Fans of Jeremy Lin watch as the New York Knicks take on the Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Feb. 10, 2012.
The number-one inspiration for puns this year had to be basketball player Jeremy Lin. In early February, the devoutly Christian, Ivy League-educated, Asian-American point guard for the New York Knicks went from benchwarmer to superstar—just days before his contract was set to expire. America couldn’t resist the NBA player’s singular character and underdog narrative: the resulting hullabaloo was dubbed “Linsanity.” Linsanity gave way to combinations of “Lin” with just about anything in headlines, on Twitter and elsewhere. His tale was a Linderella story. He seemed Linvincible, like a Linja assassin. He was Super Lintendo. “[A]ll he does is Lin, Lin, Lin,” tweeted Shaquille O’Neal. By mid-March, as Lin’s performance waned, the New York Times declared, “It’s the end of Linsanity as we know it.” Headline writers just had to Lin and bear it.