Humorous Quotations

I've told you over & over that it is not what is said, but how it is said that is important.  That is particularly true in the case of humor.  Here are three lovely, funny, quotations.

"He neither drank, smoked, nor rode a bicycle.  Living frugally, saving his money, he died early surrounded by greedy relatives.  It was a great lesson to me."  Who said this?  John Barrymore, one of the most dissolute men of the twentieth century.  It is funny to hear that this man who lived frugally & did not drink died early--then its funny to realize that this was said by John Barrymore, one of the most dissolute men of the twentietrh century.  He went out there, lived it up, spend his money--you see, he did not want to die early, surrounded by greedy relatives.

Here's a Scottish novelist's comment about Americans: "There won't be any revolution in America...The people are too clean.  They spend all their time changing their shirts and washing themselves.  You can't feel fierce and revolutionary in a bathroom."  Again its the funny twist at the end that makes this funny: you can't feel fierce and revolutionary in a bathroom.  And of course, this is more than just a funny comment: there is a great deal of truth in his metaphor.  He is not talking of cleanliness only.  We are too well fed, too surrounded by pleasant toys to think about a revolution.

Quote number three by Jack Benny, a radio humorist: "Give me my golf clubs, fresh air and a beautiful partner, and you can keep my golf clubs and the fresh air."  Jack Benny, so to speak, takes us down the garden path--"give me my golf clubs and fresh air"--we think we know what he's going to say--and then he adds "and a beautiful partner"--and he has confused us a little: a "beautiful" partner--what does he mean?--and then he adds the lovely twist: and you can keep my golf clubs and the fresh air."

It is all in the way it is said.  My composition students can't seem to understand that what is said--the point, the message, the thing that needs to be said--will not be remembered if the way of saying it is not entertaining, memorable.  What you say will never get beyond you--and into the reader's thick encrusted cranium--unless the way you say it is made memorable.  The task is not easy, but the alternatives are clear.  Say it badly and nothing will remain with the reader save what the reader had when he began to read your piece.  Or say it memorably--with stories, jokes, metaphors, the wise use of repetition, a twist of the unexpected--say it well, and every reader will leave with some piece of information that he/she did not have before--or at the very least, with a new way of seeing an old piece of information.

 

Copyright © 2004   Henry Morgenstein

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