Humor in American Literature Essay

American society is unique, and the first of its kind. When Charles Dickens visited the United States he was astounded to see how informal American society was, as is recorded in his travelogue, American Notes For General Circulation. Besides this, it is often said by non-Americans that Americans have coarse senses of humor, or senses of humor that are low-class. The American sense of humor is said to clash with a polarized British one. The informality of American humor is utterly logical based on a theory that American society developed in response to Old-World British and European society. This theme often manifests itself in humorous American literature. Humor in American literature frequently bases itself on a sense of entitlement within the lower class, their flawed and ignorant moral senses, and a caricaturing of American exceptionalism, a theory of American superiority among other nations. American humor hasn’t changed extremely, but rather has maintained the common denominator of the humor of American exceptionalism and has parodied a feeling of individual self-worth that is seemingly intrinsic to Americans of all classes. This subject matter can be found in such works as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Sut Lovingood: Yarns Spun by a â€Å"Nat’ral Born Durn’d Fool†, by George Washington Harris, and Stephen Colbert’s I am America (and So Can You). Most of George Washington Harris’s work was done in the middle of the nineteenth century. His most famous character is the stereotypical rural farmer, Sut Lovingood. Harris’s Sut Lovingood stories were told from the character’s perspective and were defined by Sut’s heavy â€Å"Appalachian English† accent. His stories were initially published separately in multiple newspapers until Harris compiled the stories in his 1867 book Sut Lovingood: Yarns Spun by a â€Å"Nat’ral Born Durn’d Fool. The book mostly pokes fun at the ignorance and simplicity of the title character. Sut Lovingood dictates the book to a writer. He is unable to write it himself because he is illiterate. He is uneasy about this though. Sut says: â€Å"I don’t like the idear ove yu writin a perduckshun, an’ me a-findin the brains.† (Harris 2) Sut is an immensely simple character, but does not see himself as such. He thinks he has important things to say and that anyone who doesn’t read his book will simply be worse-off for having done so, but in reality his stories mostly consist of folderol. Sut states that he wanted his dedication page to read as such: â€Å"Dedercated wif the symperhtys ove the orthur, to the man ur ‘oman, huever they be, what don’t read this yere book.† (Harris 5) Despite his coming after George Washington Harris, Mark Twain is often hailed as the father of American Humor. Twain’s tales of life on the Mississippi River became the definitive stories of his era. His stories are often about naivetà © and the innocence of childhood, on a superficial level , but on a deeper level they are about ignorance and other shortcomings of adults. Twain’s stories were simultaneously entertaining and critical of society. One of his most famous works of this classification is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer is set in a small Missouri town, where the standards for luxury are quite low, and the people easily impressed. The townspeople are awed by the county-Judge Thatcher, a relatively low figure in the governmental hierarchy. When he pays a visit to the town church everyone there bends over backwards to â€Å"show off† and impress him (Twain 38). The people are especially impressed by the fact that there exists a tin roof atop one of the buildings in Judge Thatcher’s town. Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Polly is an excellent caricature of American humor. Despite being the voice of discipline in Tom’s life, Aunt Polly is constantly being fooled by the boy. Among the most well known of the Tom Sawyer stories is the anecdote about doing the chore of whitewashing a fence. Because of his indolent nature, Tom cozens his peers into completing his task for him, unbeknownst to his aunt. After Tom returns from his supposed labor after only a short time, Polly commends him saying, â€Å"Well, I never! There’s no getting round it, you can work when you’re a mind to, Tom†. And she goes on to give Tom a â€Å"lecture upon the added value and flavor a treat took to itself when it came without sin through virtuous effort. And while she closed with a scriptural flourish, he ‘hooked’ a doughnut.† (Twain 26) Not only is Tom able to totally fool his aunt, but he is confident enough in her incompetence that he even snatches an additional snack. She and all of the adults in the story go on to fall for Tom’s wiles on numerous occasions. The more modern Stephen Colbert wrote a book entitled I Am America (and So Can You), which bears many similarities to George Washington Harris’s book. Colbert’s work is written from the character on his satirical news show’s extremely traditional, right wing perspective. He spoofs the idea of a traditional American family, going so far as to say that anything falling short of his expectations is simply wrong. He remarks on the role of a good, traditional mother: â€Å"A good mother cooks, cleans, drives, organizes charity events so her children earn community service points for college, and expects nothing in return except love and breakfast in bed one day a year.† (Colbert 9), and he lambasts the idea of one-parent families saying, â€Å"â€Å"If you ask me, from time immemorial, the word ‘family’ has meant only one thing: a Mom married to a Pop and raising 2.3 rambunctious little scamps.† (Colbert 5) Colbert is joking of course, but his implications are that the traditional American standards have room for adjustment and that many conservative Americans are overly hidebound. He goes on to lampoon the institution of religion. â€Å"Religion is the cornerstone of civilization. Without it, we would have no laws, no morality, no social structure, and no guidelines for furnishing our tabernacles.† Many people have tried to pinpoint exactly what it is so distinctive between American and British humor. British comedian Simon Pegg wrote about in the UK Guardian in his 2007 article, â€Å"What Are You Laughing At?†: Americans can fully appreciate irony. They just don’t feel entirely comfortable using it on each other, in case it causes damage. A bit like how we feel about guns. It’s not so much about having a different sense of humour as a different approach to life. More demonstrative than we are, Americans are not embarrassed by their emotions. They clap louder, cheer harder and empathise more unconditionally. It’s an openness that always leaves me feeling slightly guilty and apologetic when American personalities appear on British chat shows and find their jokes and stories met with titters, not guffaws, or their achievements met with silent appreciation, rather than claps and yelps. We don’t like them any less, we just aren’t inclined to give that much of ourselves away. Meanwhile, as a Brit on an American chat show, it’s difficult to endure prolonged whooping without intense, red-faced smirking. It isn’t that one culture is funnier per se, just that comparing the two would be like comparing apples and oranges. In former Vanderbilt English professor Nancy A. Walker’s book, What’s So Funny? Humor in American Culture, Walker expounds upon the origin of the distinctive American â€Å"tall tale†, citing the American pioneers of the Western frontier who would write back to the East Coast telling tales of exaggeration in an attempt to impress the readers of their tales. Edward J. Piacentino wrote that the purview of classic American humor still reaches us through mediums such as The Beverly Hillbillies, or the work of comedian Jeff Foxworthy. America’s unique face of humor stems from multiple factors of American history. Firstly, American humor developed intentionally and in stark contrast to that of the British, just like much of American society. Because of the revolutionary nature of the founding of America, certain values have been instilled in the country’s inhabitants. American culture developed as a volte-face from British culture. Additionally, as Walker presented, the development of American humor and exaggerated â€Å"tall-tales† derives from the geography of the country and the frontier development of it. Those elements of the country’s history laid the groundwork for the America that we know today. That is why we still have much of the same face of humor in America after all these years. Works Cited Colbert, Stephen, and Michael C. Brumm. I Am America (and so Can You!). [New York]: Grand Central Pub., 2007. Print. Harris, George Washington. Sut Lovingood. Yarns Spun by a â€Å"nat’ral Born Durn’d Fool.† Warped and Wove for Public Wear. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1867. Print. Pegg, Simon. â€Å"What Are You Laughing At?† The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 02 Sept. 2007. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. Piacentino, Edward J. The Enduring Legacy of Old Southwest Humor. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2006. Print. Twain, Mark, and Deidre S. Laiken. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. New York, NY: Baronet /Playmore, 1989. Print. Walker, Nancy A. What’s so Funny?: Humor in American Culture. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998. Print.