P is for “Practical Joke” - Oxymorons from A to Z

P is for “Practical Joke” - Oxymorons from A to Z

Pranks and hoaxes, performed to poke fun at others, may be funny. But are these jokes really practical? 

What happens when some clown sticks a whoopie cushion on another person’s chair? Or what if a prankster glues a few coins to the sidewalk to fake out passers-by? How about switching the signs on public restrooms or covering toilet seats with plastic wrap?

Maybe we call these tricks “practical jokes,” simply because they take a bit of practice. Possibly, we dub them thus because they are practically funny, but often not so much.

Or perhaps practical jokes just make oxymorons out of all of us, so to speak.

What’s an oxymoron?

Basically, an oxymoron is a phrase that seems contradictory or incongruous. Taken literally, the words do not make sense. Often, oxymorons find their way into popular usage, becoming cultural catchwords or frequently used idioms.

Many of these curious wordings strike us as delightfully amiss. Besides, what sort of whimsical word is “oxymoron”?

Delightfully Amiss: Berzerkians Gone Amok … and Finding the Funk in Dysfunction is participating in the April A to Z Blogging Challenge. That means you can find a new post every day (except Sundays, because those are the event rules) throughout the month of April. Be sure to bookmark, follow, or subscribe! And please leave a comment, especially if you’re playing along with the A to Z Challenge.

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Oxymorons from A to Z

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