Response to The 50 Funniest American Writers

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What in the world did I just read?

Today for class, we read 5 short stories from the book “The 50 Funniest American Writers”. Unfortunately, after reading these stories, I think I could edit the book to “The 46 Funniest American Writers”. We read from the authors James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, E.B. White, Peter de Vries, and best of all, The Onion.

            I enjoyed the first story by James Thurber, but it really was not too funny. The story describes a family where several occurrences cause the wife to think her husband is insane. The first occurrence was perpetrated by Roy, one of the kids, who wakes his dad in the middle of the night, calls him Buck (not his name) and returns to bed before his dad can find out what was going on. While the idea of a prank like this was humorous and enjoyable to think about, the humor from that point on was somewhat stale.

            After enjoying the first story, I was surprised by how much the next three stories disappointed me.  I think the stories may have just been too old for me, but I had trouble even following the E.B. White story. I’m honestly not even sure what happened in it or what the purpose was. From the beginning, there is almost zero context, and everything that happens is confusing from that point on. In retrospect, this story seems like one where such random things happen that it almost needs to be seen on a stage or screen to understand it. Either way, I strongly disliked this story.

            Of course, the highlight of all of the readings was the article by The Onion. I have been a fan of this satirical news source for a long time, and was excited to get to read another article. It did not disappoint. The article talks about the future effort of the U.S. government to deploy thousands of vowels to Bosnia in order to make their names and cities understandable to Americans. The idea was great from the beginning, including fake quotes from people like Grg Hmphrs: “With just a few key letters, I could be George Humphries. That is my dream.” The absolute absurdity of it is humorous to read, but of course, the understanding that the story is not real is necessary to get a laugh out of it.