This is a well known example of a pun, or play on words. All languages have puns and they have a very long history - you can find them in Shakespeare, for instance.
The basis of most puns is the homophone. Homophones are pairs of words which have the same sound but different spelling and meaning. For example, a butcher sells MEAT. A common phrase used, especially by people trying to sell something, is "MEET your needs" eg: "We can meet all your shopping needs." (We can give you everything you need.)So the butcher is making a joke about the similarity of the two words, meat and meet. It's also a very economical way of saying: "we have all the meat you need (so you can buy it all from us.")
If you click a href="http://www.punoftheday.com/" target="blank">here you can find examples of puns and other jokes.
The basis of most puns is the homophone. Homophones are pairs of words which have the same sound but different spelling and meaning. For example, a butcher sells MEAT. A common phrase used, especially by people trying to sell something, is "MEET your needs" eg: "We can meet all your shopping needs." (We can give you everything you need.)So the butcher is making a joke about the similarity of the two words, meat and meet. It's also a very economical way of saying: "we have all the meat you need (so you can buy it all from us.")
If you click a href="http://www.punoftheday.com/" target="blank">here you can find examples of puns and other jokes.
