Elements of Sedaris' Humor

 

From the moment one opens up David Sedaris’ The Best of Me, it is clear that the author’s sense of humor is not the same in comparison to that of Irby’s in Wow, No Thank You. After all, a book titled The Best of Me probably wouldn’t delve too far into self-deprecating humor. Even with this, Sedaris still manages to find the same level of relatability that Irby did in her writing. Sedaris’ writing and humor focuses much more on sarcasm to convey humor, while also presenting it in a much more natural way. A great example of this can be found in the introduction, where Sedaris tells the reader about the angry mail he received regarding an entry in his book about bears. He writes, “Of all the entries in this book, the one that generated the most anger was ‘The Motherless Bear.’ Oh, the mail I got. ‘How dare you torture animals like this!’ ‘It’s a fictional story,’ I wrote back to everyone who complained. ‘The giveaway is that the title character speaks English and feels sorry for herself. Bears don’t do that in real life’” (Sedaris 4-5). The dryness of that statement and the humor that conveys is something that may come across a lot easier to the reader than some of the lavish scenarios or gruesome jokes that Irby attempts to convey. The realism in Sedaris’ writing appears to convey the same sense of realism that Irby was going for, without having to set up a chain of complex comparisons to the lives of celebrities.

            Irby isn’t the only person we can compare Sedaris’ work to. The Best of Me seems to have a lot in line with that of the philosophers, and this becomes extremely apparent in his chapter titled “The Incomplete Quad”. The title refers to a character named Peg, whom Sedaris reveals to have a degenerative nerve disease. He writes, “Peg was labeled an ‘incomplete quad’ and liked to joke that she couldn’t finish anything . Already we had something in common” (Sedaris 35). He goes on to explain the effects of this disease in pretty good detail, not leaving out the gory details of her twisted legs or slurred speech (this type of writing is reminiscent of Irby’s). When reading this, I was immediately reminded of the philosopher Hobbes’ idea that men laugh at the pain and misfortune of others. Although, it appeared blatantly cruel at first for Sedaris to create humor at the expense of Peg. This brought me back to the discussion from last class in refined vs. unrefined humor. Going back to the idea of realism and relatability, Sedaris is clearly a professional as his writing conveys a sense of refinement. It is also worth noting that I believe he wants us to laugh with the characters he presents, and not at them (again, similar to a discussion we have had regarding Irby). The combination of Sedaris’ use of realism and sarcasm culminates in a work which is undeniably funny, and I look forward to what other insights may be drawn from the discussion of this piece.