Humor, Part II: Wordplay

A-Nu acknowledges her weakness for wordplay of all sorts. She adores any sort of metaphor, conceit, double entendre, or the like, and puns are her very favorite. To wet blankets like Samuel Johnson, who derided the pun as the "lowest form of humor," A-Nu haughtily retorts that "a pun is its own reword." (She didn't actually think of that; some comedian whose name she can't remember did.) Anyway, A-Nu simply can't understand why more judges don't use puns: they're easy, fun, and will give your law clerks something to snigger about during their otherwise dreary lunches.

A-Nu must therefore give special credit to Judge Selya of the First Circuit. She knows that others’ views on Selya’s writing run the gamut, and she has a whole post, or maybe even a whole series, about Judge Selya in the works. Within the narrow confines of "Judicial Humor - Wordplay Division," however, she thinks Selya should take home top honors. (Of course, given the relative dearth of judicial wordplay, she recognizes that such an assessment is tantamount to remarking that an able-bodied individual would medal in the Special Olympics.) As an example of Selya's verbal dexterity, consider Mathewson Corporation v. Brad Foote Gear Works, 827 F.2d 850 (1st Cir. 1987). Describing Brad Foote Gear Works’ argument, Selya remarked that "Foote’s stance sidesteps the established principle," and therefore "does not toe the mark." Elsewhere, Foote "stumbled" and "put its best foot forward." Ultimately, Selya concluded that the contract did not allow Foote "to slip free of his laces," explaining, "[t]he shoe, fitting, must be worn."

A-Nu knows that some people have criticized Selya for making light of parties' plights by injecting humor into his rulings. The argument, as she understands it, is that Selya's verbal tomfoolery conveys to the parties that he didn't take their claims seriously. She supposes that there is a time and a place not to pun -- death penalty and child rape cases come to mind -- but she fails to see how a well-placed play on words detracts from the logic of an opinion, assuming said logic is otherwise sound.