Jeff Foxworthy - "I give her face a 2, but her ass a 9."

The strongest puns are those where the definition of the punned word has its own bearing on the punchline (or the joke-teller).

...ahhh, usually for me, a pun is best when it has an intricate set-up and you don't see it coming.

'Right,' said Buddy, 'but if you went out there now and ask who the most famous horn player is, would they remember some felonious monk or would they shout for Glod Glodson?

All the clever is in the setup (which is neatly omitted in the example, there, unfortunately, but trust me - one of the best puns ever), and the more lavish the better. And no, I don't think a precise homonym works better than a near-miss. Somewhat to the contrary, actually. I'm very fond of punchlines like "...transporting young gulls across staid lions for immortal porpoises" or "...transcend dental medication".

I can only hope knowing that Thelonious was a pianist, not a horn player, makes that joke better somehow.

Would a pun organ be a "punis"? So someone good at puns could be said to have a large punis.

What wolfdog sez. It's all in the setup. The more excrutiating the setup, the better.

In some of his earlier works, Terry Pratchett spends entire chapters setting up the punchline for a pun. It's a mad brilliance that can do that.

I can only hope knowing that Thelonious was a pianist, not a horn player, makes that joke better somehow.

Unfortunately no, 'twas quite irksome. Pratchett redeems himself later with a scene that takes places in a town that is very proud indeed of its cheese production, allowing a disinterested visiting musician to state "We're bigger than cheeses."

I have always felt that the run on story with a pun-ch line consisting of a twisted version of a common saying to be a great disservice to the art of paronomasia. I feel that they should be regarded as an alliterative litter mate of the shaggy dog story.

"Smooth legged charmers waxing poetical" is poised and lean. It doesn't depend on an elaborate setup. This is almost a tom swifty but it breaks the form.

"He puzzles out the cheese pun with beatled brow."

"Cross country ski sales are waxing"

"I got really steamed when the espresso machine broke."

I long for puns that are abrupt.

So I abused "alliterative" - the word seduced me first. I still know it is not write.