A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to re-frame or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect. Enjoy! I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong. War does not determine who is right -- only who is left. Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish. How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire? Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
But have you made up your OWN paraprosdokians? That is the question. Here are a few of mine: Life is nasty, brutish, and short, (Thomas Hobbes) and so are feminists. Great minds think alike, and so do small minds. You can't be too thin or too rich (Bumper sticker, common 20 years back), oh yeah! Howard Hughes. Incidemply, paraprosdokian (from Greek "παρα-", meaning "beyond" and "προσδοκία", meaning "expectation")
