J. Maya is the MVP: Most Valuable Punner

To say that Janani “J. Maya” Krishnan-Jha has an eclectic set of interests is an understatement. She plays soccer every morning (and is the only female on the team); she was a contestant on Survivor 45; she is a Harvard graduate; and in 2021, her single ‘Achilles Heel’ went viral on TikTok. But I am most eager to hear about how she became the youngest pun champion in the world (yes, that’s a thing) at 17. “Puns, in a very academic way, are one of the prime ways that we, as humans, find art and enjoyment and beauty in language itself,” she explains to me over Zoom. In one of her Instagram posts, she’s in a park with a classmate, who has just won the American Crossword Tournament, when they decide to have a little word playoff. “Wood you like to begin?” she asks her friend, pointing to a tree in the background. “Let’s rock,” he responds, gesturing toward a boulder nearby, eliciting an impressed nod from her. The game is afoot.

J. Maya’s love for puns comes from how she grew up: shy, nerdy and observing what other people found funny so that she could try to fit in as an Indian American. “Even as a kid, I was interested in bringing people together. That’s what drew me to competitive punning. It fascinated me that everyone reacted to a pun, whether they laughed or groaned.” Humour can often be quite divisive, with sarcasm and inside jokes that only a small group of people know and appreciate. Puns, on the other hand, are universal—something that everybody can recognise and have fun with. “I also did not have many friends so I had plenty of free time to pursue things like this,” she grins.

On video, her face is framed by long dark hair cascading over her shoulders and her eyes light up as she reminisces, “When my high school professor gave me a copy of The Pun Also Rises by John Pollock, a master on the competitive pun circuit, I just knew I wanted to be a pun champion one day.” But South Asian dreams often have a bit of starting trouble when they attempt to leave the parent-approval station. “The international championships always coincided with AP testing weekend. So in my freshman year, I made a deal with my parents. If I got accepted to Harvard early, I’d skip AP testing to compete. I finally won at the championships at 17.” J. Maya is an award-winning debater too so it must’ve been hard for her parents to argue in either case.

She paints a comical picture of her time on the circuit. “I’m on the stage. Everybody else is a middle-aged dad, and everyone is funny except for me because I’m treating it like a Spelling Bee: doing it with technical puns and painstaking accuracy.” Eventually, she learned to let loose. “A lot of women who look like me sometimes feel like they’re held back by these stereotypes of how we’re supposed to present ourselves to the world and I unlearned that when I gave myself permission to become genuinely funny.”

J. Maya’s pun-loving talents soon translated into making music but because of the pressure to channel her creative aspirations into a more lucrative career, her passion for writing and music blossomed under a cloak of secrecy. “For four years at Harvard University, after debate practice ended at midnight, I would sneak into the music practice room of my college dorm. I was careful to ensure nobody saw me go in or out and I would write songs for hours. No one knew I was a songwriter—not my friends, nor my boyfriend at the time, definitely not my parents.” She graduated from college during the pandemic, which allowed her to defer her law school admission and begin a 9-to-5 job while surreptitiously pursuing music for a year.

When her first single ‘Achilles Heel’ (2021), which uses Greek mythology to characterise the loneliness and messiness of her relationship, went viral and people in the music industry started to reach out to her, she decided to sit her parents down and spill everything. “I understand where their concerns were coming from and there was a learning curve but they’ve now become my strongest support.” Another song, ‘Prophecies’ (2022), is an ode to her parents, acknowledging their sacrifices as first-generation immigrants. “I’m the most dramatic person ever. I played the song for my mom for the first time in the car and the two of us have never cried more in our lives,” she laughs. If there’s one thing you need to know about J. Maya, it’s that she loves love. In ‘Sunday Crossword’ (2022), one of her most-liked songs, she uses wordplay to sing about crushes and young love. “What’s a nine-letter word for how you feel? There’s a U and I together, but it’s missing a few letters.” In the music video, the camera pans to a crossword with only the words U and I highlighted, before the 25-year-old continues to sing, “Is it misgUIded? Or disgUIsed? It can’t be unreqUIted…”

J. Maya’s upcoming single, ‘Gladiators’—again mythology-inspired but this time Roman—tells the story of female gladiators who unite and take down those who have put them in the arena against each other. “Identity is a shared experience, just as much as music and puns. There’s a sisterhood of many up-and-coming South Asian artists now. I feel an inexplicable sense of relief when I’m in the room with them.” I ask if there are other connections to her Indian roots and she replies even before I’ve finished my question, “My favourite foods are idli, sambar, vadai and uthappam. When I'm sick, I will get in my car and drive two hours home for piping hot rasam.”

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