Monday, March 12, 2018

Anatomy of a joke: Lesson from Who's on First

I realized something about a part of the Who's on First gag after I'd had a chance to think about it. Specifically, about how the whole thing is actually a continuous joke, setup-punchline setup-punchline, beat after beat once I settle in and listen to it.

My realization was that Donald Westlake is a master of this. I'm re-reading one of his Dortmunder books, in this case "Don't Ask".

And I noticed that the whole thing is built in that setup-punchline continuous manner. Sure, there's the big gag, but Westlake doesn't get there by trying to run a single joke.

He gets there one gag at a time, one piece after another, so that by the time you're through, you realize there was no one joke.

There's way way way more than a joke. The whole thing just runs and runs and runs.

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Please keep it on the sane side. There are an awful lot of places on the internet for discussions of politics, money, sex, religion, etc. etc. et bloody cetera. In this time and place, let us talk about something else, and politely, please.