The Comedic Power
of the Misplaced Pause
In church today, the Bible Reader read like so from 1 John 5:10 (ESV):
“Whoever does not believe
… God has made him a liar”;
which sounds like God made the person a liar!
Should read:
“Whoever does not believe God
… has made him [God] a liar”.
Which is the opposite!
One line on the back of a business card a friend gave me says:
All sales support reputable global human trafficking
And then the next line says:
Prevention & Rescue Organizations!
Thus, the sales support the prevention of, and rescue from, human trafficking. Which is the opposite of what you think when you read the first line. (Of course, as she explained, when I pointed that out to her, she only hands out those cards after giving a talk on that subject, so maybe I’m the only one who would read it that way. But since I read it that way; and then the Bible Reader read the way he did this morning, I felt I should post on that subject. No offense intended to the Bible Reader or the card carrier. I’m just pointing out how easily a misplaced pause can cause confusion, which can create comedy too.)
I thought this would make an interesting eulogy for a dearly departed, elderly church woman:
“And, of course, as you may know,
we were lovers.
… Passionate lovers.
… Of God’s Word.”
The first two actually happened this weekend. The third one I made up. The comedienne who made a career out of funny pauses is Wendy Liebman.
“Like a lot of secretaries I practically ran the company
. . . into the ground.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Liebman says this: “Wendy Liebman (born February 27, 1961 in Manhasset, New York) is an American stand-up comedian known for her distinctive style which includes quick, clever follow-ups after her jokes. She starts the joke leading it to one direction then changes it. As in ‘This Thanksgiving I made a 28 pound turkey ... pot pie,’ or ‘I really like to shop....lift.’”
I was busy last week putting together a comedy set I performed this past Friday, so I didn’t have time to post much. The show went great. I’ll probably post more about it. I want to see the footage from it first.
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