Language plays with us whether we like it or not — the wit simply admits this and plays back. Nasreddin's stories turn on double meanings and mistranslations, words that mean one thing to the powerful and another to the wise; the pun, it turns out, is one of the oldest instruments of liberation. To play with words is to remind everyone in earshot that meaning is not fixed and authority over it is always contested.
Each step builds on the last.