deadpan
adjective

- to make a joke while looking or seeming serious
- looking or seeming serious when you are not, or without an emotion

Cambridge Dictionary

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ORIGIN

The term “deadpan” has a theatrical origin, first appearing in the New York Times in 1928 where an article referred to actor Buster Keaton as the quintessential “dead-pan” comic. His nickname was “The Great Stone Face”.

As early as 1330 “pan” meant “skull” and later came to mean “the face”. Thus “deadpan” is a face or facial expression displaying no emotion, animation or humour.

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AL FRANKEN MISTAKEN FOR HIS DAUGHTER’S HUSBAND!

One day, Al Franken and his daughter, who was a senior at Harvard, were approached by a nosy politician. The man, who recognized Franken, asked him where the “couple” had met. Franken’s deadpan reply? “In the delivery room.”

Al Franken (1951–) American politician, comedian and writer

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SYNONYMS

blank, laconic, expressionless, unexpressive, emotionless, inexpressive, impassive, inscrutable, po-faced, poker-faced, straight-faced, tongue-in-cheek, DEADPAN, dispassionate, unresponsive, stony, wooden, sphinx-like, vacant, glazed, fixed, lifeless, vacuous, unreadable, unsmiling, nobody home, fish-eyed

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SMUGGLE OWAD into today’s conversation, say something like:

“His DEADPAN manner often confuses people who don’t know when he’s being funny.”

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THANKS to Adelheid for suggesting today’s word!

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40