This Week's "On Language"

One of the firm groundings I received from my beloved late parents was the understanding that one of the best forms of humor was the lowly pun. It and other language jokes. They both tended to be more amused by verbal humor than by visual, slapstick attempts at humor. My dad could chuckle for hours at a particularly delicious pun.

That being said, I am reminded this week of one of the earliest verbal jokes that I can recall from my childhood. This week's reminder comes courtesy of the death notices for Fess Parker.
There was a line in the ballad "The Legend of Davy Crockett" that always cracked me up, once I got it. See if you can pick out the gem from this verse:

Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee,

Greenest state in the land of the free.

Lived in the woods where he knew every tree;

Killed him a b'ar when he was only three.

Davy

Davy Crockett

King of the wild frontier.

OK, it doesn't take that much to amuse a nine year old kid.