"A pun is notoriously difficult to define, but it's a type of wordplay, and it takes many different forms," says John Pollack. "The most common type of pun is the humorous use of a word in such a way that because of its sound, you can interpret it in more than one way."
The definition of "pun" might be hard to put a finger on, but ask John Pollack, the 1995 O. Henry Pun-Off World Champion, for an example, and he'll have something like this at his fingertips:
"Knock knock.
"Who's there?
"Isabelle.
"Isabelle who?
"Is a bell necessary on a bicycle?"