I know, I know, you all probably thought Wordplay Wednesday was dead and gone, a relic of a bygone era (last month.) But alas, if you did, you were wrong.
For this Wednesday, our date with clever diction will be kept!
Well, on this Welcome-back Wordplay Wednesday, I thought it would be fun to highlight a common canvas of cleverness: The Witty Tee. (Or if you prefer, Wit-Tee-Shirt works, too.)
Plenty of online shops have popped up in recent years to cater to our inherent desire to wear t-shirts that make people think we think we're funny. But who has time to go through all those designs and find the best, most punny shirts?
Well, luckily for you, apparently I do.
That's right, just for you, I've scoured through some of the most popular tee-shirt shops online, looking for designs that in some way used wordplay to elicit the requisite chuckles (or groans.) In the interest of keeping it G-rated, I also filtered out quite a few models (including a few entire sites that were decidedly NSFW.)
The fruits of my labour? They're all organized nice-like in the slideshow below, complete with my own not-nearly-as-funny-as-the-shirt commentary. Enjoy!
[By the way, if you're reading this in a feed reader, you'll most likely have to click through to the site to see the slideshow. Sorry! But it'll be worth it, I promise.]
[All the shirts in this show can be bought from Busted Tees (the vast majority), Threadless and CafePress. None of the above are affiliate links. The show itself was made using the very cool Slide.com.]
Also, Jon Jackson left a comment below with a link to his own little t-shirt boutique called Crossty.com.
There are some excellent punny shirts on his site, so check it out! Twitter fans might also like this one.
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So, dear readers, what did you think? Good ones or groaners? Let us know in the comments.
Or do you have a favourite funny tee shirt that I didn't come across? If so, drop a link in the comments and let us join in on the fun!
Oh and here's another fun game we can play, as well: If you were going to design your own hilarious tee, what would it say?
I would probably go with: "Treehuggers are Sappy." (Busted Tees, call me.)
Ok, your turn.
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UPDATE JUL 31/08:
So glad Wordplay Wednesday is back. I didn't know what to do with myself!
Daniel, these were hilarious! I also loved your commentary! Most likely to secede was the groaniest (new word?). Heeheeheee! I also moaned at Centaur of Attention. Hmmm, not sure would I put on a shirt, I have often thought of slogan tshirts for the gym but they would not be witty! LOL!
I enjoyed the slides very much. Word Play Wednesday, eh? I like that, too.
I thought this was hilarious, but I haven't seen it on a tee-shirt:
Sporadic High Intensity Trauma happens.
@Jacqueline: lol Yes, I know - it was pretty unbearable for me too. I promise to try to... not forget ...to think to post them every Wednesday from now on ;) Guaranteed!
@Words for Hire: Glad you liked them and didn't find the commentary too dry haha
I think my pick for "groaniest" (great word!) would have to be Centaur of Attention - but I actually thought the "most likely to secede" one was quite clever! I guess because it's not exactly a homonym pair you hear in every day conversation.
And when you think of a witty gym t-shirt, be sure to come back and let us know. How about: "I had a boyfriend, but he didn't work out." [That's the only gym pun I could think of on the top of my head, ok!]
@CCGal: Very nice comment. All double-spaced. All points for proper formatting shall be awarded! hehe, just kidding. I'm glad you liked this post, and if you enjoy the idea, the link at the top should bring you to the series page, where you can read all the past installments. 4 out of 5 doctors agree that doing so would be a good use of a Thursday afternoon.
As for your t-shirt idea, that's brilliant. I saw and almost included a tee in this collection that read: "Shift Happens !1!1" below an illustration of a Shift Key. Same idea, both are good for a laugh.
Keep the the wit-tee suggestions coming folks. Maybe we can form a co-hort and use our collective influence to score a lucrative deal with Busted Tees. Or, worst case scenario, we'll all share a good laugh. ;)
I had a boyfriend but he didn't work out? Maybe because he came up with puns like that. ;) Ouch!!!
i have my own t-shirt company so i have several crossoverts.desigu.com/thatcart - or just crossty.com for short. anyway if you have any shirts you want made, I make custom shirts (OR if i really like the idea, I'll add it to my store, ya know assuming that's cool with you.)
@Jacqueline. Touché.
@Jon Thanks for sharing the link - I've included a link and mention of your site in the body of the post now. You can repay me by sending me a free shirt any time ;)
I really liked the camping in a tent one. I have relatives that say they went camping and then I find out they stayed in a cabin. That isn't camping.
Thanks Daniel, if i print one I'll do that.
Man, I shoulda bought that key chain in Prague. They sell them all over the place, so it really IS marketing! :D
@UltraRob: Yeah camping in cabins is far less outdoorsy, and also much less conducive to puns.
@Jon: Sweet! That would be awesome :)
@Linden: Seriously? That's awesome. Good to know the Czechs are taking full advantage of all cross-lingual pun opportunities for marketing purposes :P