Turns of phrase …

… ‘Wit’s End’ Review: You’ve Got to Be Kidding - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Mr. Geary considers punning “at once the most profound and the most pedestrian example of wit at work.” In the eyes of its detractors, the pun is a means of derailing intelligent conversation—a dollop of glibness that stalls debate or the equivalent of a drunk friend certain that impudence is eloquence. But Mr. Geary is having none of this: “Puns point to the essence of all true wit—the ability to hold in the mind two different ideas about the same thing at the same time.”