This semester, I've been very
excited to get to The 50 Funniest American Writers. I had assumed that it would be an anthology
of pieces that would be both short and funny. So far my sense of humor
and that of Mr. Borowitz tend to differ vastly. Of
the four pieces that I have read from this book, I personally only classify one
of them, “The Ransom of Red Chief,” as especially amusing. The others fell short to me.
“The Ransom of Red Chief” by O.
Henry was amusing to me because of the reversal of expectations presented by
the boy taking the kidnappers hostage. One
would expect the boy to be terrified and wanting to go home. But by the end of the story, the kidnappers
were paying money for the boy’s father to take him back. There’s also a bit of physical humor in the
boy’s abuse of Bill, but that kind of thing doesn't appeal to me as much.
Thurber’s “More Alarms at Night”
seemed to me to be the sort of story that someone would tell to their friends
and finish with, “I guess you had to be there.”
It seems like a great story to laugh about with the people who
experienced it, but not one that others could relate to. I, personally, have never woken my dad up in
the middle of the night and scared him into thinking me insane. Perhaps it’s great fun. Perhaps I should try it sometime. But for now, this story seems too distanced
from my own life to hold much, if any, humor for me.
The next story I read, “The Waltz”
by Dorothy Parker, came closer to experiences that many people may have
had. While not everyone may have
recently been asked to waltz, most people can relate to agreeing to plans they aren't particularly interested in. The narrator’s
sarcastic commentary brings a bit of humor to this otherwise unpleasant situation. She uses extreme exaggeration to mock her
dance partner’s clumsiness and express her own feelings toward him. At one point she debates whether she should
kill him just to stop the dance from continuing. Were she serious, such thoughts could be considered psychopathic. But, as the reader knows, she is merely
allowing her mind to wander in order to pass the time until the dance
ends. The sharp contrast between the
narrator’s inner thoughts, which are very dark, and her spoken words, which are
polite and gracious, is another source of humor in the story. “The Waltz” is a dark, sarcastic work of
humor, which I believed was fairly entertaining, although I wouldn't say it’s
the kind of story to make a person laugh out loud.
The fourth and (so far) final
piece I read from this anthology wasn't a short story at all. It was an article, entitled “A Few Words
About Breasts” and written by Nora Ephron.
In the article, she rambled about how awkward puberty was for her, how
small her breasts are, and why she feels that the world is against her because
of this. I didn't think it was very
funny. I’m not even convinced that the
author was even attempting to be amusing.
There’s a possibility that I didn't pick up on some sarcasm, or that I was simply incapable of relating to the world that Ms. Ephron grew up in. Regardless, the only potential source of humor
that I saw in the article was that other women may be able to relate to her
coming-of-age experiences and laugh with her.
Overall, this book has me
intrigued. It certainly contains an
interesting variety of styles and types of humor. I’m a bit curious as to what type of humor
Andy Borowitz himself uses. Perhaps I
will do a bit of research and write about my findings in a future blog. Is the humor he uses very similar to or
different from the humor he enjoys reading?
I would also like to know how the book was compiled, and whether he took
suggestions from others in his search for the fifty funniest authors.
