EVERY MAN HIS OWN HUMOURIST

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 306, 19 September 1908, Page 12

EVERY MAN HIS OWN HUMOURIST

Summer is usually considered a dead season for publishers, but tho author of "How to Raise a Laugh and How to Sell It" gives an entirely valid reason for putting out his little book in tho heart of the dog days. " Humorous copy," he says in his introduction, " may, of course, 1 be produced all the year round, just like shoes or ships or sealing wax; but in the latter industries the difference in season creates no such enormous difference in the expenditure of necessary effort.: In this respect humorous authorship, stands most closely related to the ice industry. You can make ice in August, but at very considerable cost. In January you have only to harvest what Nature lays ready at your feet. In the samo way humour may bo written in midwinter,' but only if you possess wisdom, experience, insight, fancy, and a talent for seoing both sides of everything, which should 'amount almost to cynicism. Thero must bo a natural capacity for laughter, with a wistful echo to it. It has even been contended that first-rato humour is usually grounded in regularly recurrent- periods of dark brooding, and in tears. But no such equipment is necessary for the man who would'add to his regular income by turning 'out small contributions for the humorous weeklies during the' long sunimor evenings.'. The material lies ready to his hand, and ho has only to gather it. The object of the present Guide is to point out how great is the supply of such available summer' material and to offer a fow simple rules of procedure.' Follow these, and thero is no reason why any one should fail." Our anthor then goes on to say that the basic principle of humour is incongruity. To mate people laugh, you must hit them unexpectedly. But "hero lie interjects a soloiriri warning. ■ Peoplo l will not laugh at what is too new, too str'angb,, too unexpected. They wUI laugh at what is quite old, provided it was new once upon a time. " For instance, I meet John Smith on Broadway and say, 'What makos you look down in the mouth?' and he roplies, ' Mother-in-law has been seriously ill.' '.Not dying?' I say. ' No,' says Smith, ' recovering.' Now that jest mil always raise a laugh, because the underlying idea is incongruous, but at tha samo time has been quite frequently employed both by professional and amateur humourists." Keeping in mind, then, the allimportant fact that ' excessive originality must be avoided, the author asks, how may one-create the element of incongruity, on which humour depends? His answer is that we can produco incongruity,' and, consequently, humojir, by making use of tho principles of inversion and of distortion. The latter is, perhaps, the surer method, but because of its greater complexity is less, popular than tho method of invorsion which is employod in the production of the main bulk of midsummer humour. Having laid down tho broad outlines of his method, though with a wealth of illustration from the entire history of the world's humour which wo cannot hope evori to hint at here, the writer proceeds to apply his method to his material. . ' ■<

What, lie asks, do most city peoplo do, or dreaih of doing, if thoy could manago it or afford it in summer? Tho obvious answer is that they go to the seashore, or tho mountains, or go camping, or sailing, or fishing, or in quest of any other occupation that seems to offer recreation and a rest., How would tho principlo of invorsion turn such an innocent and even laudible pursuit into matoria.l for comcdy? Simply by developing the idea, that the peoplo who break away from the comforts of homo and the habits of a lifetime to seek rest and recreation, get neither. Tako the camper. Ho begins his vacation by clearing undorbrush for a campsite and_ chopping tent-poles. Mako him strajn his baclt and cut himself with tho axe. Let it rain tho first three days and have, a gust of. wind carry away the tent in tho midst of a thunderstorm. Marshal against him all tho things that bito and siring and get into tho soup—mosquitoes, gnats, horseflies, and caterpillars are tho' most popular animal varieties employed. Havo nim' come homo after two weeks,, hol-low-eyed, rheumatio, with a burning hatred for the kind of men who will refuse to take their turn at chopping wood or washing dishes; let him have his first solid meal for two weeks at his favourite lunch-counter, wash himself clean in his porcola.in bathtub, and sleep, really Sleep, in his own bed— and you have an example of what is possibly tho most popular form of summer humour, jn tho same manner ; apply tho principlo of inversion to all tho others.- Let tho bather by tho sea burn' his skin to a crimson efflorescence, calling for cold cream and witch ha.zel, Cut his feerc on clam shells and an occasional old bottle, and turn sick with the salt-water he swallows. Let tho fisherman come' homo in the dusk without fish. Let tho family that, sets out on. a sail up tho .river return in a state :of collapse with tho youngest child in an ambulance and tno father under, arrest for assaulting tho police Let the stout banker who goes to tho springs to reduce weight return twenty pounds heavier, and the lean professor come back a ghost of his former self. Do all" this, and you havo mastered the humour of, tho season. Wo can only'give a few words to our author's extremely suggestive' chapter on tho method of distortion as applied to sum-mer-opigrams. " A short quotation must srffico: —"To mako a new opigram wo chooso an old one and begin to twist it, trying first ono ond and then the other. Thus we may take 'A bird in tho hand is worth two in tho bush,| and keep repeating, 'A bird in the hand is worth two'in—is worth two in— is worth two—is worth ' until wo get another term in place of 'bush.' If wo fail thero wo start ut tho. other end, find soy over a.nd over again, 'A bug in tho hand is" worth two in tho bush—no—A eat m cho hand is worth—no—A drink in tho hand is worth two—-' and keep it up until we get what will go."—New York "Post."