Review · 14 October 2026
Shakespeare in Love (1998)Wordplay and puns
🎯 Today’s focus
The real English of wordplay and puns — the moment a British colleague says something deadpan, the entire table groans, and you cannot tell whether it was a joke. Five words and phrases you will need to recognise the joke and react like a native, and every one of them appears in the story before it is explained.
🎬 Episode script
Transcript
4 chapters · about 6 minutes of reading🎭 Intro
Welcome back for another English movie review lesson — I’m Teacher Teddy, and today, let’s talk about Shakespeare in Love.
Today’s lesson is about wordplay and puns: the moment a British colleague says something deadpan, the entire table groans, and you cannot tell whether it was a joke. By the end of this video, you’ll recognise the joke and react like a native. And listen out for one moment in particular. Will lies on a couch in the opening minutes and describes his symptoms to a physician, tongue in cheek, and it sets the tone for the whole film. If you’re interested in a wider selection of episodes unlocking native English phrases and vocabulary pulled straight from your favourite movies, consider subscribing now.
Will Shakespeare has promised a comedy he cannot write, and the only person in London who can finish his sentences is forbidden to set foot on a stage. Have you ever met someone quicker with words than you?
The story begins in the London of 1593, with a struggling playwright called Will Shakespeare, who owes the theatre manager Philip Henslowe a comedy, has already spent the money, and cannot get past the first line. His working title is Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter.
📜 Plot & how the story is told
The story begins in the London of 1593, with a struggling playwright called Will Shakespeare, who owes the theatre manager Philip Henslowe a comedy, has already spent the money, and cannot get past the first line. His working title is Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter.
So Will reclines on a couch and recites his symptoms to a physician, explaining, in anguished detail, that his quill has stopped working, and he is not discussing only his quill. The scene is “tongue in cheek”, which means it is said as a joke while sounding serious. This is the moment to listen for. The deadpan delivery is the joke. The learner mistake is taking it at face value, so when a colleague announces, unsmiling, that the office coffee is the finest coffee in Europe, check his face before agreeing. Used in real life: “Relax, that comment was tongue in cheek.”
A boatman rowing Will along the Thames discovers who his passenger is and mentions that he is a bit of a writer himself. The film brims with jokes about words, and the English word for a joke built on one word with two meanings is “a pun”, also called “a play on words”. A banker who lost interest: the second meaning is the joke. When natives hear a pun, nobody laughs: they groan, roll their eyes and say “That’s terrible,” which in Britain is the highest praise a pun can receive. Used in real life: “Oh, that’s terrible. I love it.”
Viola de Lesseps is a wealthy merchant’s daughter who longs to act, which Elizabethan law forbade, so she disguises herself as a man called Thomas Kent and auditions anyway. Will hires her as his Romeo, and every line she speaks carries “a double meaning”, which is saying one thing and meaning two. A woman pretending to be a boy, playing a young man, declaring love for a girl: the audience savours every layer at once. Used in real life: “Careful how you word that — it’s got a double meaning.”
Will follows “Thomas Kent” home, gatecrashes a ball, and finds himself trading lines with the merchant’s daughter across a crowded floor, under the eye of her betrothed, Lord Wessex, an aristocrat with a title and no money. That teasing talk is “banter”, the word Britain loves for friendly mockery between people who like each other. But banter has a line: the moment one person is laughing and the other is not, it is no longer banter; it is something uglier. Used in real life: “Don’t take it personally. It’s just banter.”
Queen Elizabeth appears for only a few minutes. Every remark she makes is sharper than her courtiers’, and the word for her is “witty”: clever and funny at once, and swift. Somebody who answers before you have finished asking is “quick-witted”. “Funny” means only that a person makes you laugh, whereas “witty” means the laughter springs from intelligence, so “witty” praises the brain as well as the joke. Used in real life: “She’s the wittiest person in the office.”
Rehearsals stagger on at the Rose, the rival playwright Christopher Marlowe donates his best ideas, and a hopeless comedy turns into Romeo and Juliet. Whether the play ever reaches a paying audience, what the authorities decide about the girl hidden in the company, and how the Queen settles a wager about love — I won’t tell you here. What I can tell you is that the rehearsal scenes are the funniest in the film, and that it insists good writing costs the writer something.
📖 Vocabulary spotlight
This episode also has three bonus vocabulary words — the words real critics reached for when they wrote about this film, and the ones you’ll want when you talk about it yourself.
Rapturous means full of intense delight and excitement. The Rotten Tomatoes critics’ consensus calls the film endlessly witty and visually rapturous. Used in real life: “The crowd gave her a rapturous welcome.”
Sparkling means brilliantly lively and clever. The Baltimore Sun found the comedy sparkling, running its review under the headline “Comedy, wit sparkle in literary romp”. Used in real life: “We had a sparkling conversation over dinner.”
Literate means well-read, and written with real intelligence about language. Eye for Film called the screenplay clever, witty, accessible and literate. Used in real life: “Her emails are the most literate in the company.”
💬 Critic reception
Now, let’s talk about how critics have described Shakespeare in Love.
The words reviewers reach for are the three bonus words above. The summary of critical opinion gathered by Rotten Tomatoes praises a film whose cleverness seems to have no end, and whose look on screen fills the viewer with joy and excitement. Writing in The Baltimore Sun, the reviewer judged the humour bright and full of life, and the paper printed the piece beneath a headline announcing that the comedy and the wit of this bookish romp shine. Eye for Film, for its part, admired a screenplay that is smart, funny and easy to follow, yet plainly the work of a writer who reads widely and handles language with real intelligence.
Now the whole story again, with every word from today in it. See how many you catch. Will cannot write, so he tells a physician, tongue in cheek, that his quill has stopped working. His world runs on puns and plays on words, and the groans are the applause. A merchant’s daughter auditions disguised as a boy, so every line she speaks has a double meaning. Will finds out, the pair fall into banter, and a witty Queen settles the wager with one quick-witted remark. The screenplay is literate, the comedy is sparkling, and the final performance is rapturous.
⭐ The verdict
Rating
As a film, it is a sparkling comedy about how theatre gets made: the debts, the rehearsals, and the rewriting on the morning of the performance. For English learners it is demanding rather than gentle, because the characters speak a stage Elizabethan, with thee and thou and whole speeches in verse, at theatre speed, so save it until quick conversation comes easily. Come for the romance, and stay for the jokes that have outlived everybody who first laughed at them.
Rated 15 in the UK · B2–C1
📚 Study tools
Learning focus recap
Five words and phrases for wordplay and puns, each with a fresh example — plus the three bonus words.
Said as a joke while sounding serious.
His speech about loving Monday mornings was clearly tongue in cheek.
A joke built on one word with two meanings.
The bakery’s sign said “We knead you”, and the pun made the whole queue groan.
Saying one thing and meaning two.
The newspaper headline had a double meaning, so half the readers missed the joke.
Friendly mockery between people who like each other.
The two brothers keep up a steady stream of banter whenever they cook together.
Clever and funny at once, and swift.
My grandmother is so quick-witted that she wins every argument at the dinner table.
A simple way to remember it all: a remark that is tongue in cheek is a joke dressed up to sound serious, so check the speaker’s face. A joke built on one word with two meanings is a pun, or a play on words, and the right reaction is a groan. When one line says one thing and means two, it carries a double meaning. Friendly mockery between people who like each other is banter, as long as both people are laughing. And somebody whose humour springs from intelligence, and who answers before you have finished asking, is witty and quick-witted.
📖 Bonus words
Rapturous
Full of intense delight and excitement.
Sparkling
Brilliantly lively and clever.
Literate
Well-read, and written with real intelligence about language.
✏️ Practice
Fill in the blank
0 of 5 correctType the missing word or phrase from this episode, then check. Stuck? Tap Hint to see three options.
Will’s couch scene is tongue in , which means it is said as a joke while sounding serious.
The English word for a joke built on one word with two meanings is a , also called a play on words.
Will hires Viola as his Romeo, and every line she speaks carries a double : saying one thing and meaning two.
That teasing talk at the ball is , the word Britain loves for friendly mockery between people who like each other.
Every remark the Queen makes is sharper than her courtiers’, and the word for her is : clever and funny at once, and swift.
🧠 Check you understood
Comprehension questions
0 of 6 answeredWhat is the working title of the comedy Will owes Philip Henslowe?
- Romeo and Juliet
- Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter
- Thomas Kent and the Queen
How does Viola de Lesseps get onto the stage?
- She disguises herself as a man called Thomas Kent and auditions
- She persuades the Queen to change the law
- She pays Philip Henslowe for a small part
Will tells a physician his quill has stopped working, tongue in cheek. What does “tongue in cheek” mean?
- Said nervously, because he is embarrassed
- Said quietly, so the physician cannot hear
- Said as a joke while sounding serious
A British friend tells you a pun. What is the most natural reaction?
- Laugh loudly and ask for another one
- Groan, roll your eyes and say “That’s terrible”
- Ask them politely to explain the joke
When does teasing stop being banter?
- When it goes on for longer than a few minutes
- When it happens in front of other people
- The moment one person is laughing and the other is not
Queen Elizabeth is “witty”, not just “funny”. What is the difference?
- “Witty” means the laughter springs from intelligence
- “Witty” is the polite word used for royalty
- “Witty” means the joke is rude
✍️ Your turn
Try it yourself in the comments
At the start I asked whether you had ever met someone quicker with words than you. Will meets Viola, who completes his lines before he has finished writing them. Who is the wittiest person you know? Write two sentences in the comments here or on the website, and use “witty” or “banter” in one of them.
For example: “The wittiest person I know is my uncle, who has a reply ready before I have finished my question. Our banter at family dinners makes my aunt groan and laugh at the same time.”Write a comment ↓📚 Keep learning
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