Chinese authorities were taking a hard line this week against certain types of humor. Linguistic officials decreed that puns, the wordplay form thriving on double or multiple meanings, were no laughing matter.

Chinese culture is big on puns. The language with its many twists and turns along with characters, is made for homophones, words pronounced the same, but with different means. But that's not funny, according to the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. They issued a ruling that media must refrain from punning, and they're serious about it.

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Citing advertising campaigns in particular, and media in general, playing on common Chinese phrases with some humor, state censors said such wordplay "creates misunderstandings for the public, especially minors leading to cultural and linguistic chaos."

One of the major wordplay transgressions cited by officials was "Grass Mud Horse," three characters that can refer to a mythical horse-like creature or an outrageous obscenity involving mothers, depending on one's reading.

Other examples cited prominently included "River Crab," which sounds like "Harmony" and can refer to censorship issues as well as "Valley Dove," an extinct animal that sounds suspiciously like Google.

"Radio and television authorities at all levels must tighten up their regulations and crack down on the irregular and inaccurate use of the Chinese language, especially the misuse of idiom," the officials state order said.

That means, according to censors, advertisements and programming must comply strictly with standard language usage, especially in the use of words, phrases, idioms and characters and avoid changing them into puns, the official order said.

Linguists, analysts, and just plain punny people, expressed outrage, and some exasperation with the official crackdown on wordplay.

Meanwhile, government officials cited innocuous examples like a tourism ad that tweaked characters in "Jin Shan Jin Mei," or "perfection, "into "Shanxi, a land of splendors," as reasons for the ban.

Others wondered if the move was a response to Internet postings that used puns and wordplay to discuss more serious topics like censorship and democracy.

Tagshumor, comedy, puns, State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, advertising, wordplay