Wellerisms, named after Sam Weller in Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

's The Pickwick Papers

The Pickwick Papers

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...

, make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally. In this sense, wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb

Anti-proverb

An anti-proverb is the transformation of a stereotype word sequence – as e. g. a proverb, a quotation, or an idiom – for humorous effect. To have full effect, an anti-proverb must be based on a known proverb...

. Typically a Wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb

Proverb

A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...

 or saying

Saying

A saying is something that is said, notable in one respect or another, to be "a pithy expression of wisdom or truth."There are a number of specific types of saying:...

, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation.

Some researchers concentrate on wellerisms found in English and European languages, but Alan Dundes

Alan Dundes

Alan Dundes, was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more...

 documented them in the Yoruba language

Yoruba language

Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...

 of Nigeria (Dundes 1964), with African scholars confirming and adding to his findings (Ojoade 1980, Opata 1988, 1990). They are also found in ancient Sumerian: "The fox, having urinated into the sea, said: 'The depths of the sea are my urine!'"

A special format for Wellerisms called a Tom Swifty

Tom Swifties

A Tom Swifty is a phrase in which a quoted sentence is linked by a pun to the manner in which it is attributed. Tom Swifties may be considered a type of wellerism.-Origins:...

 incorporates a punning adverb that modifies the manner in which the statement was related.

Examples

• "Everyone to his own taste," the old woman said when she kissed her cow.
• "We'll have to rehearse that," said the undertaker as the coffin fell out of the car.
• A body can get used to anything, even to being hanged, as the Irishman said. (Lucy Maud Montgomery
  Lucy Maud Montgomery
  Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE , called "Maud" by family and friends and publicly known as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success...
  
  --Anne of Green Gables
  Anne of Green Gables
  Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Set in 1878, it was written as fiction for readers of all ages, but in recent decades has been considered a children's book...
  
  )
• "This week is beginning splendidly," said one who was to be hanged on Monday.
• "Much noise and little wool," said the Devil when he sheared a pig.
• "So I see," said the blind carpenter as he picked up his hammer and saw.
• "Simply remarkable," said the teacher when asked her opinion about the new dry-erase board.

Wellerisms occur in languages other than English. Here are two Dutch examples:

• "Alle beetjes helpen", zei de mug en hij pieste in zee.

(Every little bit helps, said the gnat and it pissed in the sea.)

• Compare: Every little bit helps said the old woman as she pissed in the ocean.

• "Alles met mate", zei de kleermaker en hij sloeg zijn vrouw met de el.

(English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

: "Everything should be done measuredly," said the tailor and he hit his wife with a ruler.)

And a Hebrew example:

• "Nikh'ye ve-Nir'e", amar ha-Iver la-Met.

("We shall live and then see", said the blind man to the dead.)

• Compare: "I see, said the blind man"