballed.
- In Going Postal, John Galt look-alike Reacher Gilt dresses up as a pirate and has a parrot sitting on his shoulder that continually shouts "twelve and a half percent!" Twelve and a half is 100 divided by 8, or, in other words, one Piece of Eight, which is the traditional coinage that all pirates are after.
  - "cough cough", um...it's a Treasure Island reference. The parrot is clearly Captain Flint.
- The Last Hero includes some pages that are excerpts of fictional documents. One of these is a list of "Varieties of the Swamp Dragon". One of the listed varieties is the "Nothingfjord Blue", which is given this description: "Wonderful scales, but a tendency to homesickness". In other words, it's pining for the fjords.
- In Night Watch, Dr Lawn briefly refers to "the founder of my profession, the philosopher Scepturn". Since this is obviously the Disc version of Hippocrates, the highly cynical Lawn has presumably taken the Sceptic Oath.
One of the creatures in The Phantom Tollbooth is the Everpresent Wordsnatcher, a bird who comes from a place named Context and likes to take words from other people's mouths and twist them. He comes this close to explaining the pun:
"I'm from a land very far away called Context. But it's such a nasty place I try to spend all my time out of it."
- The book is really entirely made up of these puns.
In The Rock Rats by Ben Bova:
Fuchs: So, Mr. Ripley, will your crew be able to assemble the latest additions on schedule?
Mr. Ripley: Believe it or not, they will.
- Oh for Fuchs' sake...
In Gödel, Escher, Bach, the dialogue "Aria with Diverse Variations" (named after a piece by J. S. Bach more commonly known as the Goldberg Variations) mostly concerns the Goldbach Conjecture and variations on it. Near the end of the dialogue, Achilles suddenly offers the Tortoise the gift of a "very gold Asian box." This pun doesn't get to sink in until after the true ending of the dialogue: a fake ending in which a cop arrives and Achilles turns the Tortoise in for the reported theft of a Very Asian Gold Box.
In The Dresden Files, there's a supporting character named Virginia, who is a werewolf. No one mentions that they are afraid of Virginia Wolf.
- Also in The Dresden Files, Harry is asked to guess the name of the wizard who is the newest member of the Senior Council. His guess is "Klaus the Toymaker." It is implied that Harry is not joking, but he's wrong.
- In Summer Knight, we meet a very small fairy that looks to be nothing more than a spark of light. Her name? Elidee. Say it aloud.
In the classic Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", Holmes and Watson find a priceless gem inside a stolen Christmas goose, and figuring out how it got there takes them all over London. Somehow, Conan Doyle managed to resist having Watson complain about a wild goose chase.
Combined with a Shout Out in Randall Garrett's Too Many Magicians, in which a character named Tia Einzig learns that her uncle Napoleon has escaped to the Isle of Man. Since "Einzig" is German for "solo", this would make him Napoleon Solo, the UNCLE from Man. (For extra Shout Out points, she learns this from her uncle's friend Colin McDavid; Napoleon's partner, of course, is played by David McCallum.)
The last of Patricia C Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles features a character called Daystar. Guess how he relates to the previous main characters.
In the Ciaphas Cain (Hero of the Imperium!) novel Duty Calls, the pilot of Amberley's ship is named Pontius. Also one of the major players in the novel are soldiers from an all-female religious order based in the planet's region of Gavaronne. The fact that they are literally the Nuns of Gavaronne is never explicitly made.
- In The Traitor's Hand, there is a brief mention of an animal called the nauga, whose hide is particularly useful for "certain hard-wearing applications."
A Civil Campaign introduces Armsman Roic, who battles against the off-planet law enforcement coming to take away Dr. Borgos. It could be said that the Armsman was acting he-Roic-ally. (This only works if you pronounce his name that way; reportedly the author Herself pronounces it differently, thus didn't see the pun coming.)
Thursday Next has a ton of these. The best is probably when Thurs has to remove Hamlet from his play, while in the A-plot, recurring villian Yorick is running around. You do the math.
In one Star Trek New Frontier book (all written by Pungeon Master Peter David), a beast is described as cyclopean, with a large horn, wings, and purple fur, hunting crew members for food. Lampshaded later as one of the stalked crew members says, "It sure looked strange to me."

Close Literature

The guys behind Monty Python's Flying Circus (and all other Monty Python media) are famous for avoiding punchlines in almost everything they've done. Their reason was that they would see great skits, but would usually end up disappointed by the weak punchline. They resolved to end their sketches before the punchline, unless they wanted it to be ironic.
The Father Ted episode "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep" is about a sheep who is being driven neurotic. There's a concealed pun implicit in this concept (and revealed in The Other Wiki's relevant episode entry) but it is something of a subversion since neither the pun nor the punchline are actually spoken.
The same Nantucket limerick shows up in the pilot of Babylon 5. Delenn has heard it, and thinks it's a typical example of Earth poetry....
And again in this Daily Show/Colbert Report bit, as a shorter alternative to an epic poem.
A variant appears in the Star Trek The Next Generation episode "The Naked Now". As the Enterprise crew succumb to an inebriation-inducing virus, Data reports picking up numerous disturbances on internal sensors, including a crewman singing a limerick:
Data: There once was a woman from Venus, whose body was shaped like a—
Picard: Security!
- And speaking of TNG, there's the emotionless android Data and his more human brother Lore. This borders on Fridge Brilliance.
One from the Pushing Daisies episode 'Dummy':
Chuck: But where are the real dummies?
Emerson starts sniggering
Narrator: Before Emerson Cod could reply with a clever, if slightly insulting remark, something moving caught his eye.
The Colbert Report has Gorlock, a Signs-esque alien who advises Stephen on various topics. He was first introduced as Stephen's financial advisor and an excuse to make Scientology jokes, but we later find out that he's also Stephen's attorney. Making him... A legal alien.
In Veronica Mars, the late Lilly Kane called her younger brother Duncan by the nickname "Donut". One (admittedly cute) fanfic posited that it was because he wanted to be a cop as a kid. Someone clearly missed the pun.
One episode of The Muppet Show opened with the Bug Band, a group of four insects, singing She Loves You. Backstage after the song, Kermit says that the group needs a name and instead of the obvious suggestion they come up with The Who and The Grateful Dead.
The BBC's series Merlin features King Uther. He keeps a dragon penned up in the dungeon.
In Star Trek The Original Series, Kirk claims to be from the island of Noman at one point
A famous example from Saturday Night Live's Celebrity Jeopardy sketches:
Sean Connery: "What's the difference between your mother and a mallard with a cold? I forget the rest but your mother's a whore."
- Presumably, one is a sick duck, and the other sucks dick.
  - Works more than one way. Hint: Precision F Strike.
In Reaper, the Devil gives Sam his phone number. We never see it, but Sam's reaction to the area code makes it pretty obvious it's 666.
On Mock The Week, Milton Jones comments that farmers have recently started using heroin but finding the evidence has been difficult. It's like finding a needle in a haystack.
In this Scrubs episode an imaginary patient has a kitten in his mouth. Probably he misunderstood the concept of eating pussy.
Obligatory Buffy The Vampire Slayer example: For several episodes of Season 4, Oz wore a sheepskin jacket. As he's a werewolf, you know what that makes him...
- Another Buffy example : in the episode Tabula Rasa, Spike is being pursued by a demon he owes money to. The demon has the head of a shark. Which makes him... a loan shark.
Stargate SG 1 had the following exchange:
Anis: "You may call me Anis. It means 'Noble Strength'"
Daniel: "I am Daniel It means 'God is my judge'"
Jack: "I'm Jack. It means....what's in the box?"

'it means jack' is colloquial for 'it means nothing'

Close Live Action TV

Pick a song by Relient K. Any song, really. It will contain at least one of these, if not an Incredibly Lame Pun in the title.
In the song "Necessity" from Finian's Rainbow, the lines quoted below provoke the shouted question "Do you mean he's a —?", which is answered in the affirmative (the implied statement being that Necessity is a bastard):
Oh, hell is the father of gin,
And Cupid's the father of love.
Old Satan's the father of sin,
But no one knows the father of
Necessity.
A couple in Don [+Mc Lean=}'s "American Pie". Did Lenin or Lennon read a book on Marx? And "It landed foul on the grass" isn't refering to the green stuff on your front lawn.

Close Music

One issue of Private Eye, covering the scandal after Jacqui Smith's husband used her expense account to buy adult films, ran with the joke "At least he's not a banker!", the unspoken pun being that he is however (literally) a wanker.
- Private Eye also often refer to themselves as an "organ". On the obvious level, it's a pun on the fact that the eye is an organ, the Stealth Pun comes in with the fact that this then makes them a "Private Organ".

Close News

In The Wizard Of Id a visitor to the untrustworthy King's castle notices that the King's flag consists of a pair of black X's on a white background. The visitor asks for the name of this emblem. The king moves on to another pun before it mentioned the king is represented by Double Crosses.
This Mallard Fillmore strip. The punchline sounds almost like a parody of his usual Strawman Political rants; eventually someone figured out it's a Stealth Pun. (Because NASCAR fans are "race-ists".) Go ahead and groan; everybody groans at Mallard Fillmore, for one reason or another.

Close Newspaper Comics

From The Very World Of Milton Jones: ...and when we were naughty at school, we used to be sent to this man with no arms and no legs and no body. He was the Head. And if he wasn't in, we used to be sent to this other man with no arms and no legs and no body and a cowboy hat. He was Mr Roberts. (The correct punchline is, of course, "the deputy head".)

Close Radio

Kennywood in Pittsburgh has an inverting pendulum ride called the Aero 360. It's shaped like... um, the Kennywood logo◊.

Close Theme Parks

Ejector, a transforming toaster from the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen toyline, is a small toaster with a maxed out Courage rating.

Close Toys

In Half-Life 2, Dr. Kleiner's pet headcrab is named Lamarr, and later confirms the pun when he can't find it.
Alyx: We'll get you a new headcrab.
Dr. Kleiner: There's only one Heddy!
- That's Hedley!
- Not to mention Alyx's part in naming the Zombines in Episode 1.
  - But that is not a stealth pun. She specifically explains it.
- For those not in the know, Heddy Lamarr was a famous actress and scientist.
In case 2 of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, a valuable jewel is called the "Tear of Emanon". If you don't get it, read it backwards.
- In the third case, the murder victim was a computer programmer working for a company called Blue Screens. The phrase "blue screen of death" is never used.
  - Maya comments that it "sounds like a really stable company".
- The final case features two characters using false names with the surname "Deauxnim". Considering the series' love of Punny Names, it's quite surprising that neither is called "Sue".
  - Well, all the false first names for the "Deauxnims" end with an "s" sound. "Elise," "Laurice," etc.
- The character's name in Japanese is also a Stealth Pun: her pseudonym is "Elise", but her real name is "Maiko" (one translation of which is "dancer").
In Europa Universalis, guess which colour is used to represent Burgundy on the world map.
No points for guessing which animal is featured on the coat of arms of Aswan in Crusader Kings by the same developer. A lion.
- Not a swan?
At the beginning of the second episode of Tales of Monkey Island, Morgan tells Guybrush how much she admires him, and says she even learned how to hold her breath for five minutes. Guybrush informs her he can hold it for ten. "You mean that's true? I thought the stories were exaggerated! Impressive!" So in her opinion, the rumors of his breath...
In Kingdom Hearts II, Namine tells Kairi at one point to "Believe in yourself", whilst trying to convince her to step through a dark portal. If you don't get it, remember that Namine is Kairi's Nobody.
Almost certainly unintentional, but a large element of the plot of Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 is Princess Elise's budding romantic feelings for the titular anthropomorphic hero. Thus making her a fur Elise.
The head of Pokemon's mafia-esque Team Rocket is named Giovanni, making him Don Giovanni.
The most powerful axe in most modern Castlevania games is the Golden Axe. In Dawn Of Sorrow, Yoko is able to make said weapon even more powerful by combining it with a boss's soul. Specifically, she adds Death.
In Thief: Deadly Shadows, one mission requires you to break into a clock tower operated by the Hammerites (colloquially, the Hammers) and sabotage the mechanism, causing the clock to stop. In other words, you have to Stop Hammer Time.
In Bowser's Inside Story, there is a character named Broque Monsieur who speaks with a heavy French accent and is made out of blocks. If you try saying his name with a fake French accent, it sounds like you're saying "block monster".
- That's also a normal Punny Name; it refers to a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. If you add a fried egg to the top, you get a Croque-madame. Hee...
In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, one of your last tasks is to explore the derelict vessel Valhalla to obtain a "pirate code" that will grant access to one of the enemy's leviathans. But the only reason you need it is so that the leviathan can plot a course for you and the Federation fleet to follow to Phaaze, the living Phazon planet. So when you think about it, the pirate code is really more like a guideline...
Guilty Gear XX has two characters with connections to each other named Eddie and Venom.
Brutal Legend features a demon named Fletus who's obsessed with cars and racing. No-one mentions that this makes him a speed demon.

Close Video Games

One of the guests at Donkey's funeral in Weebl And Bob is a giant ape. Chris identifies him as Donkey's father ("He doesn't like to talk about it."), but the character's name is never mentioned.

Close Web Animation

This Irregular Webcomic strip. Also, comparing "hobbit" and "habit" is so common that the author promised to only do it once every 100 strips. Mostly averted, though... The author is abnormally fond of puns. Somehow, he makes it work.
- Not to mention this strip. ( "I'll get you, store of hay! And your little togs, too!") In which he mentions this very article.
  - ...Wait, it wasn't supposed to be "Don't make a hobbit out of it!"??
- Another example: in this strip, Lambert's hobbit-pun is ruined by a (rather ominous, but that's not the point) cough.
In this episode of Striptease, in a flashback to high school, Max and Em are squirted with red paint by another student, who is then caught by the teacher... red-handed.
In this episode of Adventures in ASCII (a strip where the characters are letters and other printables), Miss B reacts with a stony silence upon learning that Bold H is taking the guest Miss Delta (she's from @hens) down the river to see the estuary.
Miss B: ...
Bold H: What?
Miss B: I didn't say anything.
Bold H: It was the way you didn't say it.
- Here's another one from the same comic about an injured number. Apparently a three falling in a forest does indeed make a sound.
This xkcd comic doubles the stakes. It's based on another joke with an Incredibly Lame Pun chline.
- Even better; it inverts the punchline.
- Speaking of xkcd, Strip #404. Note the title.
Tally HO, a somewhat obscure webcomic, does the Stealth Pun here with a common cry of Windows supporters and creators alike. "It's not a bug, It's a feature." This isn't original; it's an old geek joke.
You actually named it "Variety"?
- The guy in white is Bobby, the incarnation of Life.
Nerf Now with a classic riddle and a..."modern classic" Dracula. "What is a man?"
Chopping Block Here.
This Precocious strip, which was actually explained by its creator:
"Et Tu, Brute?" - Famous line from Julius Caesar.
The Et family really should know better than to go out in pairs.
This Nukees. "Duck Orations" would be "Quacks."
In this Order Of The Stick strip: Fleeing the burning city, Elan stops to break into a music shop and steals a lute. The setup is palpable, but the inevitable pun goes unsaid.
In Triangle and Robert, one of the plotlines involves Triangle fighting things to recover a series of "Dragon Circles," which are lettered A, B, C, etc. When he gets to the 25th one, Dragon Circle Y, he discovers that's the end of them, there are only 25. "Somehow, avoiding the pun makes it even worse."
In The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob, Bob's unseen next door neighbor is named Ray, a reference to the old comedy team, Bob And Ray. Even more obscurely, another unseen neighbor is Mrs. Spitoonelli (a play on "spitoon," of course), with a husband named Harold. It is later mentioned her first name is Maude, referring to the Black Comedy movie Harold And Maude. And in Galatea's French adventure, she rides a Vespa with the name "Princess" on the side.
In this filler strip of Keychain Of Creation, we're treated to the Orphaned Punchline of a (naughty) joke that ends with "What I really meant is that we'd need cunning translators." See, in Exalted, your translation ability is measured by your score in "Linguistics", so apparently the joke began with her telling the king that she needed "cunning linguists". I'll leave you to figure out the rest.

Close Web Comics

A recurring thread on Something Awful is "Real pictures that look like photoshops". And eventually, someone will post this◊.
- For those who don't get it: It's a photo shop.
  - Eh, that photo shop looks photoshoped.
Fark.com is enamored of headlines with StealthPuns of its more memorable memes. For example: "Duke upset in NCAA tournament. If only there were some pithy catch phrase to describe their ineptitude."
Vista-tan has huge tracts of land.
- And we all know huge tracts of land are vistas.
  - Plus, we all know Vista was a huge bust.
Unforgotten Realms has Professor Strap, who after a memory erasing spell goes by the name of "Jacques". Jacques Strap.
Clef and Dimitri Hit the Road: At the very end. Alas, poor Yoric, I've never seen him before in my life.

Close Web Original

In Kim Possible, when we are first introduced to Team Go, Ron asks why Mego wears a purple costume. Team leader Hego replies, "He's a shrinker" and drops the subject. He's a shrinking violet (but not a Shrinking Violet, mind you); Warner/DC would not be amused.
This is also the reason for Violet's Meaningful Name in The Incredibles (she's painfully shy, with her superpower being invisibility, or rather controlling "ultraviolet" light).
And for Austin's fur color in The Backyardigans.
- Also in The Backyardigans, in the episode "Mission to Mars", Austin controls a Mars Rover named Rover. This Trouper also realized the joke about this also meaning the car Austin Rover.
In the The Fairly Oddparents book-jumping episode "Shelf Life":
Wanda: Egad, he turned the Three Musketeers into the three Mouse—
(Timmy then swiftly covers her mouth and teleports them out.)
- And later in the same episode:
Cosmo: So he gets into a physics book, what's the worst that could happen?
Timmy: He could turn gravity into gravy. He could turn the planets into plants. He could turn Uranus into—
Wanda: Oh my God, we have to stop him!
- The segment "Dread and Breakfast" has a cameo by two Shaggy and Scooby-Doo lookalikes. Not-Shaggy refers to Not-Scooby as "Doob", which would probably make "Doob"'s name Doobie.
The first Veggie Tales movie contained—without comment—a bunch of city guards whose weapons were long poles with fish on the ends of them.
George Frankly, of Math Net on Square One TV, also visited the island of Noman. (Back when Kate Monday was still his partner, and he was still with the LAPD.) He explained the name as being of Native American origin.
- In The Mysterious Benedict Society, the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened is on Nomansan Island.
One episode of Tiny Toon Adventures has a Credits Gag explaining that Plucky Duck was "inadvertently omitted from 'The Name Game.'"
- In fact, Wikipedia reports you can't use: Alice, Tucker, Chuck, Buck, Huck, Bart, Art, Mitch, Rich or Richie or you get profanity.
  - Which uses an extremely broad definition of profanity. Using "Bart" or "Art" will likely get some snickers from little kids, but it's hardly profane. Also, they've added two more to the list—Dallas and Maggie—and expanded it to say "profanity or rude language".
The Rugrats movie had Charlotte say towards the beginning of the movie, when referring to the soon-to-be-born Dil, "You know what they say - born under Venus, look for a—" which is then interrupted by her cellphone ringing.
Robot Chicken once had a shot of the Fourth Doctor standing on the first base of a baseball diamond. After waiting a second, the Doctor says "Do ya get it?"
- I thought the joke was the "Senreich-Green University" sign. But when you think about it, that joke make sense.
The Simpsons did it a couple times with the limerick about the man from Nantucket. For the record, "There once was a man from Nantucket/Whose cock was so long he could suck it/And he said, with a grin/As he wiped off his chin/"If my ear were a cunt I would fuck it!."
- "The" limerick? There's dozens with that starting line.
- Once:
  Barney: (doing handsprings) I am the very model of a modern major general!
  Homer: That's nothing! (doing cartwheels) There once was a man from Nantucket, who... D'oh! (runs into wall)
- And again:
  Homer: You know, I once knew a man from Nantucket.
  Bart: And?
  Homer: Let's just say the stories about him are greatly exaggerated.
- And again:
  Homer: There once was this guy from an island off the coast of Massachusetts... Nantucket, I think it was. Anyway, he had the most unusual personal characteristic, which was, um...
  - Another instance not using the man from Nantucket limerick, maybe even being a parody of its usage, comes in an episode where Krusty the Clown is giving Homer an old trampoline of his and talks about dirty limericks ("There once was a man named Enis...").
  - So WHO had the most limericks written about them - was it the man named Enis, or the woman from Regina?
- Another from the Simpsons is the traffic guy for Channel Six News, Arnie Pie, who very deliberately avoids the painfully obvious pun on his name; his segment, live from the traffic chopper, is called "Arnie in the Sky."
- Still another: Krusty the Clown once mentioned that he and Bette Midler once owned a horse together, and named it "Krudler." For those who didn't get it, the more appropriate name is revealed in the DVD Commentary of the episode: Misty
- Alternatively, the far less appropriate Busty
- The Simpsons also gives us "Sneed's Feed & Seed (Formerly Chuck's)"
In The Tick, there is a running gag where several villains are never actually named, but they are very obvious visual puns. So we have an evil boy genius with see-through plastic cranium, but never actually called "Brain Child". Or the man dressed as someone's granny, obsessed with stealing inventions is never called "The mother of invention".
- And neither is his name Necessity?
Surprisingly, The Powerpuff Girls does this at one point: despite the series' tendency towards the Incredibly Lame Pun, the Mayor's secretary is referred to only as "Miss Bellum." Given her brain capacity relative to that of the Mayor, it's not hard to guess what her first name is... Sarah.
- They have stated her name at least once. However, it was in fact Sarah.
- Also, Him looks like Satan and dresses like Santa. This is never commented on directly.
In Futurama, Fry's grandfather is named "Enis". His rank is "Private".
- Sorry, but there is no stealth pun here. In the episode where the grandfather in question appears ("Roswell that ends well"), his name is Enos.
Batman The Brave And The Bold "Deep Cover for Batman", Batman thinks he may have found an ally in The Scarlet Scarab based on a conversation he heard, but it turns out to just provide misdirection, meaning that the Scarlet Scarab was a Red Herring.
In the Justice League episode "The Terror Beyond", Hawkgirl taunts Icthultu when he wishes to speak to her: "Nothing to say! I have a gesture for you, but my hands are tied." That's right, Hawkgirl wants to flip him the bird.
- Remember, it's the DCAU.
- In the episode "The Balance" Wonder Woman receives a message from Zeus saying "By Decree of Zeus Father of Olympus it is so ordered: Dianna of Themyscira will travel to Tartarus and set right that which has been disturbed." She starts to respond with "He's telling me to go to..." but in interrupted by Hermes saying "Basically".
Subverted in American Dad:
Hayley: The doctor said you have angina⁸
^{This is a real disease}
.
Francine: Which the doctor said sounds a lot like vagina but I don't hear it.
In an episode of Avatar The Last Airbender, the scene after greeting Suki in a robe, under candlelight, a rose in his mouth, Sokka is seen wearing a flower necklace - he got lei'd.
In an episode of Family Guy where Stewie and Brian go to a Disney universe, this universe's Joe is a coffee pot. Joe. Coffee.
- Of course, that's a spoof of Beauty And The Beast, where the teapot is Mrs. Potts and her grandson is a teacup with a chip in it...named Chip.
Mary and Susan Test.
- I wonder if the creator is A Troper.
- So if you watch the show for the sisters... does that mean you're into S&M?
Teen Titans has one of the first type in the episode Can I Keep Him?. While fighting Johnny Rancid's new "pet", Rancid remarks that the beast is "kicking [Robin's]-", and is then interrupted by two green hooves to the gut. One shot later, it is revealed that Beast Boy has, indeed, turned into an ass.
Maggie the housefly's older brother in The Buzz On Maggie is named Aldrin... for "Buzz" Aldrin.
In A Matter Of Loaf And Death, Wallace attempts to stop Piella's bicycle by having Gromit throw tea cakes between his knees and the bicycle and squeezing them. He says he should have tried the granary rolls, which makes sense; after all, Let us brake bread together on our knees... no?
In the third season of Ben 10 Alien Force, Kevin ends up stuck in a composite form, with various body parts made out of various materials, from metal to crystal. In particular, everything from his groin down is made of wood.

Close Western Animation

In the famous F.A.O. Schwarz Toy Store, New York City, there are a pair of life-sized stuffed animals over the display case for board games. They don't say, but they are, of course, cheetahs.
While certainly not intentional, one of the largest elevator manufacturers in the world is the Schindler group. Schindler's Lift.
A possible Stealth Visual Pun: as Richard Hammond pointed out on Top Gear, the Lamborghini Miura was built with doors shaped so that, when both were open, they looked like the horns of a bull. Lamborghini's logo is a bull, and the Miura is a breed of bulls.
Arguably the AT-4 disposable rocket launcher. You'd only really get it if you knew a lot about guns, but it fires 84mm rockets. AT-4. 84. Geddit?
Solaris uses the magic number 0xDEFEC8ED in certain debug outputs... specifically, core dumps.

Close Real Life

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Examples: