PSA: Pre Puns are Played Out 15
Just over a week ago we got a glimpse at that thought process behind the naming of the Palm Pre. My favorite part of the explanation behind the naming was that "Pre" wasn't gimicky like many of the more recent "Super Feature Phones" that have hit the market:
Lastly, and this is really important, the name doesn't try to out "cool" all the other phones in the space. It's not a "Dare" or a "Decoy" or a "Sway" or a "Juke" or a "Mirage" or whatever. Pre is more understated and allows the phone itself to take center stage. And right it should, it's an amazing phone. You don't buy this phone because it sounds cool - you buy this phone because it IS cool!1
Here here! Yet there is one gimicky aspect the Pre name that I'm officially tired of: the Pre Puns. The folks at Palm and at Catchword Branding had to know this would happen. It's actually quite a smart strategy, when you think about it. A huge amount of PR for any given device isn't aimed at us tech junkies, it's aimed at manipulating your Fox and Friends/Today Show/Morning Zoo types that don't follow these things that closely, but will mention it in a 2 minute spot with clever banter at the end. Pre puns give these folks a chance to be clever and chuckle when they discuss a device.
We are guilty too, of course, but ladies and gentlemen: it has to stop. Please. Now.
Look, I'm as much a fan of wordplay as the next guy. More than your average bear, even. I get a little thrill at a clever turn of phrase from the highbrow to the scatalogical. Heck, I enjoyed the alliteration of the title of this very post. I still think it's sort of funny to call something "punny." If anybody should be enjoying the proliferation of pedestrian, petty Palm Pre puns percolating2 through the blogosphere, it's me.
Every day, I'm scouring the internet and the twittersphere for Pre news like an addict. If there's a word that starts with 'pre' or even 'per,' I've seen it used in the context of this impending smartphone at least a dozen times. It's not funny anymore, nor is it clever. It has passed through the realms of clever pun to annoying to self-aware hipster-style irony to retro-chic to -- finally -- spirit crushing inanity. Making a Pre pun is like asking us to leave Britney alone. It's asking where the beef is. It's hollering Wasssup?! into the phone.
It has to stop.
My pledge to you: I will never make another Pre pun again. Please join me. No, seriously: Please.
1 Add "Instinct," to that list too, by the way, and many others.
2 I told you I like childish wordplay.
15 Comments
Ironically, the people who are "whining" are coming to this blog to find out when the heck the Pre is going to be released. Are you suggesting they should instead spend their time polishing their crystal balls...?
If Dieter scours the net for Pre news, let's say... 10 times more than we do, then Pre puns will get old ten times, faster.
So, if he's just gotten sick of'em, after the past 3 or 4 months, it'll be quite a while til it fully hits the rest of us.
Especially if "us" includes those who've yet to hear word-one about this prenatal device. (That's not a pun.)
Btw, Palm *has* given us info. There have been trickles here and there for quite some time. Just when we get sick of waiting for something new, we get a new tidbit. The problem is that we don't have the information that we want to know the most - the release date.
That's a fair concern, but let's call it what it is.
You know this kind of post was predictable at some point. :-)
The Pre itself may be "played out" at this point. People should be happy that somebody still cares about it. You can hype something unavailable like this for only so long before the desire fades.
I'd imagine there are more than a few people holding off on renewing their contract or jumping to Sprint based on the release date of this silly phone. It's been 1/4 of a year already - Palm and Sprint might benefit more by cluing in their prospective customers a little better...
Forgive me for posting so late to this post, but this is one of the best paragraphs I have ever read.
"Look, I'm as much a fan of wordplay as the next guy. More than your average bear, even. I get a little thrill at a clever turn of phrase from the highbrow to the scatalogical. Heck, I enjoyed the alliteration of the title of this very post. I still think it's sort of funny to call something "punny." If anybody should be enjoying the proliferation of pedestrian, petty Palm Pre puns percolating2 through the blogosphere, it's me."