Pun of the week
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The pun goes back at least to 1986 and probably beyond. [See below for antedating to 1940…] I'm not sure who first applied it to Mr. Trump's campaign, or who created the logo.
From the Wellsboro Agitator, 10/9/1940:
Y said,
August 12, 2015 @ 5:50 pm
There's Hell Toupee, the band:
http://www.discogs.com/Hell-Toupee-Hell-Toupee/release/4111284
with a beautifully tacky album cover.
Dan Lufkin said,
August 12, 2015 @ 7:17 pm
Are you gonna permit members to contribute remarks like: "We shall overcomb"?
Garrett Wollman said,
August 12, 2015 @ 8:20 pm
Is this the appropriate time to bring up the fact that "trump" is also BrE for "fart"? (I assume someone else has already made the connection in LL before, but this seems the most appropriate place for it to be archived forever. I imagine all manner of British schoolboy sniggering when the news gets to talking about The Donald.)
Jeff B. said,
August 12, 2015 @ 9:45 pm
It's actually a very bad pun. The literal meaning doesn't even make sense.
[(myl) You need the context:
(The) Devil to Pay – Originally, the saying was "The devil to pay and no pitch hot." In the old wooden-hulled ships, ‘devil’ seams joined the external hull timbers with the deck planking; there are also references to a devil seam back aft, where the hull timbers join at the rudder post. Seams were caulked or sealed—paid—by jamming oakum fiber into the gaps, then smearing the seam with melted pitch or tar. If one of these seams worked open in rough weather, a great deal of water could be shipped before it was repaired. This term is probably the origin of the terms "hell to pay" and "between the devil and the deep blue sea."
Or maybe a different context — see Breffni's comment below…]
Gene Callahan said,
August 12, 2015 @ 10:14 pm
But "Randy Bumgardner" is even funnier in BE.
S. Norman said,
August 13, 2015 @ 8:35 am
There's also the singer Hellen Wheels.
Eli Wongraven said,
August 13, 2015 @ 10:56 am
Garrett W – and to continue your "fart theme" – a few years back, in between a couple of his wives, he dated a Norwegian woman, whose surname is Midelfart. To avoid embarrasing situations, she was always referred to as Midelfar i US media
Breffni said,
August 13, 2015 @ 11:29 am
That nautical derivation of "hell/devil to pay" sounds to me a bit too much like the old chestnut about "freeze the balls off a brass monkey", and sure enough the OED says (under "devil" sense 13: "13. Naut. ‘The seam which margins the waterways on a ship's hull’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.); ‘a seam between the garboard-strake and the keel’ (Funk and Wagnall).
Hence various writers derive the phrase ‘the devil to pay and no pitch hot’; but this is prob. only a secondary and humorous application of ‘the devil to pay’: cf. 22j.".
Here's 22j:
"the devil to pay.
Supposed to refer to the alleged bargains made by wizards, etc., with Satan, and the inevitable payment to be made to him in the end. It has also been attributed to the difficulty of ‘paying’ or caulking the seam called the ‘devil’, near a ship's keel, whence the expanded form ‘the devil to pay and no pitch hot’. But there is no evidence that this is the original sense, and it has never affected the general use of the proverb."
Anyway, when Jeff B. said the literal meaning didn't make sense, I thought he meant "hell toupée" not "hell to pay". I think it's a wonderful image, myself.
Jeff B. said,
August 13, 2015 @ 9:05 pm
By "literal meaning" I meant what is actually written in the political ad. "There will be hell toupee" isn't even grammatical (unless "hell toupee" is a proper noun or a mass noun–but I don't think so. And even so, it doesn't really make sense.) Yes, "toupee" sounds like "to pay." If it were a good pun, however, both expressions would be logical, grammatical and apt. Even the cited newspaper calls it the "year's worst pun."
neko said,
August 15, 2015 @ 1:08 am
Place names as modifiers are hardly unusual, even if the current example is a bit forced. What's a Maine lobster? What's a Philadelphia cheese steak? What are Buffalo wings? Food names are low hanging fruits or maybe I'm just hungry. Maybe Hell is known for more than just toupees, only no one's come back and let us know.
Or you can just keep being a stickler for what you only believe to be "proper grammar" and let the rest of us have a cheap laugh
Jeff B. said,
August 15, 2015 @ 2:52 am
Neko:
I specifically said it isn't grammatical *unless* "toupee" is a mass noun, so your examples don't really apply here. In "Main lobster," "lobster" is a mass noun, so it is grammatical. Same with the cheese steak example. In "Buffalo wings," "wings" is plural, so it's not the same anyway, because the lack of article before a plural implies indefiniteness.
"I saw New York City person."
"I ate Boston sandwich."
"There will be San Francisco parade."
These sentences are not grammatical. The fact they use place names as modifiers is irrelevant.
I'm not sure how I am being a stickler here, but I'm not an expert so any input would be very appreciated.
My point is just as you said yourself. The pun is a bit forced. Hey, don't get me wrong, I enjoy it also. Nobody ever said a bad pun can't be "good." :)
neko said,
August 15, 2015 @ 7:41 am
Ah, got it. I missed your point, sorry. But I'm glad that didn't stop whoever made the campaign logo