Talk:Feghoot

"Society for the Aesthetic Re-Arrangement of History" - nice acronym there. 24.146.8.72 16:08, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Doesn't Feghoot imply an SF story?
I always had the impression that all Feghoots ARE science fiction stories, and that this is an important aspect that makes a Feghoot a subset of shaggy dog stories. All the examples in the article appear to be SF stories. Does anyone have any counterexamples, non-SF stories that are commonly or popularly (as in more than one person labeling it) called Feghoots?Benbradley 18:22, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I agree, it is a subtype of the shaggy dog story. (unsigned)

I disagree. Even among the citations in the article, not all are SciFi -- Callahan's Bar is a SciFi place -- less so at its beginning, much more so as it progressed -- but the stories told there, with their terrible puns at the end, were usually about the non-SciFi world. Jameslwoodward (talk) 13:12, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Nate the Snake is a non-sci-fi example. Bluej100 (talk) 19:43, 3 August 2012 (UTC)


 * But has anyone described that as a Feghoot ? -- Beardo (talk) 06:47, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

Is feghoot (the story) capitalized?
What are the rules of capitalization for feghoot in reference to the story, as opposed to the characted? PlaysInPeoria (talk) 04:54, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Edit
I am removing some of the opinions in this article,only slight changes though,like this one: "...right down to the vile pun at the end of each episode." Stuff like that.Im taking out 'vile'.Please reply to this if you think otherwise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.100.226.150 (talk) 04:04, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

I believe "atrocious" is a better descriptive word than "vile" for puns like the brothers carry Mars off and the attack of the Luna chick fringe. "Feghoots" are popular at Mensa get-togethers. Naaman Brown (talk) 20:41, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

another example
I forget the title, but a short story by Arthur C. Clarke ending in "a star-mangled spanner.". 142.104.166.203 (talk) 22:12, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

Is Feghoot "notable?"
I am 66 years old and I was an avid reader of science fiction magazines during the 1950's and 1960's including F&SF. I always looked forward to these little bits of filler and I am sure that I was not alone. They were always cast in the mode of science fiction, but it was obvious to all that everything was subordinate to the need to lead up to a really spectacular pun at the end. They can hardly be considered as serious literature, but rather an expression of the human urge to playfulness. They gave pleasure to a great many people over a long period of years and this is hardly insignificant. Then, there is the fact that people have sporadically used "feghoot" as a word describing a piece of writing that initially looks like a story but turns into the setup for an outrageous pun. Surely any proper encyclopedia must allow for an entry describing such a thing. Others have quoted fragments. The one that has always stuck in my mind was set up as a time travel story to Hawaii in the era of Captain Cook that ends with "one man's meat is another man's poi, son.24.130.82.68 (talk) 02:18, 14 July 2010 (UTC)" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.130.82.68 (talk) 02:14, 14 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree. The one that sticks in my mind may well have appeared in Galaxy for 1954 or 1955. The build up of the story told of a landing on a planet populated by some kind of exceptionally hirsute Wookies. The natives became restless while Ferdinand was somehow not directly involved, but when he appeared on the scene he was seized by a large individual who appeared to have the wherewithal to inject our hero with some potent toxin. The other earth beings were horribly frightened, but as he was being carried off Feghoot reassured his companions gallantly, "Be not concerned. It is only a furry with a syringe on top." P0M (talk) 00:26, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

How about the one that ends, "Silly Rabbi, kicks are for trids." Tbonge (talk) 13:57, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

It was probably not a true feghoot, but one very short story in the 50s (maybe in Galaxy) concerned the early explorers on Mars who discovered a series of holes through things at about eye level that lined up perfectly. One explorer was peering through one of the holes and sighting through it to see another hole when another of the explorers body-blocked him and knocked him down. He got up angrily and demanded to know what the other guy thought he was doing. The other one explained that he had just figured out that the name Bottomos must be given to the third moon of Mars. It's hard to believe the physics of a small mass moving at such a terrific velocity that it could orbit a planet at the altitude of a meter or two and that it could have penetrated solid obstacles like the bullet of a high velocity rifle penetrates facial tissue. Nevertheless, the image has stayed clear in my mind for half a century.P0M (talk) 15:34, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

There is also a story entitled "A Switch in Time Saves Nine," about the rescue of the entire solar system from destruction by some invaders who seem to have visited the system and then said, "We'll be back." The hero has invented a time machine, so they move the entire solar system (except for the sun) to some far future time for temporary storage, and then move everything back after the time by which the crisis situation will be past. In some strange way, being able to give the story its punish title seems to have made the improbable plot more acceptable, at least to me.P0M (talk) 15:51, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Origin and Bagehot
"Walter Bagehot, a major literary and political figure from the late 1800s now fallen into obscurity." It doesn't seem to be NPOV, accurate, or relevant, to say he has "fallen into obscurity". For example, The Economist newspaper has an editorial in every edition called "Bagehot", named after the man, who was a former editor. [unsigned, undated]

I deleted the following, which appears to personal opinion and has no support: "The name Feghoot and the nature of the stories—detailed and tedious, yet ending in vaguely familiar catchphrases—may have been inspired by Walter Bagehot, a major literary and political figure from the late 1800s." Zaslav (talk) 22:32, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Move proposal
I suggest this article is renamed Story pun, since (a) Feghoot appears to be specifically an American term, and (b) the intro gives 'story pun' as the principle term. 90.202.117.180 (talk) 08:00, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Alternate Terms
Alternate terms for this type of story can be taken from the terms sometimes used for these puns. In particular "groaner", see Wiktionary (definition 3), or "screamer", from the reader's reaction at the end. Since many people have never run across one of the Ferdinand Feghoot stories, they would not know "feghoot". The only one of them I have read was definitely a pun, but seemed rather flat on first reading, not in either the groaner or screamer categories. agb — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.233.167.63 (talk) 22:49, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

The one and only
Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. He has a whole section of the book that leads up to a character, the Shan, being given an epileptic body during a rejuvenation - 'Then the fit hit the Shan' 2001:171B:2274:7C21:5596:41C4:DCD6:E969 (talk) 14:48, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

Examples
Wouldn't some jokes by Victor Borge qualify (e.g. "Long time – no C"), or are they too short? 195.187.108.130 (talk) 18:09, 6 June 2023 (UTC)