Funny Story Research Articles

Dirty Fighter

Dirty Fighter William Householder (bio) Staff Picks George Singleton LSU Press www.lsupress.org/books/detail/staff-picks/ 208 Pages; Print, $22.50 Here are a few things you may not know about George Singleton, Southern fiction writer, purveyor of "grit lit," and one of the funniest short story writers this benighted country has produced: George and his opossum buddy have time-traveling adventures as the superheroes Manna Man and Thanatosis Girl, righting wrongs throughout history. George likes to put his good friend, the acclaimed novelist and poet Ron Rash, into his stories in a most unseemly and grotesquely funny fashion. (It's not hard. "Rash" lends itself to abuse in so many ways). George likes flea markets. Fact or fiction? You decide. George Singleton is not just a funny Southern fiction writer in the grand tradition, which includes Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Donald Barthelme and Roy Blount, Jr. But he is also a first-class travel agent. How's that, you ask? I thought he worked for Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina? Rest assured, he still does, but his passion has always been travel. If you've ever read any of George's stories, you know he likes to send you to the most interesting places this side of the Mason-Dixon Line. Have you ever visited a town called Gruel? Or Poke? Or Forty-Five? Sure, there are towns with such odd names all over the South, and yes, the populations of such towns exist, but not in the same state! The Carolinas of George Singleton are familiar, but slightly skewed.The big problem with reading Singleton is after a while you start to talk and think like one his characters or worse yet, if you're a writer, you start to write like Singleton and nobody else can do that but him. For example, take a look at the opening of "Rinse Cycle": Tyler Fort would still be alive these thirty-plus years later had my father not thrown away the cheap Zebco rod and reel, if my best friend Arlie Capps's father hadn't beaten him after we got caught, if Mr. Fort had learned how to read and been able to get another job after the mill closed, if new owner, Mr. Patel, had drained the swimming pool after Labor Day behind the twelve-room Hilltop Motel like old owner, Mr. Liner, always did ... if Raj Patel had installed a higher fence or security cameras to let him know when two fourteen-year-old boys jumped a split rail in order to harass a boy pummeled by an unhinged father, if the town of Poke could still afford a single cop to work third shift driving around with a spotlight, and—to be honest—if Tyler Fort possessed the ability to say, "I don't want to wear dresses every Sunday night." But he's long dead. That story's opening paragraph has so much energy in its prose and momentum in the exposition it supplies, only to slam on the brakes in the last sentence: you have to read it twice just to be sure of what's happened. I read that opening and said, "Damn!" Further evidence that the writing of George Singleton will make you forget a good Baptist upbringing. The men in the fourteen stories comprising Staff Picks are middle-class, middle-aged, white guys from small Southern towns. They are hapless. They are suckers. They are schmucks trying to get by. The women are long-suffering or no-longer [End Page 32] suffering as they've wised up and left these pathetic men. Some good examples of these men are in "One More," "Gloryland," and "Resisting Separation." George Singleton is also a dirty fighter. You think you're getting a funny story about a couple's marital foibles and then out of nowhere he'll punch you in the gut with enough force that the air coming out of you sounds like a sob, then he'll throw dust into your eyes to make you tear up. His coup de grâce is his signature wrestling move, illegal in thirty of the continental United States...

Up on Bob by Mary Sullivan

Reviewed by: Up on Bob by Mary Sullivan Deborah Stevenson, Editor Sullivan, Mary Up on Bob; written and illus. by Mary Sullivan. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020 [34p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-328-99471-4 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-358-16721-1 $12.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. K-2 Bob the dog is on a mission: set up the human bed for the best possible daytime nap. He's knocked the toys off and arranged the pillows ("Bob likes hard work. Hard work pays off"), and he's all set for his snooze, but now Someone (a cheeky gray cat) is watching him. Kitty pounces—and sets to work on arranging (and cleaning) Bob for a perfect shared nap. Sullivan (Ball, BCCB 5/13, Nobody's Duck, BCCB 1/18) again displays her gift for concise animal comedy in this strippeddown [End Page 232] beginning reader in picture-book format. The text incorporates repetition effortlessly, evincing a conversational tone even as it aids new readers, and then the cat development turns the full reiteration of the bed-preparing ritual into a comic twist. Digital line and watercolor–style art is light-hearted and spring-toned, with the strong emphasis on Bob, a long-nosed sausage (and a well-stuffed sausage at that) of a pup with expressive ginger eyebrows; the rounded toylike cat is cute even as an antagonist and adorable as a cuddle buddy. Kids just puzzling out words will appreciate the comfortable format and cozily funny story, and this is also a perfect picture book to encourage youngsters to start testing out their co-reading. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Crusading Is "for the Birds": Politics and Eudora Welty's The Shoe Bird

Crusading Is "for the Birds":Politics and Eudora Welty's The Shoe Bird Elizabeth Crews In 1964, Eudora Welty published her one children's book, The Shoe Bird. Not long after it came out, Welty sent a copy of the book to her friend and one-time editor Mary Louise Aswell who responded, "The Shoe Bird will counteract a great deal of current poison. It's worth all the editorials—very sly, and addressed to the right audience, and because it encourages the reader to keep his wits about him children will want to read it over and over again so they won't miss the jokes. Then the Word will seep in, if it didn't penetrate at first" (Aswell). The letter underscores how Welty is able to use her children's book to subtly guide the reader to lessons that were important in the social and political environment of the 1960s. The birds in Welty's children's book teach the reader about welcoming inclusion, avoiding a groupthink mentality, embracing a willingness to learn and change, and acknowledging that words have real consequences. All of these lessons were of vital importance to the 1960s audience, but they are equally important today. If the novelist must not crusade, then maybe crusading is for the birds. In The Shoe Bird, Welty uses word play and a myriad of bird characters to present a funny story about the Open House at the Friendly Shoe Store.1 Arturo, the parrot who works in the Friendly Shoe Store, overhears a young boy, Robbie Thompson, say, "Shoes are for the birds!" (10). Arturo, being a parrot, repeats what he hears to Gloria the Goose. Gloria goes into the park and tells the Park Pigeon, who then tells his cousin the Carrier Pigeon. By the time the Carrier Pigeon is off to share the news, Robbie Thompson's statement "Shoes are for the birds!" has turned into an invitation to an Open House at the Friendly Shoe Store where a prize will be given to the chosen bird. Since the announcement was made with such short notice, each family sends one representative to the shoe store. At sunset, birds from all over the world begin descending upon the Friendly Shoe Store, surprising Arturo, who knows nothing of the Open House. Gloria informs Arturo that the prize that each bird should be given is a pair of shoes. Arturo and Gloria begin handing out shoes, but the birds find the shoes are entirely too big. Arturo decides to reduce the size of the [End Page 143] shoes, as Mr. Friendly does when he has a sale. Arturo pulls out a sign that says the shoes are reduced, then another saying greatly reduced, and this finally brings the shoes down to the size that the various birds need. Once all birds have shoes, they party around the store, complimenting each other and enjoying their new shoes. At the height of their enjoyment, Freddy the cat comes into the store for his weekly cleaning, when he rids the shoe store of mice. When Freddy discovers the birds, he taunts them by threatening to eat them. The birds all try to figure out a way to escape the shoe store without being eaten by Freddy, but their shoes weigh too much, so they cannot fly, and to walk out the front door they would have to pass by the cat. Grandfather Phoenix arrives and tells Freddy, "Frederico, retire" (64). And, as everyone does when an authority figure uses their full given name, Freddy obeys. The frightful encounter over, the birds turn to the phoenix for the solution to free themselves from the shoe store. Teaching, never telling, Phoenix shows the birds that they must use their wings to leave. The birds realize in order to use their wings, they must give up their shoes, and this leads to a vote on wings or shoes. The vote goes 133 to 1 in opposition to shoes (Gloria the Goose refuses to give up her golden slippers). Deciding that shoes are not for the birds, the birds help clean up the Friendly Shoe Store, deposit their shoes on the welcome mat, and...

Sense of Humor Dr. (HC) KH. Ahmad Hasyim Muzadi pada Acara Reuni Akbar 90 Tahun Pondok Gontor

KH. Hasyim Muzadi is a person who has the Sense of humor, this was evidenced in his lecture at the grand reunion 90 years of Pondok Gontor. Sense of humor becomes an effective method for conveying a message or value. The approach in this study uses a descriptive type qualitative approach. The data in this case is the Sense of Humor lecturer, while the source of the data is the lecture KH.Hasyim Muzadi in the grand reunion event of 90 years Pondok Gontor. The analysis used is qualitative descriptive analysis. The results in this study that the element of Sense of Humor is owned by KH Hasyim Muzadi during the lecture, the aspect of Sense of Humor used dominantly on the aspect of innuendo or criticism and aspects of a funny story. The type of Sense of Humor used is the intellectual type of humor, because of the intellectual background of the speaker.

Hannah Gadsby Stands Down: Feminist Comedy Studies

Hannah Gadsby Stands Down:Feminist Comedy Studies Rebecca Krefting (bio) Sitting in a large auditorium at Edinburgh University, the audience of approximately two hundred hummed, tweeted, and buzzed in anticipation of stand-up comic Hannah Gadsby's much-discussed Nanette at the 2017 Fringe Festival. Within moments of taking the stage, Gadsby's performance—a feminist-queer metacommentary on comedy—distinguished itself from standard stand-up shows when she declared, "I am going to have to quit comedy."1 She spent the next sixty minutes telling us why.2 I saw Nanette again in London in November 2017 at the Soho Comedy Club. The sold-out show was at capacity, at 175. Gadsby had been performing Nanette for more than six months. She looked tired, but the show was equally powerful and emotional. I was delighted to learn that Netflix would stream Nanette, making it available to millions overnight—the content exposes and unapologetically derides sexism, gender violence, homophobia, and xenophobia.3 But I was concerned about what that would mean for consumption of the show. At a live [End Page 165] show it is difficult to ignore the sounds of stifled tears, people hugging in the aisles, wiping their eyes, or looking stunned. We gain much in how popular Gadsby's special has become, her messages disseminated widely, but is anything lost? This essay places Gadsby's farewell performance—an affective journey rejecting catharsis and intending to elicit emotions beyond laughter—in conversation with the field of feminist comedy studies.4 For Gadsby, comedy as performance practice has problems. It encourages self-deprecation, which she insists doubles as "humiliation." It also forces comics to generate humorous resolutions to any tension created, which can function to diminish the serious nature of social critique. Most important, Gadsby believes that comedy does not allow her to tell her story fully. While stand-up comedy can be an important vehicle for speaking truth to power, Gadsby often purposely omits difficult, violent truths connected to her subordinate identities, seeming to kowtow to stand-up's formulas, which elide the complexity of lived experience. For Gadsby, these are dangerous omissions. Personal testimony reveals the emotional pain of telling her story within the framework of comedy and complicates the notion of comedy as liberating, a long-standing axiom in feminist comedy studies. Gadsby plans to quit comedy, but before shucking off that performative coil, she has a few unfunny things to say about homophobia, sexism, and internalized oppression. The intimacy of what is offered in the live show, between performer and audience, and among audience members, may be compromised with the more permissive medium of Netflix, which people watch in the comfort of their own homes. Yet the popularity of the special following its release indicates how deeply her work has affected so many people. Just as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter use their artistry to offer new models of feminism, Gadsby likewise models a feminist critique of the limitations of stand-up.5 About Nanette, Hannah Gadsby says: "It's a show where I decided to see how people would react to a story that I have made funny—but also reveal that it isn't really a funny story. … That is what Nanette is—to show how much you have to adapt in order to make an audience laugh."6 In Gadsby's adaptations, we lose essential parts of the story because—told straight—they would not have elicited laughter. According to her, comedy's formula is fairly simple. First, the comic introduces the premise for the joke; this setup primes the audience for the delivery of the punch line. Gadsby asserts that repetition of this pattern throughout a show does not allow for the context necessary to tell a full story, which, in the Netflix release, she defines as having "a beginning, a middle, and an end." In an interview, Gadsby explains, "Everything I do evolves—I started by looking at a story I told during my first show. … It ended in violence—but I had stopped short of telling the real story. I thought, what happens if I tell the story properly? But when I started doing that I realised it...

Friendroid by M.M. Vaughan

Reviewed by: Friendroid by M.M. Vaughan Wesley Jacques Vaughan, M.M. Friendroid. McElderry, 2019 [384p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-9065-8 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-9067-2 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 5-8 Twelve-year-old Danny Lazio tells the reader up front, before he flashes back to the story, that his best friend Eric “Slick” Young is a robot—scratch that, was a robot. [End Page 317] What follows is shared narration of their unlikely friendship as it develops over video games and computer building, then the reveal that not only is Slick a robot (which neither Slick nor Danny know), he’s a walking, talking advertisement for all things preteen from clothing to social media to music. At first, Slick just comes off as frustratingly shallow and brand-conscious—even his nickname comes from how often he mentions his favorite brand of sneakers—but as the first child model of Jeopardy Advertising’s “Canny Valley” line of androids, Slick wins Danny (and others) over with his wide-eyed honesty and earnest reflections on what it means to be a good friend. When Jeopardy Advertising determines he’s become a liability that needs to be wiped clean, can Danny find a way to save him? There’s much to discuss and enjoy here in this deeply smart, potentially unnerving, but unrelentingly funny sci-fi story. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Narrative production in low-educated individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease and its relation to cognitive and brain volume measures

Narrative production in low-educated individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease and its relation to cognitive and brain volume measures

Поетика другорядного в романі “Торжество мізерності” Мілана Кундери

The article includes analysis of the latest novel by Milan Kundera “The Festival of Insignificance” with a focus on changes in poetics. In particular, it is about the decline and rethinking of the postmodern category of “simulacrum”, which hardly depended on reality and eventually lost touch with it all. The series of images in Kundera's novel has nothing to do with the process of simulacrization of the postmodernism era. The novels “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, “The Joke” and others by M. Kundera poetize the secondary figures regarding the “axial time” of their age. The mechanism of such poetization often reminds the structure of anecdotes, which undergo an excess growing of the text to such extend that even the essence of the anecdoting pattern, laid in the foundation can stay unnoticed by the reader. The sacralization of everyday life in modern literature canonizes secondary figures and ideas. Presenting a new approach to the image of a person in a new novel, M. Kundera gives preference to the peripheral before the the nuclear, to the marginal before the central and so on. The foundation for the new novel was built on the anecdotes about Stalin and his entourage. This is the reason for the peculiarities of the narration and minimization of the form. Kundera snaps from the history of the USSR such a “funny story” which allows to highlight the spirit of the era. The rise of the meticulousness, of the secondary, of the mediocre, increase of its relevance, of growing demand for it, not only in the mass literature but also in the refined texts of the living classics signals us of radical changes in the entire system of poetic thinking of the modern age.

구전소화와 문헌소화의 웃음 담론 비교 : 등장인물과 담론의 상관성을 중심으로

본고는 구전소화와 문헌소화의 등장인물을 중심으로 누가, 누구를 웃음의 대상으로 삼았는지, 그리고 그 이유는 무엇인지를 비교함으로써 두 소화의 웃음 담론을 비교 고찰하였다.BR 구전소화의 등장인물들은 1차적 관계로 이루어진 공동체 사회 구성원으로 이루어진 반면에, 문헌소화는 2차적 관계로 이루어진 이익 사회 구성원들로 이루어진다. 구전소화의 경우, 인물에 대한 구체적인 정보보다는 연행 공간의 담론 행위 자체를 강조하였다. 하지만 문헌소화는 인물들의 구체적인 신분 정보나 소속 집단의 시·공간적 정보를 구체적으로 제시하여 웃음 담론의 사회적 의미를 강화하였다.BR 구전소화의 인물들은 인간의 본능이나 본성과 관련된 범사회적 가치나 존재와 결부된 본질적인 웃음의 논리를 검증하거나 선택하도록 기능한다. 반면 문헌소화의 인물은 담론의 주체가 실천하고자 하는 특정 사회 집단의 규범이나 이념의 정체성을 확인하고 담론의 실천적 의지를 확고히 강화하는 기능을 수행하였다.BR

Anecdote Text Vs Spoof Text

It is often find understanding about the funny story in our society life. Every funny story is often defined as anecdote. In this term, anecdote is pointing to “cerita lelucon” or “konyol”. Most the story are funny because they have unpredictable funny things in the end. All those types of story are often socially called anecdote and they are going on. However, the unpredictable thing in the end of story which is often funny is called twist. This Twist, in term of text type, belongs to spoof. While in the generic structure of anecdote, we can not find the twist. So it might be the funny story which we often hear in our social life and defined as anecdote story is not the the anecdote text in term of text types we are learning. Commonly it is defined spoof and anecdote are similar, even both are same. Spoof and anecdote tend to be defined as text which relate to funny story and unusual incidents. It can be true as both bring the function mostly to entertain and share to readers. But, actually both are different. Key Words: Text, Anecdote and spoof

Even Laughter? From Laughter in the Magic Theater to the Laughter Assembly Line

Even Laughter? From Laughter in the Magic Theater to the Laughter Assembly Line

Bastards: A Memoirby Mary Anna King; New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, 248 pages

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewsFull AccessBastards: A MemoirM. M. Naveen, M.D.M. M. NaveenSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:3 Oct 2016https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.671010AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail by Mary Anna King; New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, 248 pagesBastards is a funny, entertaining, and bittersweet story of longing for human connectedness. It is a young woman’s account of her chaotic life journey to find an identity and her place in the world. Mary King is the second oldest of seven children who were born to a set of parents who were “great at making babies, but not so great at holding on to them.” Along with her older and only brother, Jacob, Mary lives through the birth and subsequent loss of five younger sisters who were all given away by her mother and adopted separately, by four different families. Mary leads a fractured life—one that is marked by sibling disruption and displacement. Mary herself is eventually adopted by her grandfather and his wife, Mimi. Despite a new name and a new family, Mary is haunted by the loss of her mother and another loss in the family. Not until Mary is in college does the first of her long lost sisters get in touch with her. Then, one by one, Mary and her siblings reunite to reform a family. The book concludes with Mary and her sisters preparing to be bridesmaids at their brother’s wedding, and Mary remarks, “It didn’t matter how we had gotten here, what had gone right or wrong in our lives. In that moment, we were a world unto ourselves. We were complete.”This book describes our universal drive to know where we come from—whether we are part of a stable family unit or live a confusing life like Mary’s, in which she was both a daughter and a sister to her own mother. Bastards puts into perspective the challenges faced by adopted children to create a family out of virtually just their imagination. Although it painfully reminds us of the truth that there “cannot be winners without losers,” it demonstrates the power of hope and attachment. It illustrates the importance of empathy and forgiveness. It defines love as not just an intensely held affection for another person, but as a need—a thing that is required in the course of development.Bastards is a must read for anyone who has been involved with the process of adoption. For clinicians, it provides a view into the spectrum of emotions that adoption can influence a child to experience, even years after the fact. It is a firsthand illustration of the importance of family.Dr. Naveen is with the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore.The reviewer reports no financial relationships with commercial interests. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 67Issue 10 October 01, 2016Pages e15-e15 Metrics PDF download History Published online 3 October 2016 Published in print 1 October 2016

Tendency to Err

Tendency to Err Andrew Weinstein (bio) Don’t Think: Stories Richard Burgin Johns Hopkins University Press https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content 184 Pages; Print, $19.95 With its nine new stories, Don’t Think brings readers deep into Richard Burgin country. It’s a stark land despite familiar sites—urban playgrounds, row houses, parking lots, doorman high rises, cafes and sports bars. There the specters of time, death and meaninglessness haunt a wide cast of characters battered by the torments of memory and desire. Some 35 years ago Burgin first featured the troubled offbeat loners who live in this land beleaguered with phobias and obsessions, and suggested a salve: relationships. In recent years, however, Burgin has introduced men and women whose selfish, insincere and mistrusting tendencies sabotage relationships. With new characters drawn from the demimonde to high society and beyond, Don’t Think, Burgin’s ninth collection, expands this dark vision. Here Burgin questions the possibility of nurturing relationships and the value of philosophical meditation itself. Many of these stories lampoon “babbling about time and death and infinity,” and not only for imposing debilitating dread and fear on people. Existential questioning becomes a tool for manipulating others, whether in the hands of a drug-dealing cult leader in “V.I.N.” (for Victims of Infinity and Nothingness, the self-pitying name of his cult), or a charismatic philosophy professor with a cult-like following in “Of Course He Wanted to Be Remembered.” Here a groupie catalogues her dead professor’s aphorisms about infinity and memory, but the story resolves on her sparring conversation with another student, one of the man’s innumerable sexual conquests. She sizes him up as a self-pitying, drug-addicted “pussy hound” who blamed his problems on his parents, though she also acknowledges how he championed her academic ambitions. Self-absorbed yet eager to please is an apt description of many of Burgin’s characters. What’s more, childhood scars really do twist them. The likable narrator of “The House Visitor” breaks into people’s homes in search of the sense of domestic tranquility he lacked as a child. And the boy who appeased his weeping mother by giving her nickels in “The Offering” grows up to pay prostitutes for companionship. In their own humble way, Mason’s gifts to his mother share something in common with the more terrible attention his favorite prostitute used to pay her father: both grew up doubting the possibility of sincerely relating to others. When he falls in love with the prostitute, Mason’s efforts to build a lasting relationship face challenges beyond his control, as Burgin reveals in pitch-perfect dialogue: “[…] Who says we always have to have sex every time you come over?” He thought she’d like what he said, but again, he’d miscalculated. She turned and looked at him. Anger and something else he couldn’t quite define were flashing in her eyes. “You trying to get out of paying me, now that we’re friends?” “No, no, it’s not like that.” “Damn straight, it’s not.” “I’ll give you money every time you come here. I always have.” “You don’t give me anything. You pay me what I earn….” Even as some characters reconcile themselves to lives circumscribed by the limits of damaging childhoods, others struggle to overcome them. They repress bad memories, but inevitably the repressed returns. Fearing an ambush by “lurking, only temporarily hidden memories that could suddenly appear and shock you,” the protagonist of “Uncle Ray” desperately seeks a “bad-memory-proof” vacation at the lake of his “happiest summers.” There, he helplessly recalls bullies, his parents’s marital breakdown and predation by a local pedophile, a trauma he turned into a funny story long ago. Humor numbs wounds, Burgin suggests, but only by confronting an unpleasant past can a person hope to master it. “The Chill” introduces an amateur comic who suffers the chronic sensation of a draft. Somehow it’s related to childhood anxieties from the beach about how the wind lives alone in a shell separated from its family, rather like his grown-up self would do. After a bad date...

A series of experiments on humour perception and memorization – a case of humour associations and remembering humorous stories

Four experiments with 48 participants were conducted to study humour perception and memorization. A computerized method (FVW) from Vienna Test System was used (Kessler, Pietrzyk & Puhr, 2003), as well as humour associations, the recall of three funny stories, a short text evoking admiration and respect. The research was focused on what was associated with the word “humour” and on the types of the best remembered stories. The results indicated that the participants remembered better concrete rather than abstract stimuli, as well as meaningful rather than meaningless stimuli. The participants remembered well short verbal stimuli. They associated humour mainly with positive meaning, positive emotions (joy, happiness, amusement, satisfaction). The participants remembered better and non-intentionally the verbal stories heard by them that they estimated as the funniest compared to the stories estimated by them as less funny or the sentences provoking other positive emotions (admiration and respect). The funniest estimated stories were relevant to their personal experience, no matter if they contained puns or not. The estimated least funny story also contained puns, but contradicted some social norms related to the appropriate behaviour at the workplace.

Caught in the Act by D. Loughead

Loughead, Deb. Caught in the Act. Orca Currents, 2013. Print.School is out and Dylan is ready to enjoy some time with his friends before he has to settle into his new job and be responsible. Dylan’s single mother arranged a job interview at a local resort to keep Dylan out of trouble and help him earn some money over the summer. Things do not get off to a good start. Dylan is late for his interview because he gets caught at an out of control bonfire where boys are burning their homework. He is initially relieved when Heather, who works at the reservation desk, covers for him, and he gets the job. Over the weekend, Dylan and his friends find themselves in a bad situation and are forced to “borrow” some towels from a local cabin. They inadvertently become suspects in some break-ins, and Dylan must work to figure out what is going on and clear his name. Through all of this, he loses his job for lying and snooping and loses the trust of his mother and grandmother.This book is important in showing how every decision should be thought through and that trust is earned, not just given. Dylan is judged by past behaviour, even when those around him want to give him the benefit of the doubt. The book is successful in avoiding cliches, but sends the message that it is best to be up front, tell the truth and trust those in authority. The idea that every little decision one makes can have serious consequences is something that may be valuable to a teen/preteen audience. That being said, the book is somewhat predictable and the reader may have a strong inkling that things will work out for Dylan. Teens and preteens will likely find they can relate to the themes of peer pressure, parental disappointment, and making tough decisions, all of which are highlighted in the book. Readers will also appreciate up to date references, like Dylan comparing his female friend to Zoe Deschanel, and his mother not allowing him to have a cell phone. This is a quick read, recommended for preteens and teens looking for a relatable, funny story with some important take aways.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Erin JonesErin Jones is a secondary English teacher in the Langley school district in British Columbia. Currently working on her Masters of Education, specializing in teacher-librarianship, she is passionate about engaging adolescent readers with rich literary experiences and helping students navigate the online world. In her spare time, she loves reading, running and dancing with her two children.

The Laughter and the Meaning of Funny Story that has been passed on orally - Focusing on the correlation between customs -

관습과 웃음은 불가분의 관계에 있다. 본 연구는 구전소화를 대상으로 관습들이 웃음 유발에 어떻게 작용하는가를 4가지 유형으로 고찰하였다. 첫째는 인물이 관습에 따라 융통성 없이 기계적으로 행동함으로써 웃음을 유발하는 유형이다. 이 유형의 소화는 관습의 문제점을 드러내려는 의도가 강하다. 둘째는 인물이 관습에 저항하는 것으로 웃음을 유발하는 유형이다. 이 유형의 소화는 관습을 위반하는 인물들을 웃음의 대상으로 삼아 기존 관습을 유지하고 강화하고자하는 의도를 가진 이야기들이다. 셋째는 인물이 겉으로는 관습을 따르는 척하지만, 사실은 관습과 어긋난 의도임이 드러나 웃음을 유발한다. 이 유형은 자신보다 상대 인물이나 관습을 웃음거리로 만들어 비판하는 이야기 방식이다. 마지막으로 관습의 허점을 찔러 웃음을 유발하는 유형이다. 이 유형의 소화는 관습의 부분적 허점을 지적하여 웃음을 유발한다. 이 유형은 소화의 의도를 웃음 뒤에 감추어 이야기가 진지해지는 것을 막는다.BR 구전소화에서 인물과 관습은 서로 유기적으로 작용하면서 다양한 웃음과 의미를 형성하고 있다. 관습과 관계 깊은 소화들은 관습을 위반하는 인물을 웃음의 대상으로 삼는 경우보다 관습이 웃음의 대상이 되는 경우가 더 많다. 그리고 구전소화에서 웃음의 대상이 되는 인물은 주로 하층민보다는 상층인물, 아랫사람보다는 윗사람으로 나타난다.

Memorias literarias de la difteria: Mark Twain, W.G. Sebald y el síndrome de Stendhal

Memories of W.G. Sebald from the diphtheria he suffered as a child, gave rise to a discussion about the origin of classic clinical descriptions and the traps memory tends. Good examples of the latter are some experiences of Stendhal, who must also be distrusted given his hypersensitivity, which gave name to a psychosomatic syndrome. Mark Twain, a more practical man, brings us back to reality with a funny story about the terror the disease caused in the late nineteenth century. This leads us to remember isolation measures and topical treatments from the period immediately preceding the antitoxin. They included manual removal of the pseudo membranes, maneuver that led Marañón to misinterpret a painting by Goya on a scene of "Lazarillo de Tormes".

Joke telling, humor creation, and humor recall in children with and without hearing loss

AbstractChildren with and without hearing loss were compared on their joke-telling and humor-related oral narrative skills. They were asked to tell a joke, create a funny story, and describe a funny movie they had seen. The ability to use humor in language creatively or in recall, the appropriate use of time reference in verbs, and the sequencing of story schema are advanced language skills for children. The conceptual and language skills of humor could be impacted if children do not hear some of the subtleties of language. Results revealed children with hearing loss used shorter and less complex utterances in jokes. They were significantly more likely to produce knock-knock jokes than other types such as riddles, and the knock-knock jokes were at a pre-joke stage. Children with hearing loss also produced funny stories that were less complex. They scored lower on story structure, total narrative ability, and Applebee's story schema. They were less likely to report bathroom humor as the funny part of a joke, story, or movie. This suggests that some aspects of the development of verbal humor may be impacted by hearing loss even among children mainstreamed in regular schools.

Movie Review: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Interpersonal disconnections, social withdrawal, and loneliness are often precursors to depression and suicidal ideation. In the film It's Kind of a Funny Story, the plot describes a protagonist who has become so relationally desolate among family, friends, and peers that he has taken delight in the thought of ending his life. The main character eventually overcomes his overwhelming feelings of aloneness after engaging in random encounters with people he eventually befriends and becomes intimate with. This movie review correlates the boy's recovery with principles of relational-cultural theory—spontaneous and creative interpersonal connections that foster healthy relationships and belonging.

Syncopes gélastiques récurrentes

IntroductionLaughter-induced syncope or gelastic syncope is a rare and unrecognized phenomenon. We report an additional case. Case reportWe report a 65-year-old man with no personal past medical history, particularly diabetes or heart disease, was admitted to investigate recent four episodes of loss of consciousness exclusively induced by laugh. The first episode had occurred 8 months earlier after reading a funny story. There were no other symptoms and physical examination, particularly neurological and cardiac was normal. All paraclinical investigations were also unremarkable: laboratory tests (glucose, thyroid function test and blood cobalamin level), cardiac and neurological investigations (electrocardiographic monitoring, echocardiography, electroencephalography and brain MRI). Treatment with propanolol prevented subsequent attacks. ConclusionSustained laugh is accompanied by repetitive bursts of forced expiration, equivalent to short repetition of Valsalva maneuvers. Laughter-induced syncope is thought to be a subtype of the vagal mediated syncopal attacks. Differential diagnosis should rule out especially gelastic atonic seizures and cataplexy. Propanolol is an effective therapy to prevent recurrence.