Blog 18: Draft Short Analysis

This was also sent to the class email.

Kelsee Martin

Nov, 8, 2012

Eng 3029-01

Short Analysis Project Draft

                    There are a lot of different reactions from people who have read Shaggy Dog

Stories and they are popular among many. Some folks can connect to the stories and

others cannot. A Shaggy Dog Story is a long, drawn-out anecdote ending with an absurd

or anticlimactic punchline (thefreedictionary.com).

                    I am interested in studying what makes a Shaggy Dog Story funny and what

makes one not. After doing thorough research, I have found that a person’s background,

age, and level of education have much to do with why a person would find Shaggy Dog

Stories to be funny or not.There were five Shaggy Dog stories that were handed out in

class for me and other fellow classmates to read. After observing them all, we had to rank

them as the first one being the funniest and the fifth one being the least funny. One of the

SDS is about a snake called Nate. The original punchline is “Better Nate than Never” but

The traditional punchline is “Better late than never”. The next one is about friars. The

punchline listed is “only Hugh can prevent florist friars” and the traditional punchline

is “only you can prevent forest fires”. Third is an SDS about a giant panda that escaped

from a New York zoo. The original punchline said “Giant panda, lives in China, eats

shoots and leaves”. There is a book entitled “Eats Shoots and Leaves”. The fourth SDS

is about Robinson Crusoe. Its punchline stated “Thank Friday it’s God!” and the actual

phrase is “Thank God it’s Friday”. The last SDS is about chess players. The punchline

is “it’s chess nuts boasting by an open foyer”. The traditional punchline is “chess nuts

roasting by an open fire”.

                By looking at the class’s blog from September 18^th, I observed the rankings

that were given.

           

	Connection to the quote	Connection to experience
Panda	*	H
Friday	H	H
Nate	M	N
Friars	N	N
Chess	N	N

*You don’t have to be familiar with the quote because the panda explains the connection

in the joke itself.

The jokes the class found the funniest have more or stronger features associated with

being funny.

                       The codes/categories I will use to find out why the class believed the SDS

about the Panda and Robinson Crusoe are funniest are connected values, connected

usage, connected activity, and simple jokes.

                    Some of the students found the SDS about the panda to be one of the

funniest because they connected to it in some way. Some have read the book “Eats

Shoots and Leaves” and after reading the SDS, have found the punchline to be funny.

The SDS about Robinson Crusoe was funny as well because most of the class had a

connection. A few classmates said that they often used the punchline “Thank God it’s

Friday” and they also value it because in reality they love when Friday arrives.

                   Many of the classmates believed that the SDS about Nate was in between.

Not many used the punchline “Better late than never” but have heard it from somewhere

before. The SDS about the chess players was one of the least funny stories. Some of the

class said that they knew what the actual punchline of it was but found it to be a little

boring. Hardly any of the class had any connection to it but someone did say that they

found little connection because they have sang the song “Chestnuts roasting by an open

fire” and they also enjoy Christmas time. The SDS about friars was one of the least funny

as well. All of the class understood the punchline and had heard it before but did not find

any connection to it.

                    In my opinion, the SDS about Robinson Crusoe was the funniest. I have a

close connection with it because I always use the phrase and I value Friday because it is

the last day that comes before the weekend. It is a day of fun and relaxation to me. I

understood the punchline automatically and found it clever because of the way that the

words were switched. I also enjoy going to TGIF restaurant; it is my favorite place to eat!

The punchline was funny to me and I enjoyed it the most. My second favorite is the SDS

about the panda. I agreed with the rest of the class how they saw it to be funny. The third

favorite is the SDS about Nate the snake. I have used the phrase “Better late than never”

but I do not find any other connection to it. My fourth favorite is the story about the chess

players. I like to sing the song “Chestnuts roasting by an open fire” and I love Christmas

time. The least favorite was the SDS about friars. I completely agreed with the classes

conclusions of this SDS. I noticed a connection that the Shaggy Dog Stories had. Each

story gave some background on a person or a particular group of people and at the end

they all had punchlines. All of the endings of the stories were cleverly worded and some

were even spelled differently than the actual phrase people use. For example, in the

punchline that stated “Only Hugh can prevent florist friars” words sounded almost the

same as they do in the original phrase which is “Only you can prevent forest fires”.

                    Some of the SDS involved some type of violence.

	Violence Level
Panda	H
Friars	H
Chess	M
Nate	L
Friday	N

H= High Violence

M= Medium Violence

L= Less Violence

N= No Violence

The cartoon SDS were about the panda and Nate. The SDS about the panda was the most

violent because the punchline involved shooting. The SDS about Nate hardly included

any violence. The SDS about friars, chess, and Friday were realistic and only the SDS

about Friday included no violence.

                   Three of the SDS included real people and two of them used animals as the

main character.

	Animal/Real Person	Dialogue
Panda	A	Y
Friday	R	Y
Nate	A	N
Friars	R	N
Chess	R	Y

A= Animal              Y=Yes

R= Real Person       N=No

The panda was the only animal with dialogue. In the SDS about the chess players, the

hotel manager had dialogue but the chess players did not.

                   After reading the SDS in class, it has made me interested in reading more of

them. I have introduced them to people in my family and some friends and they enjoyed

reading most of the stories. I definitely see myself continuing to read the Shaggy Dog

Stories in the future.