Finish reading and complete a typed fiction outline for Thurber's "The Greatest Man in the World." Using complete sentences and paragraphs, post an answer to the following interpretive question: Pick something in the story that is funny and explain why.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2004

Answers

...he looked inquiringly at the President of the United States. The President, pale, grim, nodded shortly. Brand, a tall, powerfully built man, once a tackle at Rutgers, stepped forward, seized the greatest man in the world by the left shoulder and seat of his pants, and pushed him out the window. ~{!0~}My God, he~{!/~}s fallen out the window!~{!1~} cried a quick-witted editor.

Look ma, a story that makes death sound funny, and by gosh, it tickles. I like how I don~{!/~}t like Mr. Smurch, and I like how the media agrees with me. I like how similar the President in the story is to our current President, and I like the necessary abuse of power. What makes his death funny is that it~{!/~}s supposed to be, but the public doesn~{!/~}t know, and with the media knowing and pretending to not, it turns into a gigantic mess of the saddest funeral ever with some people extremely happy but pretending to be sad, and other people extremely sad but not knowing why, mourning the loss of, by general opinion, the greatest man in the world.

May I suggest further reading? =P http://wizbangblog.com/archives/004206.php <--don~{!/~}t read if you~{!/~}re a flaming Bush fan

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2004

Umm...umm...yeah. >.< Any suggestions as to how to get rid of these ridiculous apostrophes? Or are they only showing up on my computer (the ~~{!/~~} things)?

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2004

I think that the funniest part of the story was when the group of media people shoved him out of the window. It seems the government would do anything to make him seem like a good person, but once they discovered that it would be impossible to stop him from being a rude, mean person, the only solution they had was to kill him. Finally, I also thought that it was funny when the newspaper editor said, "Oh my God, he fell out the window." and right after the death the whole crowd dispersed to get rid of the evidence. This was the part of the short story that I thought was funny; however, I think that most of the class will choose this same moment.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

I thought that it was funny how the president didn’t want to be seen as the killer of Smurch. He was the one who gave the nod to the Secretary of the Mayor of New York to throw him out the window. Just after that, he called to be taken away from the scene as if he was innocent. This seemed ironic.

P.S. Taylor stole my first idea.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

In my opinion, the funniest part of the story is the immediate aftermath of the “greatest man in the world” being thrown out the window. Everyone present acted as if they had any idea that that would happen, when truly “an urgent appeal… seemed to ring through the room.” They were all simply reluctant to take on the task of murder. The aftermath, from the quick-witted editors’ “My God, he’s fallen out the window,” to the President’s “Get me out of here!” provided for what I saw to be the most comical, especially when compared to the somber mood in the following few lines.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

I think that the funniest part of the book is when the media tries to find out facts about Smurch but only come up with a criminal past and family, and end up painting him as this sort of guy that reminds me of "The Fonz". This is so ironic compared to his actual demeanor. It is like they take the exact opposite of what he is. Anyway, it's sad that even today the media does this with political figures and makes them look better that they actually are.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

Well, the funniest parts in my opinion were the dialogue. Smurch acted quite absurd, and there were some sarcastic comments on the end which... well, they DIDN'T get a laugh I guess, but nothing in the story actually made me laugh out loud, but it was the funniest part in my opinion.

Some examples of this funny dialog... such as when Smurch said "Youse guys can tell the cock-eyed world dat I put it over on Lindbergh, see? Yeh--an' made an ass o' them two frogs." I found all of his slang and the "see?" particularly humorous. "Ya want me to ack like a softy, huh? Ya want me to ack like that --- --- baby- faced Lindbergh, huh? Well, nuts to that, see?" was another Smurch quote. The immature insults make me laugh; not because I'm immature myself who found them funny, because a grown (fictional) man, Smurch, used them. One last Smurch quote is "Come awn, come awn, [...] Let's get the hell out of here! When do I start cuttin' on de parties, huh?" In the presence of the United States, he still acts like the impolite guy he is. And when the editor said "My God, he's fallen out of the window!" sarcastically, that was pretty funny.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

I thought that the story was overall a very funny one. All the characters and situations were kind of exaggerated; Smurch especially was a total caricature. Also, the writing in general was funny; Thurber’s tone bordered on the sarcastic and facetious throughout the story.

The part I thought was the funniest was when the Secret Service agent just threw Smurch out of the window. It was so random and funny. It was almost…Pythonesque, the way the “tragedy” unfolded.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

The funniest moment is when the newspapers print the changed story about Pal Smurch, changing him into a modest, popular chap with a pleasant smile. I find this to be the funniest moment in the whole story, because the press, with no struggle, completely took Pal’s whole life out of context, and it created more trouble than it solved. I simply find this to be ironic. I also think that it is not a particularly funny moment, but I don’t think that this story was very funny, either. I thought it was fairly exxagerated, and it’s a good swing at the press and the government, but it really didn’t seem that funny. Just my opinion.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

Webster defines “funny” as “differing from the ordinary in a suspicious, perplexing, quaint, or eccentric way.” In these terms, Smurch himself in one of the funniest men on earth. He is not like other men; his defined, rude attitude is indeed “perplexing.” He is not ordinary; his parents are neglectful, he is a shallow man, and very, very eccentric. The other definition of “funny” is “seeking or intended to amuse.” In this way, the whole story is “funny.” It was in intended to amuse, but also to provoke thought. This brings me to the third definition: involving trickery or deception. The “funny” part of the story, using this definition, is the end. The whole assembly present for the murder of Jack Smurch tricks and deceive the world into believing that the “greatest man in the world” is someone he is not.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

A subtle instance of ironic humor in this story occurs when Jack Smurch’s Dragon-Fly 3 monoplane crosses over the west coast headed towards New York on the final leg of his trip. This forces the disbelieving press and government to take this man’s quest seriously. They must then contemplate their reaction to his task and how to handle his unkempt personality when in the public eye.

This moment is quite funny because it calls the bluff pf the newspapers and their fictitious Jack Smurch. Their expectance that he would fail had been proved wrong and they were now caught in their own pool of lies.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

Well for an answer no one has used yet:
A funny part of this story is when it is revealed that Smurch, as a high school boy, had knifed his principle (though not mortally), and had served a sentence in the reformatory. He had also, the narrator goes on to say, whacked a sacristan over the head with a pot of Easter lilies when caught in the act of stealing an alter cloth. This part of the story was funny, because of the extreme irony of it: here is the world’s most famous and illustrious man, who had also done these things. It is also kind of funny that Smurch was caught in the act of stealing an alter cloth, for an alter cloth, though important to some people, is not something of any monetary value really (something seemingly very important to Smurch through the rest of the story). Also funny is that when he was caught, out of being surprised he used a pot of Easter lilies as a ‘weapon’ to hurt someone. Though this isn’t really “ha-ha” funny, it’s almost funny in a Three Stooges kind of way. By this I mean that it is something that would be expected from a cartoon, or something like when someone turns around holding a long pole on their shoulder and hits someone else in the head; in real life, this would hurt and could cause real damage, but on TV or in a cartoon, it’s funny.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

I think it was funny that Smurch only took a gallon of gin and six pounds of salami for a non-stop flight around the world. It shows how ignorant and uneducated he was. It also shows his arrogance and his confidence that he would be able to fly around the entire world without a pit stop.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

One part that I find funny in this story would be when they shove Smurch out of the window and how immediately an editor shouts out “My God, he’s fallen out the window.” It is also funny when the president starts tell people what to do and how to act. Either be sad, nervous, or for some to just stay in the building.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

Something funny from the story is that the editor was ‘used to such things’. How can someone be used to extremely famous people being murdered in the presence of the president. I find it amusing that he knew exactly what to say and what people should be there and not as soon as it happened. It kind of makes you think though, like ‘How much of what we read in the paper is really true’ and ‘how often do such things take place so that it is an ordinary day at work for the editor?’ I can only imagine what this editor has experienced to make the murder of a famous aviator seem like a normal average every-day event.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

I thought the funniest part in The Greatest Man in the World was when the President nodded his assent to Brand. Somehow, just somehow, Brand knew exactly what the President had on his mind. Then, as Brand shoved the greatest man in the world out the window, i only had to laugh at the irony. Apparently with great fame comes great responsibility, or at least one would hope some sort of humble, respectful person would become famous instead of a prideful, arrogant man with little manners.

Ok, I might have gone off on a theme, so now I will get back to my point. I'm not sure the President would ever purposefully have a man killed. That's why this is so funny, because it's unrealistic.

And if you were wondering, I do not own Stephen B. Furniture, because my name has a 'v' in it, instead of a 'ph.'

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

I thought it was quite funny that the press had to keep what was written in the papers about him a secret so he wouldn’t have to “bash someone over the head with a pot of Easter Lilies” once again. Also the manner that the narrator chose to depict Jacky’s character in was amusing because at first you don’t really understand how much of a redneck he really is until you hear him utter words (which is quite the case for a large sum of people). I really enjoyed the story and surprisingly didn’t find it too boring.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2004

A moment in the story that I find amusing is the irony of having the incorrigibly antiheroic Jack Smurch canonized in a great funeral after he was murdered by those who arranged the funeral. It is something seen often in history as many people’s lives are exaggerated to better fit the American conception of them. It is also funny to picture; a red neck hero being cast from a high story window by a senator. But mostly, I find the irony key in its humor.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2004