Wednesday, April 18, 2007

'Why the Boys Miss America'

That was the caption that Milt Guss, a newspaper colleague, wrote for this photograph of Bob Hope and a Miss America performing at a USO show at a firebase in Vietnam in 1970.

It was a great caption -- and Milt was a great caption writer -- because it captured the moment beautifully in only five words. But it also worked because of the clever double play on the word Miss.

I bring this up to the erudite readership at Kiko's House because I'm interested in whether anyone is aware of the term for this kind of word play and whether any studies have been done about how the brain processes it.

Lemme know, okay? Any links are appreciated, as well as other examples.

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