In this chapter titled, Solution to Saturdays Puzzle, by David Sedaris, he explores the concept of humor through everyday experience. I found the humor to be a little tasteless, not that I didn't find myself chuckling at times over the shear stupidity of what was happening, but it seemed that the jokes weren't really meant to have much thought in it, it was just blatantly exaggerated and absurd. Though I did find the humor to be a bit over the top more my liking, I did find myself pondering over one of the statements made, “What if I was wrong? I pictured her in a dimly lit room, trembling before a portfolio of glowing X-rays. 'I give you two weeks at the most,' the doctor says. 'Why don't you get your toenails done, buy a nice pair of cut-offs, and spent some quality time with your husband.'” (132) It really hit me hard when that came up. I did not expect to find such a thought provoking and tragic idea within the contexts of something meant to be humorous and joyful. I thought that that was a very strange concept, the idea of tragedy amongst humor. Though that was no were near the focus of the chapter, it was none the less very influential to how I pictured the rest of the story. It drew me away from the humor of the story and made me think, if that really was the case, how would you feel and how would this change the story if the people had known this to be the truth. I found it hard to really focus upon the humorous side of the story, when all my thoughts dwelled upon the seriousness of what the situation could be.
Though I may have overlooked the humor a bit, I did like how the author tied the whole things together at the end when he referred to the the ladies comment as an eight-letter word the was described as, “above the shoulders, he's nothing but crap.” I thought that that really tied the game with reality. As if all of the reality was just a words game. How your very outlook and opinions can be changed upon the changing of even a small aspect of a situation. For example, I found this to be relatively humorous, until I came upon the idea of death, and if Becky was really dieing how would that change things. The whole story is just one way of looking at things. The author is using the idea of humor to give a happy and warm feel to the story, even though when looked at in a different way, that happy feeling goes away. The way that words are presented changes everything about how one will view things. A pessimistic view of life will result in an outlook that is very dark, evil and depressing, were an optimistic view will result in the complete opposite. A lot of this story focuses upon these contradictory ideas of humor very serious and makes you think whether the author was really trying to make this a humorous story, or is the author trying to make a point that the anything can be made to look or appear humorous no matter how serious it really is, as long as you are able to describe it in a humorous manner.
My Joke: Really, really old joke my cousins use to tell me and my sisters during Christmas and thanksgiving when we were really young.
Billy's teacher told him to find 5 vocabulary words for homework the next day. So Billy goes home and asks his mom. His mom says, “shut up!” So he writes that down. Then he goes to his dad who is watching football in the other room and he says “lets go baby lets go.” So he writes that down. Next he goes to his little brother who was watching batman and he says, “Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batman.” So he writes that down. After that he goes to this little sister who is flushing his toy cars down the toilet and she say, “I flushed them down the toilet I flushed them down the toilet.” So he writes that down. On his way to school the next day Billy passes by a bun shop and hears the baker yells, “My buns are burning my buns are burning.” So he writes that down.
Once Billy gets to school his teacher asks him, “Billy what are your vocabulary words” and he say, “Shut up!”
“Do you want to go to the principals office?” she replied.
“Lets go baby, lets go.”
So they march down to the principals office. When they get their the principals asks, “Who do you think you are?”
Billy says, “Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batman.”
Angrily the principal asks, “Where are your parents?”
Billy replies, “I flushed them down the toilet, I flushed them down the toilet.” So the principal picks Billy up and begins to spank him, and while she does this he says, “my buns are burning my buns are burning.”
Second joke:
Sixth grade science teacher Mrs. Samson asks her class: "Who can tell me which
organ of the human body expands to 10 times its usual size when stimulated?"
Nobody raises a hand, so she calls on the first student to look her way.
"Mary, can you tell me which organ of the human body expands to 10 times its usual size when stimulated?"
Mary stands up, blushing furiously. "How dare you ask such a question?" she says. "I'm going to complain to my parents, who will complain to the principal, who will have you fired!"
Mrs. Sampson is shocked by Mary's reaction, but yet undaunted. She asks the class the question again, and this time Sam raises his hand.
Yes, Sam?" says Mrs. Sampson. "Ma'am, the correct answer is the iris of the human eye."
"Very good, Sam. Thank you." Mrs. Sampson then turns to Mary and says, "Mary, I have 3 things to tell you: first, it's clear that you have NOT done your homework. Second, you have a DIRTY mind. And third, I fear one day you are going to be sadly disappointed."
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