It's because this page was originally created because tropers were misguidedly potholing puns to Incredibly Lazy Pun, now Stealth Pun. With just two letters to change, this took the load off. Somehow, it evolved into a whole trope page, like a Pokemon.

Maybe there needs to be a new page called "Get It?" or "See What I/They Did There?"

I suggest deletion. This article is supposedly about puns that are referred to as lame in-series, but in reality its function is to cater for a silly memetic disorder. We don't need a page to link to when anything is a pun. I think we'd gain more in stopping people from doing it (it's pointless, irritating and ubiquitous) than we'd lose in losing such a minor trope. And besides, like I said, it's not really about the trope. I added a notice saying that people shouldn't link to this page for no reason because that's not what it's for, and that got removed presumably because that's what it is for. With "Incredibly Lazy Pun" renamed, there's no need for this any more.

In the aggregate, I have to admit I agree with you- these Pot Holes seem to exist for the sole purpose of explaining jokes, and the way it's linked implies that all puns are bad puns.

But this topic is just too big- it's not appropriate for rogue action. I recommend you take it to Trope Repair Shop. I'm not sure, for example, that the page here is not salvagable- most of the examples are genuinely lame puns. It's the Pot Holes that are giving us trouble.

Maybe make a project to redirect the potholes to a more appropriate pun page? Seems mostly they're more appropriate to A World Wide Punomenon, which for some reason I keep wanting to type as "World Wide Pundemonium"

Just a brief note, puns listed on the page aren't supposed to be lame. They just need to be considered lame by characters in the story.

Not only that, I'd like to point out there is a bloody epidemic of people potholing ANY JOKE as an Incredibly Lame Pun. I don't mind the constant potholes of genuine puns, but there appears to be a lot of people who simply don't understand the concept.

@AFP I *love* World Wide Pundemonium.

The reason people like using Incredibly Lazy Pun or Incredibly Lame Pun as potholes is because they look self-deprecating, which fits the odd little culture that exists around punning. Everyone has to pretend that puns are never funny, and even when you make one yourself you're supposed to apologise for the trauma you've caused; this pothole isn't saying "LOOK I MADE A FUNNY!", it's just the TV Tropes equivalent of saying "if you'll pardon the pun" or "sorry, couldn't resist". I don't see why people get so worked up about it.

We could change the name of this page and make the old name a subjective trope.

Again, these are all perfectly valid issues, but this page is too large and well-linked. It's impossible to undertake such a project without explicit admin approval and assistance.

I've put up a Trope Repair Shop topic on this subject. At the very least the banner should insure that someone does something about this eventually.

The thing that bugs me is that a lot of the potholes seem to have been randomly thrown into articles, on words and phrases that aren't even puns, and in the context used couldn't even be mistaken for such. It gets to levels similar to Isnt It Ironic in how things are identified as being "puns" that in fact aren't even close.

wasn't supposed to be a reply

Unless they react to it as such in the play, it doesn't count for this trope.