I’m writing about an event where people compete to make the best or most puns, but I myself am incapable of punning.

I appreciate excellent puns, but average and bad puns cause me something like physical pain. I imagine I am sort of typical, but when the O. Henry Pun-Off comes around, I feel utterly alone in my pun ambivalence.

The Pun-Off calls itself a world championship punning competition, and the out-of-towners show up for it like that is the case. The O. Henry Museum’s administrative assistant, Quinn Argall, says that occasionally Pun-Off attendees ask him to sign their book of 100 or so weirdest things as proof that they were there. It certainly is a weird event, and there are lots of characters cheering or hissing at puns, playing along with the judges, who are brutal.

If they don’t like your pun, the judges will show you their heckling skills. They’re sharp.

There were two major dramas at this year’s Pun-Off: Food trailers and topics for competition. Michael Hoinski from the O. Henry Museum estimates that there was roughly the same number of punthusiasts (portmanteau, not a pun!) this year as last, and that it’s a great fundraiser for the O. Henry and Susanna Dickinson Museums because the pun-off “has a built-in audience."

Gary Hallock, who runs the event and whose Texas flag and American flag shirts are, arguably, the corniest part of the show, said “my mom generously estimated 500 people.” All of whom mobbed the Peached Tortilla’s food truck, set up exclusively for the pun fans, and the truck ran out of food hours before the competitors ran out of puns.

“I told them how many people come to this thing,” said Hoinski. “I don’t think they believed me.”

There was as much time spent on debating whether or not a pun was within the parameters of the given topic as there was punning. The Texas Board of Education is likely to require students to study yesterday’s battle over what constitutes a pun about The Senses and what is just a a pun about an adjective one might sense. (“Sour” made the cut, while “bright” did not.)

Other hotly-contested topics were Paper, Native Americans (which, when the audience heard it, made everyone brace for racism that thankfully did not come), Carpentry, Fabric, Projectiles and Types of Buildings.

Despite my lack of interest in puns, this competition was fun and exciting. I may not be a pun fan, but I am a fan of enthusiastic nerds and we were out in droves yesterday yelling about whether or not nose hair helps you smell. Reverence for an art that is at worst despised, and at best misunderstood is what Austin does best.

This community is obviously tight knit and, as one punster said “Knit sucks.” (as in “and it sucks.” I know.)