LISTEN UP

What’s so funny about this? Recently we’ve done several Tom Swifties and by now you know what they are so I won’t define them again for a while. But today we’re doing a type of joke known as a Wellerism, named for a character in the Charles Dickens novel “The Pickwick Papers”. A Wellerism, to quote Wikipedia, “makes fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally.” They usually contain a quotation, or a well-known saying or proverb; a speaker, and a funny literal explanation. In today’s photo we see a lawyer and a jury. The lawyer is pointing to something or someone we cannot see. Most likely it is the defendant whom the lawyer is probably accusing of being guilty. The jury is looking intently at whom or whatever the lawyer is pointing to. But we are privy or enabled to see into one’s juror’s thoughts. This juror is thinking, “Is this a hearing?” A hearing is almost like a trial, but it has special meaning for thi