The longest running pun competition in the world is held on the lawn of a small Victorian cottage in downtown Austin, and it has been going since 1978. The house was rented by William Sydney Porter in the 1890s, before he was convicted of embezzlement, served three years, and emerged writing short stories as O. Henry. The stories turn on wordplay and reversal, so a pun contest at his house is a more coherent joke than it first appears. It grew out of the 1978 Pecan Street Festival, where a group of friends including Steve Uzzell and Joel McColl started punning at each other and decided to formalise it. Guinness World Records recognises it as the longest running competition of its kind. There are two events. Punniest of Show gives each contestant ninety seconds of prepared material on a topic of their choosing. Punslingers is a head to head elimination bracket in which two people trade improvised puns on an assigned subject until one of them fails, and it can run for hours. It is free, it happens outdoors in the spring, and the standard is genuinely high, with competitors who travel for it. Of all the events that get cited as evidence that Austin is weird, this is among the oldest and the least self conscious about it.
Getting there
30.2657, -97.7391
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
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