In the spirit of fun with words, I dedicate this post to paraprosdokians. Apparently, Winston Churchill, who was no slouch with words, loved them.
The textbook definition reads: “Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation.”
Here are a few samples:
- Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
- We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
- To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
- I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
- Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
Oddly enough, paraprosdokians are harder to create than you might think. I’ve wracked my brains to come up with one and the best I can do is: “He ran his mouth all evening and finally tripped over his tongue.”
I know I’ve got funny and inventive readers out there. Let’s hear your paraprosdokians.
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