why are we laughing?
Ni ck Hornby's, About A Boy, is a very humorous novel, which has been adapted into a screenplay by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz. There are many techniques used by both the author and director to make the audience laugh out loud. The main techniques were satire, caricatures, irony, taboos and the ridiculousness of a situation.A particularly humorous section in the book is when Will goes with Suzie and Marcus to a SPAT picnic at the park. Marcus goes and feeds the ducks and manages to kill one by throwing an entire bread loaf at it. In this section Nick Hornby has used a mixture of
This humour is a bit of irony as Will is pretending to be completely naive to the fact of the murdered duck. The way Will blatantly lies to the park keeper is also very funny, as the readers know that Marcus actually did kill the duck with the bread. Irony is the main type of humour used here as Will explains to the park keeper that Marcus didn't kill the duck but he was 'throwing bread at the body' to try and capsize the body to stop Megan from crying. Another example of irony is when the park ranger is listening to Will's story and seemingly believing his every word. ' The use of vivid imagery in this scene to describe the death of the duck creates a funny picture in the mind of the reader. The conversation that takes place between Will and the park keeper is the main part of this section. ' These images that are created in the readers mind in this particular section are humorous as they are quite ridiculous and somewhat unrealistic. The conversation between Will and the park keeper uses quite a lot of imagery as Will trues to make the death a very sad and tragic occurrence while the park keeper tells it how it is. While Will tries to pass off his 'epidemic' story, the park keeper knows that the duck died as Marcus was 'throwing bloody great French loaves at it. The ridiculousness of this particular situation is exaggerated so much that it becomes considerably funnier. It is also humorous as the reader is lead to believe that the park ranger never truly believes Will one hundred percent, like when Will is explaining that the 'body' was upsetting the baby when she is sound asleep, the park keeper commented that 'She doesn't look very upset now.
Common topics in this essay:
Nick Hornby,
Paul Weitz,
Marcus SPAT,
park keeper,
Hornby's Boy,
Essay Ni,
park ranger,
kill duck,
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