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What is a compulsive punster called?

Question #87805. Asked by tragic_flawed.
Last updated Sep 06 2016.

avatar
Baloo55th
Answer has 2 votes
Baloo55th
21 year member
4545 replies avatar

Answer has 2 votes.
SOTHC.......

Oct 27 2007, 3:42 PM
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McGruff star
Answer has 6 votes
Currently Best Answer
McGruff star
Moderator
24 year member
3694 replies avatar

Answer has 6 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Good one, Baloo!

I'm not finding a term for a compulsive punster, but I did find the "condition" one might suffer from.
In his book, The Act of Creation (1964), Arthur Koestler reported on the phenomenon of compulsive punning, known as Forster’s syndrome, after the German surgeon who first observed it. In 1929, Forster was operating on a patient suffering from a tumour in the third ventricle – a small cavity deep down in the phylogenetically ancient regions of the mid-brain, adjacent to structures intimately concerned with the arousal of emotions. When the surgeon began to manipulate the tumor, affecting those sensitive structures, the (conscious) patient burst into a manic flight of puns. He exhibited typical sound associations, and with every word of the operator broke into a flight of ideas. The sound of one word swiftly echoed in the sound of the next, and all of the words had something to do with knives and butchery. This gruesome humour, Koestler noted, all came "from a man tied facedown to the operating table with his skull open."

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foerster%27s_syndrome

Although the syndrome appears to be spelled "Forster" the doctor's name was Otfrid Foerster.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otfrid_Foerster

Response last updated by Terry on Sep 06 2016.
Oct 27 2007, 9:00 PM
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McGruff star
Answer has 4 votes
McGruff star
Moderator
24 year member
3694 replies avatar

Answer has 4 votes.
Coming up with something clever (and painfully punny) is what SOTHC (Son of the Household Calvary) does. He can't help himself, that's why I posted the bit about Forster's Syndrome. I was thinking he may have it. Wish he'd visit more often.

Oct 28 2007, 8:45 PM
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