Whale Puns

This Punpedia entry is about whale puns! There are also entries on dolphin puns, ocean puns and beach puns if you’re interested in those. Word play around the topic of whales is quite common on the internet, partly due do the versatility of the word “whale” itself as a pun (while, well, will, …), but perhaps mostly because people just love whales. Also, note that orcas (killer whales) are part of the dolphin family, but they’re included in this entry too.

If you’re looking for visual whale puns (including meme-type images), scroll down towards the end of this article. And as usual, if you’ve got any whale puns that are missing from this entry, please share them in the comments at the end of the page!

Whale Puns List

Each of the items below is either a single word-swap type pun, a general rule for creating whale puns.

  • Well → Whale: As in “I hope you and your family are whale.” and “Whale, whale, whale, what do we have here.”
  • Wel* → Whale*: If a word begins with “wel” we can usually replace it with “whale”: whalecome (welcome), whalefare (welfare), whalesh (welsh), whaleding (welding), whaleterweight (welterweight), whaleness (wellness), whale-heeled (well-helled), whaled (weld), whalefarist (welfarist).
  • *wel → *whale: If “wel” occurs at the end of a word we can generally make a whale pun out of it (though some words work better than others): disembowhale (disembowel), towhale (towel), bowhale (bowel), jewhale (jewel), bejewhale (bejewel). Variations on these like disembowhalement, can of course be created.
  • While → Whale: As in “It’s been a whale since we last saw each other.” and “Strike whale the iron is hot.” and “All the whale, he just sat there.”
  • *while → *whale: If a word ends in “while” we can usually replace it with “whale”: meanwhale (meanwhile), worthwhale (worthwhile).
  •  Welp! → Whalep!: As in “Whalep! It’s time for me to go now.”
  • Wail → Whale: As in “The poor man is whaling over his dead husband.” and “He’s whaling because he’s scared.”.
  • Wile → Whale: As in “Don’t underestimate the whale of this person.” The word “wile” essentially means devious/cunning artfulness for manipulating others.
  • We’ll → Whale: As in “Don’t call us, whale call you” and “Sorry, I’ve got to go, whale have to catch up again soon.”
  • Now I’ll → Narwhal: As in “Narwal have to think of another one.” and “And narwhal finish by telling my best whale pun ever.”
  • Now we’ll → Narwhal: As in “And narwhal take a minute to thank our sponsors.”
  • *w I’ll → *w whale: As in “Tomorrow whale start on a plant-based diet.” and “Don’t test me, you know whale do it!” and here’s a big list: know whale (know I’ll), new whale (new I’ll), now whale (now I’ll), how whale (how I’ll), show whale (show I’ll), view whale, follow whale, low whale, allow whale, window whale, few whale, narrow whale, blow whale, throw whale. Here’s a list of words ending in ‘w’ so you can invent your own.
  • *ual → *uwhale: If “ual” occurs at the end of a word, then the “al” can often be replaced with “whale”: individuwhale (individual), annuwhale (annual), equwhale (equal), sexuwhale, actuwhale, usuwhale, intellectuwhale, usuwhale, manuwhale, casuwhale, visuwhale, rituwhale, spirituwhale, mutuwhale, homosexuwhale, duwhale (dual), graduwhale, eventuwhale, conceptuwhale, virtuwhale, contractuwhale, residuwhale, factuwhale, continuwhale, hetersexuwhale, perpetuwhale, contextuwhale, textuwhale, habituwhale, perceptuwhale, sensuwhale, bilinguwhale, consensuwhale, punctuwhale, instinctuwhale, transexsuwhale, menstruwhale, audiovisuwhale, bisexuwhale, asexuwhale.
  • *ual* → *uwhale*: If a word contains “ual”, we can often switch “al” it out for “whale”: actuwhaleity, disquwhaleification, equwhaleity, homosexuwhaleity, quwhalitative, spirituwhaleity.
  • Fuel → Fuwhale: As in “We’ve run out of fuwhale.”
  • Cruel → Cruwhale: As in “That’s a bit cruwhale.”
  • Whirl → Whale: As in “Start the engine and take it for a whale.”
  • Way I’ll → Whale:  As in “There’s no whale come with you.” and “If there’s a whale find it.”.
  • Way all → Whale: As in “There’s no whale this food is free?!”
  • Orchestra → Orcastra: As in “It was a small orcastra, but it was nice.” and of course conjugations like orcastratration, orcastrator and orcastrate can also be made.
  • Orwellian → Orwhaleian: As in “It’s like some sort of Orwhaleian distopia.”
  • Walden → Whaleden: As in “I just finished reading Moby Dick and Whaleden – both great books.”
  • *way → *whale: If a word ends in “way” we can usually create a terrible whale pun by replacing it with “whale”. For example: “It took my breath awhale.” and “We’re halfwhale there!” and here’s some more without example sentences: railwhale (railway), doorwhale (doorway), highwhale, airwhale, underwhale, waterwhale, subwhale, hideawhale, stairwhale.
  • Renewal → Renewhale: As in “Membership renewhale fees are due in January.”
  • Twelve → Twhaleve: As in “Oh gosh, look at the time, it’s twhaleve o’clock, I got to go.”
  • Wallace → Whaleace: As in “William Whaleace was a Scottish hero.”
  • Walrus → Whalerus: As in “In what context would the pun ‘whalerus‘ be useful?”
  • Walnuts → Whalenuts: As in “When will we be able to harvest the whalenuts?”
  • Whilst → Whalest: As in “Quit whalest you’re ahead.”
  • Wallpaper → Whalepaper: As in “What pattern should I choose for my bedroom whalepaper?”
  • Waltz → Whaletz: As in “Here’s my partner, just in time for the whaletz.”
  • Wilderness → Whalederness: As in “There’s something relaxing about the whalederness“.
  • Purpose → Porpoise: As in “I didn’t do it on porpoise!” and “They porpoisefully moved toward me.”
  • Killer: Orca‘s are also known as killer whales, so you can slip “killer” into a sentence for a subtle pun: “These jokes are just killer!” and “Oh wow, that was a killer whale pun.”
  • Killer → Kriller: As in “And that’s when the kriller whale attacked me.” and “The kriller premeditated the murder.”
  • Fan* → Fin*: “fan” can sometimes be replaced with “fin” at the start of words to create fin puns: fintastic (fantastic), finciful (fanciful), finfare (fanfare), fintasy, findom, finciful.
  • Fine/Fin./Find/Fun → Fin: The word “fin” can be used to replace many small words than have both ‘f’ and ‘n’ like “fun” and “find”. The term “fin” also a French word meaning “finish”, and so is sometimes seen at the end of old films and books.
  • *fin*: If a word contains “fin”, it’s an easy whale pun: affinity, coffin, definitive, definitively, finch, finesse, finishfinished, finnish, finland, infinity, infinitesimal.
  • Mum will / Mum’ll → Mammal: As in “I’m working late, so mammal pick you up tonight.”
  • While her → Whaler: As in “We quickly sneaked away whaler parents weren’t looking.”
  • Fluke: The two “lobes” which make up a dolphin’s tail are called “flukes”, and a “fluke” in regular usage is an unlikely and surprising occurrence of a good thing.
  • Flip her → Flipper: As in “Don’t you dare flip her off! That’s rude!” and “We’re going to need to flip her on her belly before the surgery.”
  • While I → Whaler: As in “See just watched whaler was taken away.”
  • Her man → Herman: A subtle pun for a literary audience. Herman Melville wrote a very famous whaling novel called “Moby Dick”. Example sentence: “Don’t talk to her like that, Herman will beat you up.”
  • Cry → Blubber: “blubber” can refer to either the fat of sea mammals, or to sob noisily and uncontrollably.
  • Right, well → Right whale: A “right whale” is a common member of the baleen whale family. Example sentence: “Right whale I’ve got to go now, but ti was nice to chat.”
  • Pilot: A “pilot whale” is a well known species of whale, and “pilot” can obviously refer to the person who controls an aircraft.
  • Grampa’s → Grampus: A “grampus” refers to a cetacean (a group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises) of the dolphin family, in particular, and especially to a killer whale (which is a dolphin) or a “Risso’s dolphin”.
  • Dive: As in “The stock market took a dive today.” and “I tried to dive for the ball to intercept it.” and “This relationship has really taken a dive lately.”
  • Migratory: Many whale species are famous for their extremely long annual migrations. So “migration” and “migratory“, used in a non-whale fashion can be a subtle pun.
  • Hot-blooded → Warm-blooded: The term “hot-blooded” (of Shakespearean origin) means to have a passionate nature or be inclined to a quick temper. Whales are well known for being one of the very few species in the sea that are warm-blooded. Thus, if you use “warm-blooded” in place of “hot-blooded” when describing someone with a quick temper, then, in the right contexts, you’ve got yourself a subtle whale pun.
  • *s on our → Sonar: If a word ends in “s” and is followed by “on our” then we can play on the word “sonar” (some whales use echolocation, or sonar, to help them “see”). Examples: “I strongly condemn any attacks sonar people.” and “Yep, it’s sonar webpage.”
  • Breach: As in “Captain, the whale army has breached our security.” In case you didn’t know, when a whale jumps out of the water it’s called “breaching“.
  • Calf: A young whale is called a “calf“, and this word can also refer to the calf muscle which can be used to make a pun.
  • Bull: A male whale is called a “bull”, and this word has several other meanings which can be used to make a pun. For example: “That’s a load of bull” and “Yeah, he’s a bit of a bully.”
  • Cow: A female whale is called a “cow“, and this word has several other meanings which can be used to make a pun (For example, it can mean “to intimidate”).
  • Spout: The blowhole from which whales breathe is often called a “spout“, and so with the right context we can make a pun of it using one of the other definitions: “Oh will you stop spouting your nonsense please.”
  • Bubbly: “bubbly” has a “this water is bubbly” sense and a “he has a really bubbly personality” sense.
  • Way all → Whale: As in “It’s strange the whale these people are dressed the same.”

Whale-Related Phrases

Common phrases, idioms and cliches which are related to whales can be used for some subtle and witty word play. Here is a list of the whale themed phrases that we’ve found so far:

  • Lay there like a beached whale
  • A sea change
  • A whale of a time
  • As big as a whale
  • Between the devil and the deep blue sea
  • Happy slapping
  • A drop in the ocean
  • Don’t have a cow
  • Like a bull in a China shop
  • Holy cow
  • Blowing one’s own horn
  • Make like the wind and blow out of here
  • Mickey finn
  • Not able to make head or tail of it
  • Old blowhard
  • Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more
  • A sacred cow
  • Seize the bull by the horns
  • Until the cows come home

Whale-Related Words

Here’s a bunch of whale-related words that you can use to invent you own whale puns. If you come up with anything, please share it with us in the comments at the end of this entry!

porpoise, sperm whale, killer whale, orca, flipper, fin, free willy, blowhole, blow, blower, mammal, plankton, krill, humpback, cetacean, cetacea, cetaceous, blue whale, narwhal, baleen, whaler, whaling, harpoon, gray whale, beluga, beached, breaching, blubber, moby dick, herman melville, whale watching, pilot whale, dorsal fin, migratory, carcass, sea, ocean, saltwater, right whale, pelargic, warm blooded, marine, open water, pinniped, sonar, spermaceti, ambergris, cachalot, leviathan, bowhead, flense, calf, breach, spout, bull, fluke, minke whale, grampus, spout hole, tail fin, splash, razorback, slap, whale louse, whalebone, rorqual, spiracle, spray, blackfish, piked whale, blubber oil, dwarf minke whale, fail whale, beaked whale, cetology, cow, aquatic mammal, balaenidae, big, massive, huge, bubbles, pod, mysis, barnacle, equatorial, behemoth, bristles, buoyancy, cavort, cavorting, endangered, enormous, gulp, greenpeace, lunge feeding, ram feeding, milk, migration, rotting, slapping, tail, shamu, comb

Whale Jokes

If you’re looking for short, corny whale jokes with punchlines that are puns, then you’re at the right place. Have you got a cheesy whale joke that we don’t? Please share it with us in the comments!

  • Where do you calculate the mass of a cetacean? – At a whale-weigh station!
  • What is a whale’s favourite story? – The Humpback of Notre Dame
  • What is an orca’s favourite TV show? – Whale of fortune!
  • What do you call a 100 year old whale? – A hunchback whale.
  • What do whales like to chew? – Blubber gum!
  • What kind of whale flies? – A pilot whale!
  • Why are they called sperm whales? – Because seamen discovered them.
  • Why was the whale so sad? – Because she was a Blue whale.
  • Have you ever seen a fish cry? – No, but I have seen a whale blubber.
  • What do you call a pod of musical whales? – An Orcastra.
  • How does a group of whales make a decision? – Flipper coin!
  • What is a blue whale’s favourite James Bond Film? – Licence to Krill
  • Where does a killer whale go for braces? – The orca-dontist

Whale Pun Images

Here’s a bunch of visual whale puns that we’ve managed to find. Have you found or made a good/terrible whale pun image? Please share a link to it in the comments! 🙂

Did this Punpedia entry help you?

Did you get what you came for? If so, great! If not, please tell us what you’re looking for in the comments below! Are you looking for more visual whale puns, like memes and comics? Would you like to see more jokes about whales?  Or maybe you’d just like more puns that you can use in conversation? Whatever the case, please let us know in the comments and we’ll do out best to help you out. We’d also love to hear from you in the comments if you’ve made or found a whale pun (visual or text) that isn’t in this entry. Thanks for visiting Punpedia 🙂

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