Why English is such a great language for puns

tl;dr English is a punny language

Examples from colloquial French with number of syllables:

on (1) = we (1)

trop (1) = too (1)

assez (2) = quite (1) (this one you could translate a few different ways including plutôt, pas mal, très, etc...)

printemps (2) = spring (1)

été (2) = summer (2)

hiver (2) = winter (2)

on boit (2) = we drink (2) [1]

It's also easy to come up with examples where French requires fewer syllables:

hier (2) = yesterday (3)

demain (2) = tomorrow (3)

on se voit (2, possibly 3 if you enunciate carefully) = we see each other (5)

So I think your examples from Spanish are kinda cherry-picked.

At any rate, I'm not convinced that "number of syllables" is a very useful metric, since English syllables are more complicated and take longer to utter than Spanish ones.

[1]: In the formal/standard register this would be "nous buvons" (3 syllables), but in colloquial speech you would hear "on boit" 99% of the time.

I disagree that puns require exact homophones. Each language (group) has different tools for building puns. English, Chinese, etc. use mostly homophones since they are abundant.

Romance languages, in particular Portuguese and Spanish, and Italian to some extent, use many types of pun-building techniques that do not depend solely on homophones: clever rhymes, heteronyms, homographs and other quasi-homonyms. Having longer words means you can embed and concatenate into portmanteaus and puns. Latin and Greek word root prefix and suffix are also rich and an infinite source of puns.

Portuguese speakers are very found of puns and specially word play. So I think pun is a more of a cultural thing, as noted in this thread by some people, than a language feature.

Here's a few Brazilian "trocadilhos" (puns and word play).

- "Fora Dilma vez!", instead of "fora de uma vez" - meaning "Oust [president] Dilma now".

- "Lula: Presidente da Silva", for "President for sure" where "da Silva" is Lula's last name but also colloquially means "for sure".

- "Filhos da Fruta", fruit shop in São Paulo. Word play with "sons of a bitch/fruit"

- "Rock in Rio", rock festival.

Spanish word play culture goes back centuries. Francisco de Quevedo for instance used this device often in his poems, and word play have been present in popular culture ever since. Here's a sample:

- "El calvario de la alopecia", a title to an article ("the calvary of hair loss"). Word play with "calvo" (bald) and "calvario" (calvary).

- "Digamelón", instead of "Dígamelo" ("hello?") when picking up the phone, a pun meaning "hello you moron".

- "Timofónica", portmanteau of "timo" (scam) and "Telefónica" (phone company).

- "Yo loco, loco, y ella loquita", (I'm crazy, she's crazier) which sounds like "Yo lo coloco, ella lo quita" (I put it in, she takes it out).

- "La Tapilla Sixtina", a tapas bar, word play with "Capilla Sixtina" (Sistine Chapel).

Hopefully that gives an idea of the possibilities that make Romance languages pun rich.

But I have to say the English and Chinese press (and readers presumably) love puns more than anyone else for even serious articles, like the OP mentions. The former gets in trouble sometimes [1], and the latter was even outlawed [2]!

[1] http://www.espn.co.uk/football/uefa-champions-league/story/1...

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/china-media-wa...

That would be this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse