Humor from Hannibal

In the early 1860's, Samuel Clemens started writing short humorous stories that he submitted to newspapers. Samuel Clemens began to use the pen name "Mark Twain", a river term meaning "safe water", as the signature on his comical submissions. One of Twain's earliest works, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” (also known as “The Notorious Jumping frog of Calaveras County”) was a great success and established Twain's mark as a comedic writer. The story uses the folklore method of storytelling, and Twain applies outlandish exaggeration and regional dialect to invoke a humorous perspective.

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During the times of his earlier writings, the use of humor was frowned upon and seen as something that a “lesser” writer would do. Unbeknownst to the citizens of Hadleyburg, they are being duped by the “stranger” into opening up Pandora’s Box and falling prey to the evils of greed and corruption.

In “Jumping Frog”, Twain's use of stereotypical southern dialect and long-winded tale-telling by the westerner evokes the viewpoint that easterners have for westerners-- they see them as unintelligent and of lesser status. “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” was a recount of the events of the defeat of Spain in the Philippines. Wheeler continues a long-winded rant on all of the assorted fauna that Smiley had bet on, each of their talents being widely exaggerated, including a dog by the name of Andrew Jackson, “that to look at him you'd think he warn't worth a cent but to set around and look ornery and lay for a chance to steal something” (Baym 16). As his popularity grew, Twain became more and more socially and politically brazen, and was unafraid of stirring up controversy with his satirical prose.

About 30 years after “Jumping Frog” was published, Twain released another short story titled “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg. “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. The morality of the town becomes questionable, however, when a financial windfall is delivered by an “offended” stranger to Mary and Edward Richards with the intention that they locate the unspecified recipient. ” This story shows how Twain’s humor progressed to a deeper, somewhat cynical level.

The once moral and incorruptible townsfolk are overtaken by greed in wanting the money, and even though the citizens are well-aware of the fact that the money is not truly intended for them, they still try to stake a claim in the pot.

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Approximate Word count = 1204
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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