The Art Of Movie Title Punning

The Art Of Movie Title Punning

Posted on Tuesday November 8, 2011, 17:40 by Ali Plumb in Empire States

Arthur Christmas is a pun, right? Because when you say it out loud, “Arthur Christmas” sounds like “Father Christmas”, doesn’t it? Kind of? Sorta? Maybe?

It’s got to be a pun. After all, they could have picked any other boy’s name, but instead they go for the most assonant one to “Father” they could find. It must be a pun. A very subtle, very weird pun.

With Arthur Christmas’s name hurtling about London on the side of buses recently, I only twigged that “Arthur Christmas” was a play on words a long time after I first heard about Aardman’s CGI Christmas film. About half a year, thinking about it.

It reminded me of the time when I realised that “Beatles” was also a play on words. I was too young, growing up, to realise that the “Beat” in “Beatles” was actually a gag – I just thought that was the way things were – the way “Beatles” was spelt by “The Beatles”.

Reading this totally frivolous little blog, by this point you’re probably thinking one of a couple of things. Either you’re thinking I’m a total moron for not realising The Beatles’s name was a gag, or you’re thinking I’m a moron because I think Arthur Christmas is a play on words, or maybe, just maybe, you can’t think because you’re mind has just been blown by my revelatory information about seminal pop groups’ names and Nick Park’s love of subtle punnery.

Of course, puns and movie titles have been closely intertwined since time began, from the basic (K-9) to the extremely forced (Austin Powers in Goldmember).

But other movie titles have also taken me a while to get. At first, Legally Blonde just seemed like a terrible title for an actually-kind-of-okay movie, but it turns out it’s a play on “Legally blind” and “Legally bound”, except she’s, you know, blonde.

Then there’s Toy Story, which I did genuinely feel dumb about not getting straight off the bat – I just thought it was piece of direct marketing for once – and Grosse Pointe Blank, a play on words involving a town I don’t know, the fact that he’s called Martin Q. Blank, the fact it’s an assassin movie, and the phrase “point blank”. I just thought it sounded cool.

Your Highness also took me a while – he’s a stoner, geddit? And a prince! HA HA HA HA! – and Blades Of Glory, too. Blaze, you see. BLAZE. OF GLORY.

So my question for you revolves around whether you’ve had the same thing happen to you. Ever read a movie pun, be it in the title or the tagline, and only got it days afterwards? Failing that, what’s the worst movie pun you’ve ever seen?

To get you into the mood, here’s a YouTube video compiling every last one of Arnie’s puns in Batman & Robin. Worth every cent of that $25 million paycheque, that performance. Plus, what a Bane! It makes you wonder, can Tom Hardy top that… Hmm. Perhaps a discussion for another blog.