Exploring Further into Mark Twain

Now that we have a full understanding of "The Notorious Jumping Frog...," let's look at a few more of Mark Twain's texts and fame. Then we can create our own humorous stories!

Today, we are going to compare the definition of humor by Mark Twain to our modern day definition of humor. Follow the steps below to complete today's assignment:

PART ONE

1. Read Mark Twain's "How to Tell a Story."
2. Make a list of the ways Twain says you can make a story humorous.
3. Read "SoYouWanna do stand-up comedy?"
4. Make a list of the ways SoYouWanna says you can make a story humorous.
5. Create a Venn Diagram comparison of Twain vs. modern humor.

PART TWO
In the film Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens is described as “an enormous noticer.” Much of what he noticed as a boy growing up in the small Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri, found its way into his writings in books such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was always noticing whether people had their hands in their pockets or not, how they dressed, walked, spoke or presented themselves to others.

1. Let’s find out how much you notice on a typical day. Try to recall all the details, large and small, of your route home from or to school, of places, buildings and people. Make a list of what you saw. 
2. Write a short passage that changes some of the details of what you noticed on your route home into something humorous. 
3. Think about the Five Types of Humor we went over on Monday. 
4. Click "Modern humorists" below to access a compilation of how famous comedians use humor in their individual acts.

All good humorists are “enormous noticers.” Modern humorists, such as Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno and David Letterman, take current events and personalities and, through keen observation and wit, help us discover truths about ourselves and our society. Like Twain, they find the inspiration for humor in the little details of real-life situations that aren’t necessarily intended to be funny.

Lesson Inspiration: PBS.org

Want to know more about Twain? Follow this WebQuest to learn more!

My Personal Comparison Chart

All highlighted in yellow                                       BIG DIFFERENCES are in teal

Mark Twain		SoYouWanna
·         humor = American; English = comic; wit = French ·         humor = MANNER; comic and wit = MATTER o   HOW you tell the story not WHAT the story is about ·         “may wander around as much as it pleases and arrive nowhere in particular” o   can ramble o   not brief ·         a work of art o   a machine can tell a fact-based story ·         “told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it” o   pretend like it is a serious matter o   be subtle in your humor o   not forced for a laugh o   “dropping it in a carefully casual and indifferent way” ·         “the listener must be alert” ·         “he would look up with innocent surprise, as if wondering what they had found to laugh at” o   versus being OVER OBVIOUS in your jokes!!!!!!! ·         go round and round in your story with tedious details ·         make minor mistakes now and then; only to go back and correct them ·         “interior chuckles” ·         “simplicity and innocence and sincerity and unconsciousness” ·         string incongruities and absurdities together in a seemingly purposeless way ·         “drop a studied remark apparently without knowing it, as if one were thinking aloud” o   say your jokes with ease, not force ·         THE PAUSE o   “It is a dainty thing, and delicate, and also uncertain and treacherous; for it must be exactly the right length--no more and no less--or it fails of its purpose and makes trouble.” o   takes talent to pause correctly ·         “If you've got the PAUSE right, she'll fetch a dear little yelp and spring right out of her shoes. But you MUST get the pause right; and you will find it the most troublesome and aggravating and uncertain thing you ever undertook.”		·         have a strong ego and nerves of steel ·         you need to be virtually insane ·         a common misconception that stand-up comics do nothing all day and tell little stories ·         spend hours every day working on and perfecting their routines ·         build up your comic vocabulary ·         study the pros ·         determine pros’ emotional attitude to match o   “zany, cynical, deadpan, naïve, or a bizarre combination of all these traits” ·         gather material for your act o   have an act all planned out, then improve around it o   look at personal experiences and eccentricities ·         talk about o   negative character traits o   personal idiosyncrasies o   things that worry, anger, or frighten you ·         work out your timing o   shorten your joke attentions ·         the audience will lose attention o   make jokes short o   not too much thinking o   want easy entertainment ·         use the following techniques: o   lists of three o   comparisons o   simile o   observations o   mimicking o   callback ·         put the jokes in order; the best should be last ·         rehearse your act