At work on Friday we sought a word that means either:

• "reading a passage literally and pedantically in order to see humour," or
  
• "placing a humorous interpretation on a passage that is strictly consistent with the passage, but extremely unlikely to have been the author's intent."

It seems there should be a word for one or both of those concepts but I couldn't think of one.

Stumped us all, virge.

Yes, I did look. I spent time Googling, but to no avail. Still, somebody here must be able to come up with something.

I'm beginning to think there isn't an English word for it. Anyone with a neologism to suit?

Humourising? Funnying?

Re-contextification?

How about parrotying?

You're both repeating and parodying what the author wrote.

How about ludilection?

I just noticed that the way my settings are set the title of this thread on my screen at the moment reads

Is there a word for... (arnie)

So, is there?

ludilection???

I couldn't find it anywhere.

BTW, I would think, in this day and age, there would be a better reverse dictionary. When you put a specific definition into a reverse dictionary (any of the ones I have used), you get so many words. It doesn't help at all.

A word for Arnie... SmartyPants

quote:

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I couldn't find it anywhere.

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I'd have been very surpised if you had. I coined it two days ago.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Miatusha!

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Bless you!

quote:

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Originally posted by arnie:
How about _ludilection_?

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Frum Latin "ludum," play? Or from the Czech, "lud," meaning crazy?

Tourist in Berlin: "Ah-ah-a-CHOO!"*

Bystander: "Gesundheit!"

Tourist: "Thank God! I've found someone who speaks English!"


*(Or was it Miatusha! ??)

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
_Miatusha!_

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Oh, Mama Mia, Kalleh, whatsa matta witha you tusha?

Asa: Oh, Mama Mia, Kalleh, whatsa matta witha you tusha?
shufitz: Nada! Kalleh is calli-pygous.

I like arnie's 'ludilection', but since it's virge who posed the question, he should be the judge. <smiles>