Wellerism

Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens's novel The Pickwick Papers, make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally. In this sense, Wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb. Typically a Wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb or saying, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation.

Some playwrights adapting Dickens' work have coined further examples.

A type of Wellerism called a Tom Swifty incorporates a speaker attribution that puns on the quoted statement.

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