The Humor of the Unexpected, Achieved Through Unreliable Narration

The unreliable narrator can be hard to connect with humor, but, if one believes that we laugh when our expectations are subverted in an unexpected (and often extreme) manner, then the inherent humor of an unreliable narrator is apparent. Sedaris knows this and utilizes this device in almost all of his stories to create his comic effect.

The first essay establishes this theme: “Glen’s Homophobia Newsletter Vol. 3, No.2” begins with a man who believes he is being persecuted, and the information he gives us seems to agree. Yet the truth is displayed in black-and-white through a slow build-up and a series of other events, contrasting the narrator’s statements of virtue and painting him not as a victim but as a man who hides behind his sexuality whenever facing consequences for misdeeds. This sudden and extreme reversal adds humor to the message Sedaris is intending to portray.

Another such story is “Nuit of the Living Dead.” In this essay, he tells about some lost travelers who are frightened by him. While he knows he is well-meaning and even somewhat skittish, his description of the contents of his house – with a running theme of death and dismemberment – creates the unexpected setting of a horror movie. The narrator’s realization marks a distinctly comic turn in the essay, changing it to a sort of parody horror movie.

Sedaris shows us how the unreliable narrator can be used to elicit humor through incongruity between a speaker’s words and actions, as he capitalizes on the unexpected to make us laugh.

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