A Tom Swifty (alternatively spelled Tom Swiftie) is the use of the attribution of a quotation as a pun on some aspect of the content of the quotation. Less eloquently put, it's a joke where the bit that says who said something and how they said it is a pun on what was said. Even more simply, it's a joke based on the Said Bookism used.
The name is a reference to the Tom Swift series of books. They did not use the trope much themselves, rather the books and similar children's books of the time (Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and other dialogue-heavy pint-sized detective novels) went to great lengths to avoid just repeating plain words like "said" and "tell" over and over again. So they employed many adverbs and alternatives: the Said-Bookism is deservedly its own trope. The Tom Swifty then arose later as an effective way of parodying this style until it became associated strongly with the original series itself.
The exact point at which something is considered a Tom Swifty and not something else varies. Some insist that it only counts as a Tom Swifty when the pun is in the adverb, if the pun is in the verb it is often called a Croaker after the example "I might as well be dead," Tom croaked.
Compare Said Bookism, which is going out of your way to using any word other than "said", even if the word is obscure and out-of-place. Sub-Trope of Purple Prose, which is intrusively ornate prose. See Stealth Pun for when the puns are hidden more covertly.
If you want some examples, visit JustForFun.Tom Swifty.
Examples:
Fan Works
- Farce Contact: As a Star Trek: Enterprise parody, it's full of them. For example, Archer says presciently that, "You're the Future Guy!".
- Giggles Bags the Borg
: It's a Star Trek: Voyager uber parody of Biggles.
"That butcher!" said Tom [Paris] cuttingly
"Stay sharp!" he said pointedly.
"I've got to stop the engine!" he choked.
"Looks like a modern work of art," said Tom abstractly.
"I'm coming!" he ejaculated. - MRA Trilogy: Occurs throughout the series. Some of them include "devilfully", "whorily", "canadianly", and "lesboly".
Literature
- Archmaester Gyldayn's Histories: In the novella "The Princess and the Queen", there's a line about a Lord Beesbury saying something waspishly.
- Belgarath The Sorcerer: Belgarath recounts a time when he transformed himself into an owl to spy on someone. He just couldn't resist saying that he watched the person "owlishly".
- Birds of America: Here are some from "Community Life", a short story by Lorrie Moore belonging to the collection.
"This hot dog's awful," she said frankly.
"She's a real dog," he said cattily.
"You're only average," he said meanly.
"I have to go to the hardware store," he said wrenchingly.
"Would you like a soda," he asked spritely. - Discworld:
- The series is littered with them, most captured at The Annotated Pratchett File. Some examples include:
"Pass me the shellfish," said Tom crabbily.
"Let's look for another Grail!" Tom requested.
"I used to be a pilot," Tom explained.
"I'm into homosexual necrophilia," said Tom in dead earnest. - Death has been the object of such puns in The Light Fantastic and Soul Music. In the former, he's just been summoned by the Rite of AshkEnte. He adds, a shade reproachfully, that "[he] was at a party". In the latter, it's used in combination with a Shout-Out to Music with Rocks In —"Thank you", said the grateful Death.
- Making Money: Charlie is used to deliver a double-barrelled pun (admittedly, the same one, but still). "I'm the backbone of the department," said Charlie, a shade proudly.
- The series is littered with them, most captured at The Annotated Pratchett File
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: "He's friends with that dog," said Harry grimly. (He's believed said dog to be a dog-shaped death omen called the Grim for most of the book.)
- Mimsy Were the Borogoves: Alice, the one who had inspired author Lewis Carroll, is a single scene character in this story who "thinks parenthetically" (and her thoughts are in parentheses instead of the more usual italics).
- Moby-Dick: "For hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee!", he wailed.
- Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy (Robert Anton Wilson): A whole chapter consists of a long conversation between three investigators told in this style.
- Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie: Much of the plot actually depends on Tom Swifties. As such, there are many scattered throughout the book. They're scattered throughout the book, though they're all made by Scott and other various characters purposefully after learning them in English class and finding them hilarious.
Video Games
- Commander Keen: The Loading Screen that appears before every level features messages making a humorous pun on the level's name or nature. For instance, "Keen mucks along the Isle of Tar".
Webcomics
- Touhou Nekokayou: Shenanigans in a Magical Forest has a triple-layered example without any actual dialogue:
Websites
- Turkey City Lexicon: An unseemly compulsion to follow the word "said" with a colorful or punny adverb, as in "'We'd better hurry,' Tom said swiftly." An example from Stephen King: "'I'm the plumber,' he said, with a flush." This was a standard mannerism of the old Tom Swift adventure dime-novels. Good dialogue can stand on its own without a clutter of adverbial props. (Not to mention that these little winks are only funny to the pre-pubescent 11-year-olds who comprised most of Tom Swift's core demographic. Anyone more mature—such as a 12-year-old—will give them the groans they deserve.)
- More examples here.
- TV Tropes: The image of Fish-Eye Lens has this quotation: "Recognising a portrait through this much distortion is impossible", said Tom hyperbolically.
Non-Fiction
- Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest: It's a competition for bad prose, so this trope is kinda enforced. From Kimberly Baer, Woodbridge, VA in 2016, we have these.
"Nurse, I need more blankets, and my water pitcher is empty, and also my bedside lamp isn't working," Tom said coldly, dryly, and darkly, yet at the same time patiently.
- Stephen King mentions Swifties in his memoir/manual of style On Writing. "When debating whether or not to make some pernicious dandelion of an adverb part of your dialogue attribution," he remarks, "I suggest you ask yourself if you really want to write the sort of prose that might wind up in a party game."
- The New York Times newspaper held a contest for the top Tom Swifties.
- Wizards of the Coast: Mark Rosewater once held a Magic: The Gathering-related Tom Swifty contest. The results can be seen here. They will only make sense if you know the cards they're referencing, though.
