Creative metaphor is a birthday cake

Metaphor as the source of humour

Résumé

The article discusses creative metaphors as forms of intentionally produced verbal humour. The paramount objective is to present a number of factors which emerge as responsible for the humorous potential of metaphors in the light of relevant theories of metaphor, as well as the incongruity-resolution model proposed in humour studies. Several explanatory points, by no means mutually exclusive, are raised viz. diaphoricity, incongruity between the concepts/domains, aptness violation, unavailability of the ground, multiple interpretations and “wrong” prioritisation of features, exhaustive attribution of features, humorous incongruity within the vehicle, and catachresis.