It often happens a bad pun Goes farther than a better one. – W. S. Landon (Last Fruit Off an Old Tree)

Humor arises in a variety of contexts and sources. Any humor derived from words may be called logogenic. This term is coined from two Greek words: logos meaning word, as in logacious (using too many words); and genesis (birth), as in The Book of Genesis. The first example is logogenic humor: the word should be loquacious.

The most common logogenic humor arises from puns, also known as paronomasias (literally beyond-naming, i.e. having a meaning beyond its customary meaning). Punning is common in most languages. Just for the pun of it; it is so punny it makes me laugh.

Another mode of logogenic humor is idioliterality. Here, one uses an idiom in its literal sense. Thus, when the teacher was approaching the student’s home, the student looked down upon him from her balcony. Miners who wear illuminated helmets generally feel light-headed. Bridge is a card game in which a good deal depends on a good deal.

Some definitions are humorous. Here are some:

Baby: an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no responsibility at the other.

Gourmet: a glutton who knows French.

A committee: a group that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

Dogma: a puppy’s mother.

Sneezing: much achoo about nothing.

The use of big words can lead to logogenic humor: A chemist once said, “I will take some dimethyloxymidomesoralamide, and I will add a dash of dimethylamidoazobensaldehyde. If these don’t mix, I’ll just have to fix up a big dose of trisodiumpholoroglucintricarboxycide.

Verbosity can be funny, only if it is intended to be so. So if I were to say, “verbosity involves the utterly unnecessary and totally useless mode of speaking or writing wherein the speaker or writer is bent of articulating a whole series of irrelevant and contextually uncalled for words and idioms to transmit to the reader or hearer what is essentially a very simple and straightforward idea, that would be a blatant case of annoying verbosity such as we find now and again, here and there, even among some highly recognized and reputed writers,” then I would be exemplarily verbose because I could simply have said: “Verbosity means using too many words to say something.”

Use of bombastic words and long sentences is also called circumlocution. This too can be a source of humor. Here is an example from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield in which Mr. Micawber explains why he begins his letter in a formal tone.

“MY DEAR SIR, Circumstances beyond my individual control have, for a considerable lapse of time, effected a severance of that intimacy which, in the limited opportunities conceded to me in the midst of my professional duties, of contemplating the scenes and events of the past, tinged by the prismatic hues of memory, has ever afforded me, as it ever must continue to afford, gratifying emotions of no common description. This fact, my dear sir, combined with the distinguished elevation to which your talents have raised you, deters me from presuming to aspire to the liberty of addressing the companion of my youth, by the familiar appellation of Copperfield!”

Some riddles can be verbose. For example:

I am the center of gravity and hold a capital situation in Vienna. I am foremost in every victory. Always out of time, yet ever in voice, I am invisible, though clearly seen in the midst of a river. I am in both vice and virtue, and I am at the start of vanity. Three letters are in love with me. I am in heaven, but not in hell, I am not in morning or noon or at night, but certainly in evenings. I have always been in the grave. Who am I?

Further hint: I am in the initials of whoever is writing this now.

I am the letter V.

In Richard Sheridan’s play The Rivals, a character by the name of Mrs. Malaprop is in the habit of confusing like-sounding words, leading to humorous effects. Examples of Malapropism would be: A rolling stone gathers no moths (instead of moss); You may show the way and we will precede (proceed).

Or again, recall the character Dogberry in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. That character often misused like-sounding words. Examples of Dogberryism would be: I am not a man of carnival instinctual (carnal instincts). That water is infatuated (infected) with DDT.

Archibald Spooner invented the logogenic humor in which letters in words in a phrase are mixed up. Examples of Spoonerism would be: “The Lord of a shoving leopard” instead of “The Lord is a loving shepherd;” or “The bean is dizzy” instead of “the dean is busy.”

Sometimes unwitting misuse of words can lead to logogenic humor, as in: The Hague is the capitol of The Netherlands. Some people have no principals.

Some logogenic humor results from simple and unintended typos. Once a British publication, whose intent was to inform the reader that the Queen does not elect the Prime Minister, wrote: The Queen of England is not responsible for the erection of the Prime Minister. It meant election. One biblical exposition printed that all human suffering is due to the ball of Adam, meaning the fall of Adam.

Then there are nomenogenic puns: puns involving people’s names. Examples of these include: Many great scientific discoveries made by Hooke or Crookes. The reference is to the physicists Robert Hooke and William Crookes.

Martin Luther was not a King or a Junior.

Yet, of the Vatican and Pope he had no fear.