Asteismus
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Asteismus is a rhetorical term for a mocking or humorous reply that employs word play.[1]
Examples
- Professor Wagstaff: Tomorrow we start tearing down the college.
- Professors: But professor, where will the students sleep?
- Professor Wagstaff: Where they always sleep: in the classroom.
- (Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers, 1932)
- Captain Spaulding: [to Mrs. Rittenhouse and Mrs. Whitehead] Let's get married.
- Mrs. Whitehead: All of us?
- Captain Spaulding: All of us.
- Mrs. Whitehead: Why, that's bigamy.
- Captain Spaulding: Yes, and it's big of me too.
- (Groucho Marx and Margaret Irving in Animal Crackers, 1930)
References
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