I know that colonel is spelled, well, colonel, because my grandfather is, in fact, a colonel. But when it comes to the opportunity for a good (bad) pun, correct spelling never stopped my father.
The corn jokes started at the dinner table one night when my brother, instead of eating his corn on the cob, stood it up on the plate and declared it the “Leaning Tower of Corn.” Not a good joke or even a good pun by any stretch of the imagination. But it got my father started.
For years afterward, corn for dinner also meant corny puns.