The 26th annual O. Henry Pun-Off World Championship is coming to Austin Saturday.
If you would like to attend the Pun-Off, it's free and open to the public. It's scheduled to be held from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday at Wooldridge Park, located at 900 Guadalupe Street.
News 8 Austin’s Nicole Traynor spoke with last year's winner, Brian Snider, and the event's producer, Gary Hallock.
Q: Explain the pun-off.
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Hallock: The 26th annual O. Henry Pun-Off World championships started way back in the late ‘70s in the backyard of the O. Henry Museum. A lot of people used to hang around there after the Pecan Street Festival to pass the time drinking beer and wise cracking. It started out as a kind of tug-o-war, everyone toss out a pun and see who could one up each other.
Q: What does it take to win the competition?
Snider: It takes, first of all, a little focus to get there in front of a lot of people and be able to maintain a little composure. Second, is the ability to think of a lot of words in certain categories. The topic is thrown out, for example chemistry or archeology, and what you need to do is come up with a lot of words associated with that topic and then come up with puns.