"Take the prisoner downstairs", said Tom condescendingly.
(Words Frequently Sought)
A sentence where a description of the manner of saying refers
punningly to quoted matter is called a "Tom Swifty". (Some
people restrict "Tom Swifty" to sentences where the pun is in an
adverb, and use "croaker" for sentences where the pun is in the
verb: "'I'm dying', he croaked.") The name "Tom Swifty" derives
from the Tom Swift adventure series for boys (whose enthusiastic use
of adverbs modifying "said" they parody); but the form goes back to
the 19th century, and was used by James Joyce in _Ulysses_ (1922).
I maintain the Canonical Collection of Tom Swifties, with over
900 entries. It's available on the WWW as:
http://www.english-usage.com/TomSwifties.html
A sentence where words following a quotation humorously
reinterpret what is quoted ("'Eureka!' said Archimedes to the
skunk") is called a "wellerism", after the character Sam Weller in
Dickens' novel _The Pickwick Papers_. The form predates Dickens.
Source: [Mark Israel, 'Words Frequently Sought: "Take the prisoner downstairs", said Tom condescendingly.', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 5917), (29 Sept 1997)]
