It’s fun to use obscure literary and rhetorical terms that nobody knows for techniques that we use all the time.
All paraprosdokian is, it turns out, it ending a phrase or sentence with something surprising. It’s used a lot, though hardly ever with this tongue-twister of a name associated with it. It’s from the Greek, natch.
Here’s a great example of paraprosdokian from Dorothy Parker: “If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.”
Funny, huh? Usually paraprosdokian is used to humorous effect. (More examples here.)
Paraprosdokian. Go ahead and use it!
I need to learn more about how to be funny. Thanks for the pointer.
These were laugh out loud funny. Thanks