Paraprosdokian

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A paraprosdokian (from Greek "παρα-", meaning "beyond" and "προσδοκία", meaning "expectation") is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists.

An especially clever paraprosdokian not only changes the meaning of an early phrase, but also plays on the double meaning of a particular word, creating a syllepsis.

[edit] Examples

• "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." — Henry J. Tillman^[1]
• "I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat." — Will Rogers^[2][3]
• "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." — Groucho Marx
• "I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know." — Groucho Marx
• "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." — Groucho Marx
• "I want to die like my father, quietly, in his sleep—not screaming and terrified like his passengers." — Bob Monkhouse^[4]
• "A modest man, who has much to be modest about." — Winston Churchill (of Clement Attlee)^[5]
• "I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too." — Mitch Hedberg
• "I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long." — Mitch Hedberg
• "I like going to the park and watching the children run and jump around, because you see, they don't know I'm using blanks." — Emo Philips
• "I decided to go into a draconian diet, cutting alcohol, fat, and sugar. In two weeks, I lost 14 days." — Tim Maia
• "I've never seen him so down, or ever before." — Scruffy in Futurama
• "If I could say a few words, I would be a better public speaker." — Homer Simpson^[6]
• "We broke up because I caught her lying... under another man." — Doug Benson
• "If I am reading this graph correctly, I would be very surprised." — Stephen Colbert^[7]
• "I was expelled from college for cheating. It was very serious, because it was with the dean's wife." — Woody Allen
• "Mark my words. No, Mark, I really need my words." — Stephen Colbert
• "I woke up in the morning, my sister made some eggs. So we cooked them." — Emo Philips
• "If all the girls at Vassar were laid end to end, I wouldn't be surprised." — Dorothy Parker
• "I blew a speaker in my car today, that sucked... Yeah, he was a motivational speaker. Left a bad taste in my mouth but I feel a lot more positive." — Doug Stanhope
• "Anyway, long story short...is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling..." — Abraham Simpson

[edit] See also

• Garden path sentence
• List of linguistic example sentences
• Pronunciation

[edit] References