The Good, The Bad, and The Funny (9/12/12)

            Finally! A new book. Just kidding, but seriously. The Funniest 50 American Writers by Andy Borowitz is a hundred times better than Comic Relief by John Morreall. At first glance, I recognized names of certain authors, such as Mark Twain and O. Henry. However, even though these were the first names I recognized, they were not the authors of the excerpt I found the most funny and entertaining. That being said, I enjoyed their writing more than Anita Loos and H.L. Mencken. Out of this assigned reading I cherished Dave Barry’s writing, titled Tips for Women: How to Have a Relationship with a Guy the most.

            Mark Twain’s excerpt, A Presidential Candidate, was entertaining to read because it was bizarre. He set up my expectations then shattered them by taking his writing in the opposite direction. I almost imagined him delivering the piece as a standup comedy routine, more than sitting at his desk more than one hundred years ago and writing this story. I did recognize and appreciate that his sense of humor is still accepted today, and I found myself grinning at a couple of parts. Grinning, but not laughing. O. Henry also pulled a handful and smirks and grins out of me as I sat in the library late at night reading his story. I thoroughly enjoyed The Ransom of Red Chief and soon found myself absorbed in the plot and characters. Poor Bill. I predicted the ending; however, my foresight did not take away from the humor of the kidnappers’ predicament. This story is very funny. I found the boy’s game, “Russian in a Japanese war”(23) hilarious. This story could be converted to TV nowadays and still be funny.

            On a different note, I found Anita Loos’ story, Gentleman Prefer Blondes, all together, not that funny. Perhaps it was the mood I was in when I read it but, I was annoyed by the woman’s egotistical and unintelligent diary rant. It was a long drawn out blonde joke, and I didn’t enjoy the delivery. One thing I did find funny was that the woman wrote she will let the man read her diary one day, and then she begins writing poorly about him and her interest in other men. All together though, I did not enjoy this read as much as the first two. That being said, I rank it above H.L. Mencken’s Imperial Purple. I found it to be a poor attempt at humor in general, not to mention my notion that Mencken was targeting a more sophisticated audience. In my notes I wrote, “not funny”, “dry”, and “Har, Har”. I wasn’t really “Har-ing”. Who knows, maybe it is just not my type of humor.

            Now for the excerpt I found absolutely hilarious. Dave Barry’s Tips for Women: How to Have a Relationship with a Guy is hysterical. Of course, I relate with this piece completely. I am a guy, and I am in a… do I dare say, relationship? I’m not sure women actually think this way, or maybe about relationships to this extent, but I definitely relate to the ant on top of the tire. Being aware of something large, but not understanding what it is… that’s me. I’m kidding; I’d like to think I’m more aware then his depiction of guys. At least by a little bit. Maybe… Hopefully… Oh well… Barry writes joke after joke that caught me by surprise and made me laugh. Sure, he is poking fun at guys, but there is definitely something to his advice that is true. I enjoyed this piece of writing because it was funny, but it also made me reflect on my experiences and understanding of my past and current relationship(s). This is what elevated Barry’s writing over the other others for me. I enjoyed this piece from when I read the title all the way to his table of threatening versus nonthreatening responses. Hilarious.