I still refer to them as the Arlington Rangers.

Campbell Camels.

That one’s even kind of humorous, but it’s not perfect.

Hutto Hippos and (Fort Worth) Poly Parrots from the HS ranks come to mind. Not sure either is exactly a pun, but they are clever.

(03-06-2022 11:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Hutto Hippos and (Fort Worth) Poly Parrots from the HS ranks come to mind. Not sure either is exactly a pun, but they are clever.

Winters Blizzards for the win

(03-06-2022 09:38 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  I still refer to them as the Arlington Rangers.

Arlington… Virginia or Texas? Please provide disambiguation.

Al Bundy was a famous running back for the Polk (High) Dots.

(03-07-2022 09:02 AM)mebehutchi Wrote:  Al Bundy was a famous running back for the Polk (High) Dots.

Four TDs in a single game.

(03-06-2022 08:21 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 07:02 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-05-2022 02:54 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-05-2022 01:03 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-05-2022 11:39 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Brown Bears.

In pros, Texas Rangers.

Those aren’t puns.

Pun:

the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

Maybe they aren’t humorous?

On the spectrum of punniness:
- UConn (vis. "Yukon") Huskies is absolutely a pun -- perhaps the standard-bearer for team name puns.
- Brown Bears seems not particularly punny at first, but it does meet the broad definition of pun.
- Texas Rangers is not a pun; nor is, e.g., Baltimore Orioles.

Dictionary definitions are “broad”. OK.

Quite often -- and no need for the quotation marks, OK. More fundamentally, they are not equations in the mathematical sense of the reflexive property of equality (if A=B, then B=A). A dictionary definition may list the typical characteristics of a term, but that does not mean that anything which literally meets those characteristics is an example of the term. As we know, language has nuances that dictionaries do not (and do not claim to) capture.

I remember one of the regulars here falling squarely into this trap: he misused the word 'ironic", then tried to support it by quoting a definition that seemingly equated "ironic" with "unexpected". He did not seem to understand that while something ironic is necessarily unexpected, merely being unexpected does not make something ironic. Of course, rather than learning from the discussion, he got whiny about it, but that is his way.

(03-06-2022 08:21 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers are a state police force. They are also a baseball team. Not humorous, perhaps, but certainly a pun in other respects.

"Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?" :)

(03-07-2022 08:58 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 11:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Hutto Hippos and (Fort Worth) Poly Parrots from the HS ranks come to mind. Not sure either is exactly a pun, but they are clever.

Winters Blizzards for the win

Comanche Indians

(03-07-2022 09:52 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 08:21 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 07:02 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-05-2022 02:54 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-05-2022 01:03 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  Those aren’t puns.

Pun:

the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

Maybe they aren’t humorous?

On the spectrum of punniness:
- UConn (vis. "Yukon") Huskies is absolutely a pun -- perhaps the standard-bearer for team name puns.
- Brown Bears seems not particularly punny at first, but it does meet the broad definition of pun.
- Texas Rangers is not a pun; nor is, e.g., Baltimore Orioles.

Dictionary definitions are “broad”. OK.

Quite often -- and no need for the quotation marks, OK. More fundamentally, they are not equations in the mathematical sense of the reflexive property of equality (if A=B, then B=A). A dictionary definition may list the typical characteristics of a term, but that does not mean that anything which literally meets those characteristics is an example of the term. As we know, language has nuances that dictionaries do not (and do not claim to) capture.

I remember one of the regulars here falling squarely into this trap: he misused the word 'ironic", then tried to support it by quoting a definition that seemingly equated "ironic" with "unexpected". He did not seem to understand that while something ironic is necessarily unexpected, merely being unexpected does not make something ironic. Of course, rather than learning from the discussion, he got whiny about it, but that is his way.

Your definition of "pun" is not the same as the commonly accepted definition, to cut through the big cloud of pedantry. Maybe you should write a dictionary of English according to you.

(03-07-2022 10:30 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 09:52 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 08:21 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 07:02 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-05-2022 02:54 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Pun:

the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

Maybe they aren’t humorous?

On the spectrum of punniness:
- UConn (vis. "Yukon") Huskies is absolutely a pun -- perhaps the standard-bearer for team name puns.
- Brown Bears seems not particularly punny at first, but it does meet the broad definition of pun.
- Texas Rangers is not a pun; nor is, e.g., Baltimore Orioles.

Dictionary definitions are “broad”. OK.

Quite often -- and no need for the quotation marks, OK. More fundamentally, they are not equations in the mathematical sense of the reflexive property of equality (if A=B, then B=A). A dictionary definition may list the typical characteristics of a term, but that does not mean that anything which literally meets those characteristics is an example of the term. As we know, language has nuances that dictionaries do not (and do not claim to) capture.

I remember one of the regulars here falling squarely into this trap: he misused the word 'ironic", then tried to support it by quoting a definition that seemingly equated "ironic" with "unexpected". He did not seem to understand that while something ironic is necessarily unexpected, merely being unexpected does not make something ironic. Of course, rather than learning from the discussion, he got whiny about it, but that is his way.

Your definition of "pun" is not the same as the commonly accepted definition, to cut through the big cloud of pedantry. Maybe you should write a dictionary of English according to you.

That is both an inaccurate and unbecoming post.
To cut through your cloud of unnecessary defensiveness and obnoxiousness, your declamation of that Texas Rangers, e.g, is a pun does not accurately reflect how puns are commonly understood.
Maybe you should grow up.

(03-07-2022 10:36 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 10:30 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 09:52 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 08:21 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 07:02 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  On the spectrum of punniness:
- UConn (vis. "Yukon") Huskies is absolutely a pun -- perhaps the standard-bearer for team name puns.
- Brown Bears seems not particularly punny at first, but it does meet the broad definition of pun.
- Texas Rangers is not a pun; nor is, e.g., Baltimore Orioles.

Dictionary definitions are “broad”. OK.

Quite often -- and no need for the quotation marks, OK. More fundamentally, they are not equations in the mathematical sense of the reflexive property of equality (if A=B, then B=A). A dictionary definition may list the typical characteristics of a term, but that does not mean that anything which literally meets those characteristics is an example of the term. As we know, language has nuances that dictionaries do not (and do not claim to) capture.

I remember one of the regulars here falling squarely into this trap: he misused the word 'ironic", then tried to support it by quoting a definition that seemingly equated "ironic" with "unexpected". He did not seem to understand that while something ironic is necessarily unexpected, merely being unexpected does not make something ironic. Of course, rather than learning from the discussion, he got whiny about it, but that is his way.

Your definition of "pun" is not the same as the commonly accepted definition, to cut through the big cloud of pedantry. Maybe you should write a dictionary of English according to you.

That is both an inaccurate and unbecoming post.
To cut through your cloud of unnecessary defensiveness and obnoxiousness, your declamation of that Texas Rangers, e.g, is a pun does not accurately reflect how puns are commonly understood.
Maybe you should grow up.

Understood. You are the arbiter of what is a pun and what is not, and I am a child who should listen. This thread was fun until you started to administer it, thereby missing the point.

(03-07-2022 10:48 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 10:36 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 10:30 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 09:52 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 08:21 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Dictionary definitions are “broad”. OK.

Quite often -- and no need for the quotation marks, OK. More fundamentally, they are not equations in the mathematical sense of the reflexive property of equality (if A=B, then B=A). A dictionary definition may list the typical characteristics of a term, but that does not mean that anything which literally meets those characteristics is an example of the term. As we know, language has nuances that dictionaries do not (and do not claim to) capture.

I remember one of the regulars here falling squarely into this trap: he misused the word 'ironic", then tried to support it by quoting a definition that seemingly equated "ironic" with "unexpected". He did not seem to understand that while something ironic is necessarily unexpected, merely being unexpected does not make something ironic. Of course, rather than learning from the discussion, he got whiny about it, but that is his way.

Your definition of "pun" is not the same as the commonly accepted definition, to cut through the big cloud of pedantry. Maybe you should write a dictionary of English according to you.

That is both an inaccurate and unbecoming post.
To cut through your cloud of unnecessary defensiveness and obnoxiousness, your declamation of that Texas Rangers, e.g, is a pun does not accurately reflect how puns are commonly understood.
Maybe you should grow up.

Understood. You are the arbiter of what is a pun and what is not, and I am a child who should listen. This thread was fun until you started to administer it, thereby missing the point.

Now you're catching on!
But seriously:
- I have not positioned myself as the arbiter any more than you have. You offered "Texas Rangers" as a pun (even though I doubt you yourself even believe it), I disagreed, and since then you have adamantly dug in your heels that YOUR understanding is the correct one (THAT is arbiting!), with obnoxiousness and open belittlement of a competing view. Why? You didn't have to choose that tone.

- Yes, your recent responses have been childish -- and I think you KNOW they have been.

- If you're not having fun, the fault is more yours than mine. Other people have contributed names to the discussion, with better judgment and less defensiveness than yourself.

Of course, I'm happy to chalk it up to Monday morning.

(03-07-2022 11:04 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 10:48 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 10:36 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 10:30 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 09:52 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  Quite often -- and no need for the quotation marks, OK. More fundamentally, they are not equations in the mathematical sense of the reflexive property of equality (if A=B, then B=A). A dictionary definition may list the typical characteristics of a term, but that does not mean that anything which literally meets those characteristics is an example of the term. As we know, language has nuances that dictionaries do not (and do not claim to) capture.

I remember one of the regulars here falling squarely into this trap: he misused the word 'ironic", then tried to support it by quoting a definition that seemingly equated "ironic" with "unexpected". He did not seem to understand that while something ironic is necessarily unexpected, merely being unexpected does not make something ironic. Of course, rather than learning from the discussion, he got whiny about it, but that is his way.

Your definition of "pun" is not the same as the commonly accepted definition, to cut through the big cloud of pedantry. Maybe you should write a dictionary of English according to you.

That is both an inaccurate and unbecoming post.
To cut through your cloud of unnecessary defensiveness and obnoxiousness, your declamation of that Texas Rangers, e.g, is a pun does not accurately reflect how puns are commonly understood.
Maybe you should grow up.

Understood. You are the arbiter of what is a pun and what is not, and I am a child who should listen. This thread was fun until you started to administer it, thereby missing the point.

Now you're catching on!
But seriously:
- I have not positioned myself as the arbiter any more than you have. You offered "Texas Rangers" as a pun (even though I doubt you yourself even believe it), I disagreed, and since then you have adamantly dug in your heels that YOUR understanding is the correct one (THAT is arbiting!), with obnoxiousness and open belittlement of a competing view. Why? You didn't have to choose that tone.

- Yes, your recent responses have been childish -- and I think you KNOW they have been.

- If you're not having fun, the fault is more yours than mine. Other people have contributed names to the discussion, with better judgment and less defensiveness than yourself.

Of course, I'm happy to chalk it up to Monday morning.

Bolton

I had Connecticut at #126 this season, 8 spots lower than Rice and just one ahead of #127 Southern Miss.

(03-07-2022 10:03 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 08:58 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 11:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Hutto Hippos and (Fort Worth) Poly Parrots from the HS ranks come to mind. Not sure either is exactly a pun, but they are clever.

Winters Blizzards for the win

Comanche Indians

Would the team name be more, or less, offensive if the town (and school) changed its name to Calcutta, TX?

Anyway you checked the “double meaning” box

(03-07-2022 08:58 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 11:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Hutto Hippos and (Fort Worth) Poly Parrots from the HS ranks come to mind. Not sure either is exactly a pun, but they are clever.

Winters Blizzards for the win

Not so fast OATM!

Hamlin Pied Pipers

(03-08-2022 03:16 PM)greyowl72 Wrote:  

(03-07-2022 08:58 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(03-06-2022 11:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Hutto Hippos and (Fort Worth) Poly Parrots from the HS ranks come to mind. Not sure either is exactly a pun, but they are clever.

Winters Blizzards for the win

Not so fast OATM!

Hamlin Pied Pipers

How about Sam Houston High Humidity?

OK, I made that one up.