Paraprosdokians…!
Khaliqur Rahman
Paraprosdokians? Have you ever in your life time come across this monster of a word? Well, I hadn’t, until I lay my hands on Karan Thapar’s Sunday Sentiments | ‘Twist in the tale’ in Hindustan Times on the New Year’s Day! Karan, I think, could not have said HAPPY NEW YEAR in a better way.
He claims he got that word from wikipedia and warns us not to try to find this in Oxford dictionary simply because it is not there.
Then he says this (monster) is ‘a figure of speech in which the second half of a phrase or sentence strikes you with surprise not expected. It can be a witty dig and he most enjoys paraprosdokians when they are used as a put down.’ He cites PG Woodhouse’s description of a fat woman: “She looks as though she’s been poured into her clothes and forgot to say ‘when’.”
I don’t know! But I found Guy de Maupassant’s delineation better when he wrote describing a very fat woman: ‘she never stopped eating except to talk and never stopped talking except to eat!’ I don’t really know if this will pass for a paraprosdokian. But I’m also reminded of an Urdu couplet:
Maane’n bura na aap to bas itna poochh loo’n
Kis tarha se in kapro’n ke andar ghusee’n hai’n aap
This might pass for a paraprosdokian because the surprise element, and a witty one, as well, comes in the second half and almost at the end in the word “ghusee’n”. But you’ll find this element in most of the Urdu couplets in which the “qafia”, that is the rhyming word before the “radeef”, that is the refrain consisting of one or more words, nearly always carries the punch with surprise and wit. Also, in the examples of typical English humour, I think, it is the same. Here, I’m reminded of Dryden and the venom in the tail of a scorpion.
I think, this trend or style has always been there. But the name, paraprosdokian, might in the near future be a welcome import from Wikipedia into the current dictionaries.
Karan gives many examples of paraprosdokian, like:
‘Groucho Marx’s parting comment to his hostess: “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.”’ In my opinion, Karan, it is silly rather than witty.
The other one goes like this: “Our quarrels are a case of mind over matter – I don’t mind and he doesn’t matter.” It’s an old one, isn’t it? But I like the one related to Churchill. Karan writes, ‘Churchill was one of the few politicians who used paraprosdokians to great effect. Often the United States was his target: “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”’ Here, Churchill, as ever, is superb and you like the stroke right away. But did he know the name of the ‘stroke’? Was he aware it was paraprosdokian? Come on, Karan, I can see through the effect of spirit on the New Year Eve well before you took it! Is it paraprosdokian, Karan?
Rambling further, he writes, “My cousin Ranjit, who spends his life researching the ephemeral and the obscure, has sent me a joyous collection of paraprosdokians. They are the sort you could use in 2012. So memorise a few and wait for the first good opportunity.”
My goodness me! The cousin spends his life in researching the ephemeral and the obscure and the uncle? It seems he wastes his, trying to petrify and perpetuate them!
Tell me, Karan, if that is paraprosdokian. Karan calls this write-up ‘Twist in the tale’ I think he was trying to twist the stub of the tail, of a boxer!
