This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
//Actually, Knight Rider and Remington Steele are both punny titles. The main character of the former is Michael Knight, who is something of a knight errant (and who often rides at night.) Remington Steele used to steal its plots and devices from old movies cited by the title character.
Looney Toons: Within context of the show, "Remington Steele" was named by Laura Holt based on her typewriter and the Pittsburgh Steelers. I don't think that there was anything more to it than that.
Idle Dandy: That doesn't mean the show creators named him that way. While I don't have anything official to back me up, I think they had the pun in mind. Also, the faux Mr. Steele came into Laura's life because he was trying to steal jewels she was protecting.
Morgan Wick: I've read that Will And Grace is a reference to medieval arguments on how people got to heaven: could they get there by their own free will, or did they have to hope for God's grace? However, I've only read it in one place...
Ununnilium: It certainly sounds like a pun-based title; the two main characters' names which are also English words.
Kilyle (interrupting previous conversation to add): Will And Grace almost certainly is a pun-based title. Whether it's based on the will vs. grace argument, or a variation thereof (e.g., you exercise your will to accept God's grace), or some other case, I've always thought there was something there that I'm just not quite picking up on. But alongside shows with titles like Hope and Faith and the like, I doubt Will and Grace is an anomaly.
Colette: The whole point of the Good Life is that Tom and Barbara Good *didn't* move to the country - they stayed in their fairly posh bit of suburbia and turned their front and back gardens into a minature urban farm.
Seth: So you guys really dont do this? I think saying remington steel is a pun because the title character is a thief is a major stretch. Personaly i always thought Knight Rider was a pun on the very well known phrase night rider(Well known to bikers at least) as well as the main characters name so it might fit in the main examples.
Also i have to ask why is the talk page indexed?
Morgan Wick: Because Colette doesn't know what the index markup box is for, in part because we STILL haven't even made clear that you don't put it up every time you post.
Mister Six: Took out Doctor Who because the title isn't actually a pun of any kind (Doctor Who isn't a well-known phrase separate from the TV show and people only refer to him as "Doctor Who?" as a little in-joke to the title). Also: Remington Steele? Seriously?
Paul A: Personally, I suspect whoever added Remington Steele was thinking of the fact that most of the episode titles were pun-based. (Which there is a separate page for, on which Remington Steele is already mentioned.)
Boobah: Pulled these
- U.S. example — Miss Match, the short-lived show about Kate Fox — divorce attorney by day, matchmaker by night.
- U.S. example — Arrested Development, in which a development company's boss is arrested for fraud; it follows his family, whose members are in various stages of arrested development themselves. Additionally, the company is in a stage of arrested development until he can get out of jail.
because while they may be descriptive names, there's a complete lack of pun.
Ununnilium: ...is your pun-sense broken?
Arrested Development - A psychological term, describing the state of the family; also, the patriarch is literally a developer who was arrested
Mismatch - things that don't go together; she's a "miss" who "matches" people and takes care of "mismatches" in divorce court. It's frankly a bit weak, but...
Mister Six: Restored Arrested Development and Miss Match.
Ununnilium: Considering the number of US examples we have now, I'm going to modify the part that says it's rare here.
Yuudai: "House's name either refers to the literal 'house MD' who works on a particular hospital floor or allegorically to Sherlock Holmes." I've been staring at this sentence for a while now, and I still have no idea what it means. Anybody else got a clue?
Alania: Apparently a "house MD" is a doctor who works on a particular hospital floor. "House" is also a pun on "Holmes" (holmes/homes/house, geddit?) — the character House was inspired by Sherlock Holmes.
Arakhor: Oookaaayyy. I'm no stranger to unnecessarily drawn-out and/or strangled-at-birth puns, but this alleged House MD/Sherlock Holmes connection is really stretching the point.
Alania: The House-Holmes connection is a fact. It has been confirmed by the show's creators.
Micah: I want to split this page. The forum discussion is here
.
Some Sort Of Troper: While the discussion occurs, I have moved examples that don't fit the trope description down to the bottom of the page into a separate section.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: I'm for this.
Whogus The Whatsler: Help me out here — what does the title Six Feet Under supposedly refer to other than "dead and buried"? I could have sworn it just had the one meaning.
Some Sort Of Troper: The name for this was pluralised and that's not only out of pattern for the site but also unintuitive and difficult to adjust for the singular so I have moved the name over to Pun-Based Title and then we can just use {{ }}s to make a plural. I'll fix the wicks that we have out there.
