A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar

“The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” Atlantic Monthly (1857-11)
    (Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 1 (1858)