Calambur

The calambur is a phonetic resource, based on homonymy, paronymy or polysemy. It consists of modifying the meaning of a word or phrase by grouping its syllables in different ways.

Origin

According to most authors, the father of this linguistic artifice is Georges de Bièvre, who apparently began to exploit the hilarity caused at the court of Louis XVI by the continuous misunderstandings carried out by the Count of Kalemburg, ambassador of Westphalia, due to his poor command of the French language. Other studies make it come from the French calembour (from calembourg, and this, from Kahlenberg, a town whose parish priest around 1300 was famous for his puns). Encyclopédie records that its written use dates back to 1630 when Devaux dos Caros (pseudonym, not verified, used by Adrien de Lasseran de Massencome de Monluc) wrote the story "of his breadcrumbs". In any case, the French language lends itself to these linguistic devices due to its 42-letter alphabet and particular pronunciation.

However, there are those who postulate that the term calambur comes from the Arabic kalembusu (equivocal word), or from the Italian calamo burlare (to mock with the pen).

Examples

Attributed (unconfirmed) to Francisco de Quevedo

The most famous calambur in the history of the Spanish language is attributed to Francisco de Quevedo, who called "coja" to Queen Isabel de Borbón (she was really lame and who was very angry at all mockery of her disability), the first wife of Felipe IV of Spain, after betting the payment for a dinner with her colleagues that Quevedo himself had the courage to say said insult to the face.

Quevedo bought two bouquets of flowers, one of white carnations and the other of red roses, and appeared before the queen in the public square where she was. With a courteous bow, Quevedo extended his arms offering the queen, Isabel de Borbón, the two bouquets, one held in each hand. Then Quevedo recited to the queen the two verses that would make her friends pay for the bet dinner. And he said thus:

Between the white carnage and the red rose, your majesty chooses. / Between the white and the red rose, your majesty is lame.

Another calambur of Quevedo is found in a poem of his, narrating the wedding of some slaves:

She's a slave and he's a slave who wants to hit him in the middle. She's a slave and he's a nail who wants to hit her in the middle.

Telemadrid advertising campaign

A famous example, this one more modern, is that of an advertising campaign (which came out in April 2007) for Telemadrid, the public television channel of the Community of Madrid. The motto was devised by the Publicis agency, specifically by the publicist Blanca Gomará. Officially, the calambur was not done tendentiously, but was the result of a coincidence; However, many say that the motto really had the purpose of transmitting a hidden message that expressed a complaint to Esperanza Aguirre (president of the Community of Madrid) for alleged partisan interventions on Telemadrid. Said motto was repeated by several journalists from the chain while holding a mirror, in the advertising of said chain and also on the road and public transport. After realizing the hidden message in the slogan, the campaign was immediately withdrawn. The motto was the following:

Telemadrid, mirror of what we are. / Telemadrid, "Espe" fuck what we are.

Foam

An instrumentalization of calambur can also be found in the use made of it by Juan Luis Cano and Guillermo Fesser, members of the Gomaespuma duo. In the numerous radio sketches that they improvised at different stages of the program that received the same name, they baptized their characters with combinations of first and last names that were at least amusing in their alternative meaning. Some of these characters were: Elena Nito del Bosque, Felipe Lotas, Chema Pamundi, Luis Ricardo Borriquero, Felipe Luquín, Francisco Rupto, Josechu Letón, Aitor Tilla, Diego Norrea or Carmelo Cotón. This type of name is also frequently used by Francisco Ibáñez in his Mortadelo and Filemón cartoons, naming various establishments Banco Riendo ("they are running") or Estanco Jeando ("they are limping").

The Simpsons

In the same sense as the previous ones, the television series The Simpsons used -especially in its first seasons- this comic resource. It was common to see Bart Simpson make phone calls to Moe Szyslak (owner of the Moe's tavern of the same name), asking for a fictitious person whose name masked a coarse calambur. The mockery was not detected by Moe until he did not formulate the name out loud, having to endure the laughter of the people in the bar who observed how Moe had fallen for the joke again. An example is:

Moe: Moe Tavern!

Bart: Is Empel in?

Moe: Who?

Bart: Last name Otas.

Moe: Wait a minute, I'll see. (called) Empel Otas, put on the phone Empel Otas.

At the Martin Fierro

The writer José Hernández uses this resource in the seventh canto of his narrative poem El Gaucho Martín Fierro in which the main character calls "cow" to a girl who was entering the dance.

When I saw the brunette/I didn't listen to naides/I told him with the mamúa:/—«Go... go... go people to the dance. »

The author uses the calambur again in this same song but this time addressed to the man who accompanies her, whom he treats as "porrudo" (with abundant and messy hair).

I met him, I came up and I said to him, "Po... r... I pray that a man is/"He never gets angry about this. »

In Mexico

Mexican actor Gerardo Gallardo made famous his character Chef Ornica ("fornica"), who "prescribed" gambles and jokes.

In Venezuela

Jaime Ballestas, lawyer, writer, comedian and photographer, author of novels and short stories in which humor is a central element, such as The case of the five-legged spider, The Baddest Man in the World or The Garden of Inventions, uses a famous pseudonym consisting of a calambur:
Otrova Gomas / Another lazy one.

More examples

• If I take it off, she hunts it down. - If I'm crazy, she's crazy.
• I'm crazy, crazy, and she's crazy. I put it on and she takes it off.
• Hail, Caesar of Rome. / Sometimes it burns Rome.
• Takeshi Kitano. Takeshi! Ta (as a name), you little girl, right?
• Miguel Induráin. / Miguelín Duráin.
• Ace Ventura. Is Ventura?
• My mother was laughing. My mother's sweeping.
• Count Escoto, he's not Count, not Escoto. The Count Escoto neither hides, nor is he coto.
• Alberto Carlos Bustos. / Watching the busts.
• Armando Esteban Quito. / Armando este banquito (perhaps the most famous calambur in Argentina).
• Benito. / I came, play it (also famous in Argentina).
• Serapio Joso. It'll be liceous.
• The Commander. / The walking coma.
• My Commander. - My boss.
• Why did you wash the wheel? / Why does the ball roll?
• The IRA militant. / The militant delira.
• He's not afraid of it. / Nole is afraid (said by a commentator at the end of Wimbledon between Andy Murray and Nole Djokovic).
• Perón increases production and prevents prostitution. / Perón increases production and Avoids prostitution (pancarta placed against Perón during his government).
• Alex Tintor. The extintor.
• The bread is talking. The bread is soft.
• They are of fast minds / They are demented.
• The sweet lament of two shepherds / The sweet lamen afternoon two shepherds (Eglogue I of Garcilaso de la Vega).
• Don't get bored

Anonymous example:

• More expensive. / Mask.
• Heavy astro. You tripped.
• Sweeping. He's laughing.
• Mediocre, if I lie. / Medium growth.
• It'll stop. It'll stop.

The calambur is used for the construction of puzzles such as the following:

• I went downtown and saw some shoes. and I bought what I bought?
• White on the inside, green on the outside, if you want me to tell you, it'spear (the pear).
• Gold seems, silver. it is. What is it?
• This banco is occupied by a father and a son. The father is called John, the son I have already told you (Esteban).
• They say they are of two, but they are only one (the fingers).
• Don't think of other things, you have them at sea, or You see getting furious, or You see handles coming (the waves).
• ?You know what? You will believe if You do. I say this is your capital? But it's not this, You do. I mean, yeah. No, beg and you will know (Oslo and Norway).
• And so. It is, and It's and you don't guess me in a month (the thread).
• You got it. I mean, you. I mean, you. I repeat again; you. I say twenty times and you don't know it (the fabric).
• You see., You see.Of course it is. Don't guess it from here to a month (keys).
• That's it.maidIt ismaid And you'll check that my name has already been told (the maid).

• Me, me. I get up, me. I'm going down; if you guess, you're very nice (the yoio).
• I live in the sea without being a fish and am always playful; I never bathe in the Rhine, for I am the same of the end (the dolphin).
• In one port there are three ships, one is a cruise, another one transatlantic and the other already I said it (the yacht).
• "Yes, monaSo I love you," a galan assured and his lady gave him, astute, his whole name (Simona).
• That's it.layerIt islayerThat this which I say to you, though I do not force you, opens you and covers you (the layer).
• Look at him from right and wrong, he comes and goes; he goes and comes. Yeah. taba no it is. What will it be?
• I have a straight angle and three sides that cover me. Even if you don't want to believe it, my full name. It's a block. (Squad).
• It's puma.It's not animal; it floats and flies... what will it be?
• This is I'm saying, that's what I ask you and you'll be a great boric if you don't say it to the point (the scam).
• Lana goes up, thelow, thieves work it (the knife).
• ?What will it be?? ?What will it be?♪ that on the table is always (the cheese)
• Yeah. in love well understood / would know the name of the lady / and the color of her dress (Elena, purple).
• Hello, my name Enrique Cimiento (enrichment)
• A bread shop is a bakery. A shoe store is a shoe store. A cheese shop, huh?What would it be??
• A boy and a girl go to house, two They're their children. How's that boy and girl?
• By a caminito ♪I've already told you (the cow)
• The fishermen go to the Cala, seas fishing What are they fishing?
• You know who I am, you know who today day?