Blog 5

Blog #5: Use the class ranking and our analysis of the funny features of  shaggy dog stories as a basis for predicting how our class will rank the shaggy dog stories. Your analysis should identify features of the stories at the link that are similar to features of stories our work in class suggested as "preferred" by your classmates.  In this analysis, your line of reasoning is at least as important as your conclusion.

#1: Dentist: "Everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the hollandaise"
#2: Ghandi: "He became known as a super-calloused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis."
#3: Lawyer: "Would you believe a lawyer who told you the czech was in the mail."

Here is how I think the class will rank these shaggy dog stories:

Funniest-Not Funny:
#3: "Would you believe a lawyer who told you the CHECK was in the MAIL?"
#2: "He became known as SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS."
#1: "Everyone knows that there's no PLACE like HOME for the holidays."

*With all of these stories it took me several times to read the punch-line until I actually understood the meaning. When I understood the story, the whole meaning changed and I actually laughed. When you understand a punch-line the story is enjoyable and thoughts about the story change. Before I understood the Ghandi story I ranked it as #3, but then when I understood the meaning I ranked it higher and everything changed. 

In class, we mentioned that the panda story was the funniest and that the chess story was not funny at all. We said that the panda story was funny because we had a lot of imagery when reading it, whereas with the chess story we gained no interests in the game so it wasn't an enjoyable story. We came to the conclusion, that within each story we read ridiculous punch lines fit among the category element, which works the same for new shaggy stories that we read for this blog. These new stories have the same hypothesis- situations can have truth in stories, although they are funny. For example, the dentist story is not that understandable (which is why I ranked it #3), but what makes it funny is the hollandaise and how the man eats it with everything. This can be a true story as well as being funny. Next, the Ghandi story brings humor and truth as well. I found the story to make no sense at all, until I read it to someone and then it clicked. I wasn't expecting that to be the punch line at all, but it makes me laugh. The facts about Ghandi are true and the punch line makes a person think in depth. Lastly, the lawyer story is my favorite, mainly because after several times of reading it I understood it and it became my enjoyable. Although, i would not agree of this being a true story, I mean I guess in some ways it could be, but the punch line is hilarious! A lawyer would never send their client a check in the mail. The other two punch lines don't seem as realistic as this punch line does. They make you think and observe.

How a person understands or interprets a punch line among a story determines how it is ranked. If a story is boring, hard to understand, or contains no amusement in the beginning it is not liked by many people. That can be true among both sets of shaggy dog stories. I believe that the first sentence in shaggy dog stories explain who the punch line will focus on with the last sentence being the punch line (which can be argued in the lawyer story). Both sets also contain something negative which again is the best way to introduce the conflict that exists. I was pretty certain with this theory but then when I tested it with all the stories I stopped and thought, "does the lawyer story fit with each element?" I am in between with my answer because some situations tell me yes and some tell me no. All the stories contain a beginning, a middle, and an ending- with a punch line, meaning it definitely fits in this category, but I beg to differ maybe with all having truth? I'm confused if this work with the lawyer story.

With all being said, I came to realize that all shaggy dog stories seems to follow the same format, but when you really go deep down into the story there is a lot of things that change when analyzing each and every story into each element. I actually really enjoy these stories and they are fun to analyze! Good examples to explain how to analyze readings.