Hold your groans! Wordplay can be inventive, poignant and, at its finest, a shared discovery. Host Frank Stasio talks about puns and wordsmithing with 2019 Great Durham Pun champion Matt Morain and George Gopen, professor emeritus of the practice of rhetoric at Duke University.
Some of the finest examples are portmanteaus: word mashups that create new meaning. An example — hetlagged (adj.) exhaustion from heteronormative media or social interactions. The Great Durham Pun Championship celebrates this brand of linguistic improvisation that serves as a springboard for conversation rather than a self-serving dead-end.
Host Frank Stasio explores the continued importance of creative wordsmithing with last year’s champion, Matt Morain, and with the competition’s judge, George Gopen, a professor emeritus of the practice of rhetoric at Duke University. The sold-out 2020 Great Durham Pun Championship will take place Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Motorco Music Hall and will benefit the Durham Literacy Center.
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