I recently stumbled across a forum where a guy was "explaining" that Darth Vader's "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, director" wasn't a pun but a "word play."
First off, OED much?
Second, it's not only a pun, it's a double pun!
- "choke" (metaphorically experience a downfall // physically experience suffocation), and
- on your "aspirations" (metaphorically, overreaching ambitions // physically, the breaths that one "aspirates")
Due to the force of Vader's double-coded discourse, I believe we should saber this particular moment in the film (and not sully its interpretation with ignorance of the nature and scope of paronomasia).
Side note: It's usually at this point of my disputation that my wife poses the question, "Is this really worth thinking about?"
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Puns
October 19, 2017
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