Start your day with a great headline
My mood — considerably dark of late — picked up right away when I saw this atop my morning paper:
Oh, how I love a good pun headline. I love a good cultural reference. I love a headline that makes you stop and take note.
This one was a triple word score.
UPDATE: The hed was written by our copy desk staffer Patti Tims. Patti, you’re my new hero!
Yes, I know the danger of “cutsie” headlines. I’ve seen terrible puns over the years. I’ve seen cultural references that left me scratching my middle-aged head. I’ve seen headlines that were so obscure that you had to read a few inches of the story just to find out what the hell the headline meant.
And I also understand that if you’re not familiar with John Lennon, you might not “get” this one.
 
Pun heds became so rampant last year in San Antonio that the editor there banned them. Express-News public editor Bob Richter wrote:
“I am prepared to take disciplinary action against our most senior headline writers and editors if my order is not respected,” [editor Robert Rivard wrote in a staff memo]. “I do not want to be the editor of a newspaper where we limit the creative use of language … I want even less to be the editor of a newspaper riddled with puns.”
Among the puns that inspired the ban:
“Old well ends well: River Walk threat wiped out”
“Mumps outbreak swells”
“Border violence killing tourism”
“Bell’s name doesn’t have a familiar ring for many voters”
“(Pope) Benedict names a flock of new cardinals” ÂÂ
Like I said last year, when I posted this at VizEds: I use puns like some people use coffee. Except I don’t put cream and sugar in them. So a ban would kill me.
On the other hand, this may explain why I don’t write headlines for a living.
Read the San Antonio public editor’s column here:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA043006.03B.Richter.7ed8cb7.htmlÂÂ
Read the VizEds pun hed thread from a year ago here:
http://www.visualeditors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5086
That thread from last May was picked up by the Journerdism blog. See it here:
http://www.journerdism.com/index.php/2006/05/04/charles-apple-shows-great-perspective-on-a-paper-slicing-rotten-headline-puns/
So is this a great head? Does it suck? What do you think? What is the best “pun” headline you’ve ever used?
May 30th, 2007 at 8:02 am
The headline made sense once I googled John Lennon and “All We’re Saying”, but I’m not very taken with the hed (and I like Lennon and the Beatles). I usually like pun heds, but I have a few “benchmarks” that I set for myself when writing them:
1. Don’t just use a pun; use a play on words in the pun (change a word, or use the subhed to redefine the meaning of words in the pun).
2. Don’t make people have to make too big a leap or too many little leaps to make the connection.
3. The hed has to at least make sense even if the readers don’t get the reference. My stance has always been that even if only a few readers get the reference hidden in your pun hed, it’s still worth doing, but at the same time it also must convey the story to readers who don’t get the reference.
In order for “All we’re saying” to make sense in this situation, someone has to recognize that, of all the common cases where you see the phrase “all we’re saying” used in our daily lives, it’s referring to the line from a John Lennon song (and this phrase is a bit too generic/common to make that immediate connection), and then they have to know the next line of the song, at which point they’d then presumably make the connection between “peace” and “peas”. I just think that’s too many leaps for someone to make. Even a John Lennon fan would not necessarily get that right away.
I think “Give Peas a Chance” would’ve worked better. It would’ve immediately tied the pun to the image, so even if people don’t recognize the Lennon reference, they still understand the hed, since you don’t need to know the song to know the phrase “give peace a chance”. And for people who do get the Lennon reference, it’s like a reference hidden within a reference, the cherry on top of the sundae.
This reminded me of a couple lyric-related puns hed I wrote. When the Hurricanes lost to the Blues, my hed was “Tangled up in Blues”. And for a story about a young Tar Heels basketball team’s future after losing all their stars from the 2005 title team: “Is it all over now, baby blue?” (which I think might’ve been a bit forced). And yes, I am a huge Dylan fan.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:21 am
I LOVE this headline, and I love the fact that the writer DIDN’T finish it off with the obvious “give peas a chance.” Doing so would’ve dumbed down the cultural reference for the [I'm only guessing] much smaller percentage of readers who didn’t immediately get it. Too often, I think, we underestimate our readers’ intelligence.
I’m generally not a fan of puns, but this one works on several levels. I’d easily plunk down 50 cents at the rack on the strength of this refer alone.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I like it. I got it right away, and I like peas more than I like the Beatles (sorry). I also used a Beatles reference today, just for all you fans. With a story about jaywalking, I used a photo of people using a crosswalk, with the cutline reading: “The Beatles used a crosswalk on a famous album cover, so why can’t everyone else?”
May 30th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I like it… and I like it a lot better than the hed I suggested a bunch of years ago for a story I did about kidney stones: “Breaking up is hard to do.” (Neil Sedaka, if you don’t get it.) Probably a good thing I’m no longer a beat reporter….
May 31st, 2007 at 3:21 am
It’s a visual pun and it is features content - so it already works on a different level than those SA news heads.
Question I hold to you is about the speed of decoding this Baby Boomer referenced promo. If I read this Pict-O-Pun naturally (Left-to-right) it reads “Give PEAS a chance - All we are saying . . .”
Shouldn’t the image “Give PEAS a chance” be on the right to match the lyrics? I may have gotten the headline a half-second sooner.
Also, Charles now I can’ get neither that bloody song nor the images of Yoko and John in bed out of my head. I guess it now has to go on the VizEds Lunch CD Swap mix tape.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:21 am
Slightly off the point, but did anyone else find the pun jarring running as it did over a big lede package on May being the 3rd deadliest month in Iraq?
May 31st, 2007 at 8:53 am
Charles gives peas a chance — right after his 5th cheeseburger.
May 31st, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I burst out laughing when I saw the peas headline. I LOVE it. Of course, I also love using puns in headlines myself (where appropriate, of course), so I’m actually a bit jealous of the headline writer. I think if we can give readers a little giggle (or even a groan) on a light story, it’s a good thing. We need to do what we can these days to engage readers. I think if a reference is something that a reasonable amount of people should get, like one of the most famous Lennon song lines, it’s fine; if you’re referencing some obscure Elizabeth poet, you’re being too clever for the room. And, of course, don’t use a pun where it would be insensitive. I’ve thought of some dandies that I wouldn’t think of actually using because they’d be tacky given the tone of the story.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:43 pm
i didn’t get it. =( it’s like a joke not being funny anymore when you have to explain it (or google it). i suck.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I got it, but it took a second. My brain did this:
1. All we are saying…
2. Peas
3. Give peas a chance
4. Give Peace a chance
5. All we are say-ing…
that’s all I would have needed to get it on the first reference. The break in saying, so it can be said as sung. It was so close yet so far…
June 1st, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Yeah - put me in the “I didn’t get it” camp.
I saw it on Newseum, looked at it for a second, couldn’t figure out what they were going for and moved on.
Then as soon as I saw this posting saying “I love a good pun headline” my brain did the math instantly. Maybe I hadn’t had my coffee yet …
June 1st, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Making general bans is a lazy way to deal with a perceived problem. Puns can be bad, but they can also help connect to a reader. As an editor you know who would have trouble writing pun heads. Talk to them, don’t make sweeping statements. Remember, its not about making your job easier, it should be about the reader.
And for those that doubt my intuitiveness with general opinion, I have an 85% prediction rate on “Everybody Votes” on my Wii!
June 1st, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I did not get it either. I may not be the right generation? But I like the simplicity. I thought it was a teaser to some kind of preview of the new VP design! I would have like a just a tad more info to peak my interest. BTW…Was it a food story actually about Peas or a story about John Lennon?
August 11th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
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