Overview
 Southwestern Humor
 Popular dialect humor
 Humor by women writers
 Some 19th-century jokes
 Twain’s “How to Tell a Story”
 Petrified Man Hoax
Southwestern Humor (18301860)
 Arose from the tall tale tradition seen in Davy Crockett (Narrative
of the Life of Davy Crockett, 1834) and Mike Fink stories.
 Use of dialect, earthy language and incidents, crude physical
humor, and cruelty.
 Examples: Thomas Bangs Thorpe, “The Big Bear of Arkansas”
 James Kirk (or Kirke) Paulding"Nimrod's Wildfire Tall Talk"
(1833)
 George Washington Harris (1815-69)
 Sut Lovingood: Yarns spun by a "Nat'ral Born Durn'd Fool" (1867)
Southwestern Humor
Conflicts with nature described in a humorous way so as to
control the version of the tale and make the wilderness
more manageable (stories about bear hunts, etc.). The land
itself and its creatures are larger than life, mythical.
 Often an element of triumphant trickster, or the trickster
who is himself tricked or bested in a trade.
 In some of these, character of humorist is played off against
a character representing an educated or Eastern elite.
Forms of Southwestern
Humor
 The sketch, sometimes featuring unusual local characters.
 The anecdote. Example: Twain's "The Dandy Frightening the
Squatter."
 The hoax, a story that purports to be real.
 Author reports wonders of the western frontier; most hoaxes
masquerade as travel letters. Example: Twain’s “Petrified Man”
hoax.
 Author hints at fictionalizing role and tries to tip off the readers.
 The frame tale in which an outsider describes an event. Example:
Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,”
Women Humorists
 Frances Whicher (18111852), The Widow Bedott
Papers
 Marietta Holley (1836-1926),
“Samantha” or “Josiah
Allen’s Wife,” sometimes
called the “female Mark
Twain.” Among her most
popular books was Samantha
at Saratoga (1887).
Ready to laugh?
 Here’s what a nineteenth-century standup comedian
might have told as jokes.
 Twain’s “The Whittier Birthday Dinner Speech,”
which he presented in 1877 to a crowd that included
Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, and
Oliver Wendell Holmes, insulted the authors with
Western humor.
 It may be the first example of a celebrity “roast.”
Some
th
19 -century
Jokes
 “Who is that man who keeps saying it is always the
unexpected that happens?” “I’m not sure. Probably an
attaché of the weather bureau.”
 Foreigner—I think I may say now that after two years
of constant study I understand the English language.
Native—Nonsense! Have you ever tried to grasp the
meaning of an insurance policy?
More
th
19 -century
Jokes
 She—I’m sure, Mr. Goodby, there are many girls who
could make you far happier than I could. He
(dolefully)—That’s the trouble; they could but they
won’t.
 Stylish Lady visitor (to small boy, while waiting for
hostess to come down)—What is the matter with Fido,
that you are watching him so closely? Small boy—
Mamma said that your hat was enough to make a dog
laugh, and I wanted to see him do it.
Popular Humorists

David Ross Locke (“Petroleum V.
Nasby”)(184-1867)

Charles Farrar Brown or “Artemus
Ward”

William Wright (“Dan DeQuille”)
(1829–1898)

Samuel Clemens (“Mark Twain”)
(1835-1910)

Henry Wheeler Shaw (“Josh
Billings” (1818-1885)

Picture shows Billings, Twain, and
Nasby.
The Lecture Circuit (1870s1900)
 Humorists like Twain traveled on the lecture circuit,
sometimes with two of them traveling and performing
together in lecture halls (there were no comedy clubs).
 Twain advertised his lectures with the phrase “The Trouble
Begins at 8.”
 Theater owners would put out the picture of Twain on a
frog, or even just a picture of a frog, and audiences would
know he would be appearing at that theater.
 Like Dickens, Twain would not just read from but perform
his work.
The Jumping Frog
Finley Peter Dunne (“Mr.
Dooley”) (1867-1936)
 Dialect humor was popular, especially in performance and in the
newspapers. What dialect is this?
 “Th’ diff ’rence between Christyan Scientists an’ doctors is that
Christyan Scientists think the’se no such thing as disease, an’
doctors think there ain’t anythin’ else. An’ there ye ar-re.”
 “What d’ye think about it?” asked Mr. Hennessy.
 “I think,” said Mr. Dooley, “that if th’ Christyan Scientist had
some science an’ the’ doctors more Christyanity, it wudden’t make
anny diff ’rence which ye called in—if ye had a good nurse.”
Mark Twain, from “How to
Tell a Story”
 The humorous story may be spun out to great length,
and may wander around as much as it pleases, and
arrive nowhere in particular; but the comic and witty
stories must be brief and end with a point. The
humorous story bubbles gently along, the others burst.
 The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his
best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that
there is anything funny about it.
From Pudd’nhead Wilson’s
Calendar

Nothing so needs
reforming as other people's
habits.

If you pick up a starving
dog and make him
prosperous, he will not bite
you. This is the principal
difference between a dog
and a man.
A “Petrified Man”
The Cardiff Giant
 A 10’ gypsum statue carved
and buried behind a barn in
upstate New York.
 Workers “discovered” it in
1869, and it sparked a debate
over whether there were
“giants in the earth” as the
Bible proclaimed.
 Other “petrified men” had
been discovered earlier.
“The Petrified Man” [Also called “A Washoe Joke]
Territorial Enterprise, October 4, 1862
A petrified man was found some time ago in the mountains south of Gravelly Ford. Every limb and
feature of the stony mummy was perfect, not even excepting the left leg, which has evidently been a
wooden one during the lifetime of the owner - which lifetime, by the way, came to a close about a
century ago, in the opinion of a savant who has examined the defunct. The body was in a sitting
posture, and leaning against a huge mass of croppings; the attitude was pensive, the right thumb
resting against the side of the nose; the left thumb partially supported the chin, the fore-finger
pressing the inner corner of the left eye and drawing it partly open; the right eye was closed, and the
fingers of the right hand spread apart. This strange freak of nature created a profound sensation in
the vicinity, and our informant states that by request, Justice Sewell or Sowell, of Humboldt City, at
once proceeded to the spot and held an inquest on the body. The verdict of the jury was that
"deceased came to his death from protracted exposure," etc. The people of the neighborhood
volunteered to bury the poor unfortunate, and were even anxious to do so; but it was discovered,
when they attempted to remove him, that the water which had dripped upon him for ages from the
crag above, had coursed down his back and deposited a limestone sediment under him which had
glued him to the bed rock upon which he sat, as with a cement of adamant, and Judge S. refused to
allow the charitable citizens to blast him from his position. The opinion expressed by his Honor that
such a course would be little less than sacrilege, was eminently just and proper. Everybody goes to
see the stone man, as many as three hundred having visited the hardened creature during the past
five or six weeks.
Illustration from Sketches,
New and Old (1882)