It tanked

Wise Words: tank

The British love puns. My favourite pun is from Romeo and Juliet. In a key scene in Shakespeare’s play, Mercutio is fatally stabbed. He turns to Romeo and says:

“…Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”

The statement contains a pun on the word grave. The first meaning of grave is solemn. A grave is also the place where a dead person is buried. That’s where Mercutio will be tomorrow: dead and buried — and not too happy about it either. It’s not only a pun — it’s also a perfect example of British black humour.

Jeremy Clarkson, a British presenter, more recently tried his hand at a clever pun — and black humour. Clarkson is probably more famous than Shakespeare in the UK right now. He’s one of three presenters of Top Gear, a popular car show broadcast by the BBC. It’s regularly watched by over six million viewers, is shown worldwide on BBC World, and is available as a download from iTunes. It appeals to men (and boys) as the focus is on speed, car gadgets, design — and laddish humour. The three often take part in crazy competitions, including one in which they each had to design an amphibious car — and then “sail” it across the English Channel from Dover to France. Only one of the cars made it— the others sank.

In their most recent competition, the three presenters had to make a spoof TV advert for the Volkswagen Scirocco TDI. Clarkson’s got the most laughs during the episode — and the most complaints afterwards — because of the pun he used in his.

The advert contained a clip of people in Warsaw panicking and rushing to board trains and buses to escape the city. A state of emergency had been declared, a serious voice announced. The advert ends with a pun on the car's fuel economy in the tag line: “Volkswagen Scirocco TDI. Berlin to Warsaw in one tank.”

A tank is the container in a car that holds the fuel. A tank is also a heavy military vehicle — used to invade countries. If you know both meanings of tank, you soon realize that Clarkson was making a reference to Adolf Hitler's decision to invade Poland.

There’s also another meaning of tank, when it’s used as a verb. If something tanks, it’s a complete failure. If a joke tanks, it gets no laughs. The pun tanked at the Polish Embassy in London. They wrote to the BBC to protest about the advert: "We understand that Mr Clarkson often jokes about various European nations, about Germans or the French. But we believe that a joke about the Nazi German invasion of Poland is not a proper way to make people laugh," the letter read.

What do you think? Is this pun about Nazi Germany funny or tasteless?