Recomend me some humorous prose

[Becka]

I've got an essay to write for my summer English honors class. My assignment is to-

1.) Choose one stock comic character or one stock comic situation as discussed in class or with teacher.
2.) Research and trace these through three different genres of literature (poetry, prose, drama, or media.)
3.) Write a 5-6 page paper discussing your findings using MLA research format.

**5-6 resources are necessary.

And so on and so fourth. There's some other stuff, but that doesn't have anything to do with what I'm asking you.

Now, for my comedic stock character, I chose "the wise fool", or somebody who thinks they are wise, but ends up making themselves look foolish.
My three genres I picked are prose, poetry, and drama. I have the poetry (T. S. Eliot's "Gus the Theatre Cat") and I have the drama (Shakespeare's "As You Like It") but I need some humorous prose.

I was thinking something like Robert Benchley or James Thruber, but I can't find anything with the comedic stock character I need. The only thing I have from Benchley is an essay and the only things I have of Thurber's isn't what I need ("The Night the Ghost Got In" and "The Night the Bed Fell".)

So, can anybody reccomend me some humorous prose? I REALLY don't want to go the library, first of all because they don't have anything, second of all because I owe them copious amounts of cash. (Appox. $3.)

 

[History_Buff]

Personally, it seems just like the "Mr. Bean" type, a sketch by Rowan Atkinson, except its not really literature,

 

[Becka]

Originally posted by History_Buff
Personally, it seems just like the "Mr. Bean" type, a sketch by Rowan Atkinson, except its not really literature,

Well, I could do media (TV/moves etc.) as a genre instead of prose. I wonder if she'd allow SNL skits too?

 

[History_Buff]

Mr. Bean, though is a whole series, more tied together than SNL, or so I hear since I've never actually watched SNL. But its exactly that. He thinks hes the greatest guy in the world, when he really is the incompetent, foolish, onsensitive, arrogant etc. . .

 

[Becka]

Originally posted by History_Buff
Mr. Bean, though is a whole series, more tied together than SNL, or so I hear since I've never actually watched SNL. But its exactly that. He thinks hes the greatest guy in the world, when he really is the incompetent, foolish, onsensitive, arrogant etc. . .

Hmmm, sounds good. I'll look around for that. Thanks.

 

[Becka]

Ok, so history buff gave me an idea.

I've not seen much Mr. Bean, but it made me think about other British comedies I watch. I could use Red Dwarf or maybe Fawlty Towers. I'll ask my teacher about it tomorrow.

Thanks History_buff.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

The Blackadder Series I'm sure is an easy one to do...the progressive change in the two main characters with Baldrick becoming increasingly stupid whilst the pathetic Blackadder improves with time.

Plus researching the Blackadder Series would be fun...

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Humourous prose on its own merit I'd recommend "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller...there are numerous excellent pieces in this book one the best in my opinion being between Nately and the old Italian man that reminded him of his father.

From the suggestions so far being rather light-weight I'd definitely go for "Catch-22" especially if you HAVEN'T read it Becka.

There was a sequel called "Something Happened" (I think, haven't read it) in which the main character of "Catch-22" who is called Yossarian is in his 70's (but then again I haven't read it). In addition it was also made into a film...that didn't really convey the story that well...


An English degree is like...er, fun! Geology, looking a rocks...well...tough, HARD!

 

[starlifter]

Becka, here is the script to a great movie, "The Holy Grail" (Monty Python, of course!)..... Maybe it might help, and you won't have to type the quotes (cut n' paste ).

 

[Becka]

Thanks bunches, guys.

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos
An English degree is like...er, fun! Geology, looking a rocks...well...tough, HARD!

English degree? I'm only in highschool.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

You said "honours"...don't say you Americans (or where-ever you are) have cheapened that!

 

[Becka]

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos
You said "honours"...don't say you Americans (or where-ever you are) have cheapened that!

Blah. Crazy Brits!

 

[starlifter]

I just found a couple more old scripts on my backup drive. I've zipped 3 Cleese films into one file:

The Holy Grail
The Life of Brian
The Meaning of Life



Good luck on your project....

 

[mrog]

How about Don Quixote (Man of la Mancha)?

Once described as "the arch fool of all time whose sublime journey is made entirely by way of happenstance"

Ever heard the saying "tilting at windmills"? Well he's the original.

Here is a link to the project Gutenburg text.

ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext97/1donq10.txt

 

[Simon Darkshade]

An example of a wise fool in media is Peter Seller's character in the film Being There, except that is a different sort of wise fool, more along the lines of the idiot savant.

And Mr. Bean is a character with the mind of a devious 8 year old in an adult body.

 

[duke o' york]

I agree that Mr Bean is not a good example of the wise fool.
mrog has come up with the best example so far in Don Quixote, but I doubt that Becka would want to read it all for what will probably be a minor section of her project. It's about a thousand pages long and although I would definitely recommend reading it, it is not suitable for your purposes at the moment. You could always just get those of us here who have read it to suggest suitable passages for examination, but if the teacher assumes you've read it and asks further questions then you could find yourself in deep doodoo. You should also read Catch 22 as it too is an excellent book but I'm not sure about its suitability either.
The easiest example will be from Of Mice and Men as it is very easy to read, I'm going to assume that you've read it already as most people have to study it at some point, and it doesn't require a great study to identify sections highlighting George's lack of wisdom. You could say that these characters, and Stan and Ollie of course, are practically the same and standard characters throughout literature. Include references to Laurel and Hardy films if you want, although this will give you 4 media, which may be too many.

 

[Ozz]

P.G. Wodehouse books

Jeeves the bulter
P. Kmith

and various other characters

 

[Becka]

Originally posted by duke o' york
I agree that Mr Bean is not a good example of the wise fool.
mrog has come up with the best example so far in Don Quixote, but I doubt that Becka would want to read it all for what will probably be a minor section of her project. It's about a thousand pages long and although I would definitely recommend reading it, it is not suitable for your purposes at the moment. You could always just get those of us here who have read it to suggest suitable passages for examination, but if the teacher assumes you've read it and asks further questions then you could find yourself in deep doodoo. You should also read Catch 22 as it too is an excellent book but I'm not sure about its suitability either.
The easiest example will be from Of Mice and Men as it is very easy to read, I'm going to assume that you've read it already as most people have to study it at some point, and it doesn't require a great study to identify sections highlighting George's lack of wisdom. You could say that these characters, and Stan and Ollie of course, are practically the same and standard characters throughout literature. Include references to Laurel and Hardy films if you want, although this will give you 4 media, which may be too many.

I've already read Don Quixote. Most of it, anyway. I read the first part, volume I, last year to write a paper in English. The teacher said I didn't have to read the second part, which is good, because altogether it was about 900+ pages long. I hear it's better in its original Spanish, but what isn't?

I'm definitely leaning towards some TV show, though. Fawlty Towers if I can tape it this weekend. I have to do a 15-20 minute presentation and my dramatic reading of "Gus: The Theatre Cat" only lasts about 4 minutes at the most.

I wanted to get a tape of the Fawlty Towers episode when the Germans stay at the hotel, but that was on last week and I didn't tape it because I'd already seen it.

 

[MCdread]

I started reading Voltaire's "Candide" this morning. It's a delicious satire about the Old Regime, the XVIII century clergymen, the Inquisition and religious ideas of Voltaire´s time. It criticizes some ridiculous phylosopher characters and the life of the nobles. The book has some susceptible details about the violence of that time, but I'm having a great fun reading it. The main character, Candide, is some kind of anti-hero, fool and naive.
The book is quite small, one afternoon will be enough to read it. I found this site, which I think it has the entire english translation of the text.

 

[Juize]

Recomend me some humorous prose

The goverment of Finland : Socio-economic budget plans for the year 1992.