The annual pun contest made a punstoppable return on Tuesday, April 26, with eight contestants competing to win the prestigious title of pun champion.

The competition consists of three rounds with different types of prompts that may have included pictures or even emails. Participants used the prompts to come up with an impromptu pun in front of an audience, and the three teachers chosen as judges then held up signs showing their approval or dislike of the pun. Each thumbs up from a judge gave the student a point, and the students with the most points tallied moved to the next round.

Daniel Gorislavsky, senior, won the competition and the award for best pun. His award-winning pun came during an email prompt. The email was from a school administrator and said the heater in the boy’s bathroom had been broken which caused the toilets to freeze. Gorislavsky’s response was “Whoever did that, urine trouble!”

This was Gorislavsky’s third time competing, which gave him a slight edge on the newcomers, he said. 

“I’ve stood in front of a large crowd before, and they weren’t going to throw any fruit at me, so I knew I would be fine,” Gorislavsky said.

The hardest part of the competition, he said, was the round with pictures as the prompt.

“The random images threw me off, and I had to make a lot of split decisions,” Gorislavsky said.

This is the first time the traditional competition has been held after COVID, and Gorislavsky had been looking forward to competing again.

“I’m always excited for the audience’s reaction because depending on their boo or cheer, the judges normally back them up,” Gorislavsky said.

Emaline Little, freshman, tied for fourth place in the pun contest by making it past the first and second round. 

“After I saw the prompt, I really just spit out whatever my first thought was,” Little said.

This was Little’s first competition, but she said she plans to come back next year as well.

“The atmosphere, even though it was a competition, was pretty relaxed and I really enjoyed that,” Little said.

Michael Ebert, language arts teacher, helped organize this year’s competition and many past ones. 

After a two-year hiatus, Ebert said it was difficult to get the word out about the cherished tradition.

“In many ways, it’s like we started from scratch because there’s a lot of kids who haven’t heard of the pun contest,” Ebert said.

The tradition started 13 years ago when some of the teachers started making jokes and got their students involved, he said.

“We realized there was a real appetite for this kind of humor,” he said. “ We decided to hold a competition and it’s a really unique thing that only Marquette does.”