Every week, The Economist hides puns in its headlines and articles.
We find them.
Latest issue
The AI supply crunch
Issue of May 2, 2026
Headlines
Shock and shrug
Briefing · The crisis in oil markets will get bigger before it goes away
“Shock and Awe” — the 2003 Iraq War doctrine — repurposed for markets that should be stunned by the oil crisis but instead keep shrugging. The swap from awe to shrug deflates in exactly the right direction.
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Oil markets are still in La La land
Leaders · Oil markets are still in La La land
La La Land = the Oscar film, the colloquial term for deluded fantasy, and the nickname for Los Angeles — home of the entertainment industry that oil helped build. Traders are living in all three simultaneously.
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Time to edit some biological metaphors
Leaders · Time to edit some biological metaphors
“Edit” = to revise language AND to edit genes. The leader calls for rethinking how scientists talk about epigenetics; the epigenome editor is also the literal subject.
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Cold comfort farming
United States · Donald Trump is crushing America’s farmers—yet they back him
Stella Gibbons’s “Cold Comfort Farm” + “cold comfort” (unsatisfying consolation) + farming as the literal subject. American farmers are getting cold comfort from the president who is crushing them — and still backing him.
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The question of Scottish independence is alive but not kicking
Britain · The question of Scottish independence is alive but not kicking
“Alive and kicking” reversed. The independence movement persists but lacks vigor. The dead idiom is revived only to pronounce the cause not quite dead either.
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Xi’s right-hand man
China · Cai Qi may be China’s second-most powerful man
“Right-hand man” = trusted deputy AND Cai Qi literally sits immediately to Xi’s right in official proceedings. The idiom is anatomically accurate.
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Gerontophilia
United States · Voters say they want young candidates. In practice, they do not
The clinical term for attraction to the elderly, deployed as a print headline for a political-science article. The gap between the register of the word and its subject is the joke.
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In “The Devil Wears Prada 2”, fashion magazines are off-trend
Culture · In “The Devil Wears Prada 2”, fashion magazines are off-trend
“Off-trend” = unfashionable AND literally off the trend line. The film is about the decline of print fashion media; the headline is both the description and the verdict.
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Making India’s numbers count again
Asia · Making India’s numbers count again
“Count” = to matter AND to enumerate. India’s statistics need to be both accurately measured and taken seriously. The arithmetic pun is doing the political work.
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Swashbuckling oil-services firms are preparing for a boom
Business · Swashbuckling oil-services firms are preparing for a boom
“Boom” = economic windfall AND the horizontal arm of a drilling rig. The swashbuckling framing makes the second meaning feel deliberate.
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Buried in the text
”finding the cloud in any silver lining”
Culture · Celebrating one of literature’s greatest pessimists
The standard idiom — “every cloud has a silver lining” — inverted for a centennial piece on Eeyore. The reversal is the thesis of the article in one clause.
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“How do you know if your data are crap? You go and look at the toilets.”
Asia · Making India’s numbers count again
“Crap” = bad/unreliable AND excrement. India’s government falsely claimed near-universal toilet access; checking the toilets was literally how analysts knew the data was crap. The pun is load-bearing.
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“most professional get-togethers invite their guests to piggyback on the hotel Wi-Fi”
Science & Technology · A glimpse into cyber-security’s AI-driven future
At a cybersecurity conference, “piggybacking” on a network is simultaneously the polite invitation and the name of the attack. The Black Hat organisers build their own network precisely so no one has to do either.
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“‘When is a gene editor not a gene editor?’ may sound like a scientific riddle with a groan-worthy punch line”
Science & Technology · Genome editing can be risky. Meet the epigenome editors
The article announces its own punch line in advance and then apologises for it. The “groan-worthy” admission is the tell — the writers know exactly what they’re doing.
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“tokenmaxxing”
Business · The AI rush is hitting a bottleneck
Token (AI data unit) + maxxing (gym-culture for maximising a metric). Silicon Valley techies competing to burn the most AI tokens have borrowed their vocabulary from bodybuilding. The coinage earns its place.
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