Maybe they’re saying that using the second meaning in the original phase (“How do nonbinary people hurt each other? They/them”) doesn’t stand on its own as a coherent thought. As you pointed out, it’s a pun, but the pair of sentences only makes sense using the first meaning.
Compare that to the watch example: plugging in either meaning of “time” makes the sentence meaningful.
Perhaps serious joke researchers should distinguish between weak puns, the “they/them” example, and strong puns, the “time” example. Weak/strong here are used in the mathematic/scientific/philosophic sense, not passing judgement on aesthetic quality.
Maybe they’re saying that using the second meaning in the original phase (“How do nonbinary people hurt each other? They/them”) doesn’t stand on its own as a coherent thought. As you pointed out, it’s a pun, but the pair of sentences only makes sense using the first meaning.
Compare that to the watch example: plugging in either meaning of “time” makes the sentence meaningful.
Perhaps serious joke researchers should distinguish between weak puns, the “they/them” example, and strong puns, the “time” example. Weak/strong here are used in the mathematic/scientific/philosophic sense, not passing judgement on aesthetic quality.
Thank you for explaining more eloquently what I was unable to.