You Shake. I’ll Stir.
You ought to get out of those wet clothes and into a dry martini.
“Every Day’s a Holiday” (1937)
antanaclasis, the pun. From the Greek, meaning, more or less, boomerang.
Technically, of course, the martini gets into the drinker. One generally doesn’t get into a martini without a large supply of bathtub gin.
Bertie Wooster, P.G. Wodehouse’s feckless English gentleman-about-town, often talked about wrapping himself around a drink. As with many good figures, the nonsense helps make it funny. But the liquid essence of the quote consists of some dry humor of its own: the word “dry.” It’s a special kind of pun that uses “wet” as a counterpoint to set it up.
The antanaclasis is that tricky kind of pun. It plays on a previous word, often through some sort of real or applied repetition; as in, “You ought to get into dry clothes and into a dry martini.”
Try the technique yourself by screwing up a cliché. For instance, if your significant is a fashion hound, try something like: “The more clothes you change, the more you remain the same.”
Then pour a martini.
Reader Comments (8)
Figaro is all for simultaneous martinis and sex, however. In addition, he is pro-profanity on all occasions. His own children were taught the etymology of swear words before they turned 3, and they grew up to equate profanity with etymology, a topic that rarely leads to underage sex or drinking.