70 lines
2.8 KiB
Plaintext
70 lines
2.8 KiB
Plaintext
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The Humorous Story an American Development.— Its
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Difference from Comic and Witty Stories.
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DO not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to
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be told. I only claim to know how a story
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ought to be told, for I have been almost daily in the
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company of the most expert story-tellers for many
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years.
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There are several kinds of stories, but only one
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difficult kind —the humorous. I will talk mainly
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about that one. The humorous story is American,
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the comic story is English, the witty story is French.
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The humorous story depends for its effect upon the
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manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty
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story upon the matter.
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The humorous story may be spun out to great
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length, and may wander around as much as it
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pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular; but the
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comic and witty stories must be brief and end with
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a point. The humorous story bubbles gently along,
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the others burst.
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The humorous story is strictly a work of art —
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high and delicate art — and only an artist can tell it;
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but no art is necessary in telling the comic and the
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witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling
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a humorous story — understand, I mean by word of
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mouth, not print — was created in America, and
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has remained at home.
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The humorous story is told gravely; the teller
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does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly
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suspects that there is anything funny about it; but
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the teller of the comic story tells you beforehand
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that it is one of the funniest things he has ever
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heard, then tells it with eager delight, and is the
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first person to laugh when he gets through. And
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sometimes, if he has had good success, he is so glad
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and happy that he will repeat the ‘‘ nub’’ of it and
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slance around from face to face, collecting applause,
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and then repeat it again. It is a pathetic thing to
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see.
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Very often, of course, the rambling and disjointed
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humorous story finishes with a nub, point, snapper,
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or whatever you like to call it. Then the listener
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must be alert, for in many cases the teller will divert
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attention from that nub by dropping it in a carefully.
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casual and indifferent way, with the pretence that he
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does not know it is a nub.
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Artemus Ward used that trick a good deal; then
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when the belated audience presently caught the joke
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he would look up with innocent surprise, as if
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wondering what they had found to laugh at. Dan
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Setchell used it before him, Nye and Riley and
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others use it to-day.
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But the teller of the comic story does not slur
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the nub; he shouts it at you—every time. And
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when he prints it, in England, France, Germany,
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and Italy, he italicizes it, puts some whooping
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exclamation-points after it, and sometimes explains
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it in a parenthesis. All of which is very depressing,
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and makes one want to renounce joking and lead a
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better life.
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- Mark Twain
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