Blog 4

Blog 4- Revision: Analysis of Shaggy Dog Stories

What makes the punch line of a Shaggy Dog story effective? In my group, we analyzed the “Thank Friday, it’s God” story to use as an example of how Shaggy Dog stories must have an audience with prior social knowledge and also use Gee’s tool of intertextuality to make the punch line effective. I will further analyze how social language, social identity and intertextuality help to make Shaggy Dog stories effective.

In the “Thank Friday, its God” story, social language is used in various ways.

“Robinson Crusoe fell desperately ill.” Fell desperately ill grabs the reader’s attention and implies that he is a sick man. It continues to say “before dropping into a comma” which asserts the fact that he is sick. This language also has the potential of having the listeners relate to the sick Robinson Crusoe. The perk of having the listeners relate to the story is that it keeps them interested and wanting to hear the rest of the story, which in turn, is a great set up for the punch line. From this information I learned that it’s important to add social language that grabs the listeners’ attention, and that is relatable, in order to set up the punch line and to make it effective.

Another example is from the lawyer story where a lawyer invites his friend to stay with him for a couple of weeks. The friend agrees-“The friend, eager to get a freebie off a lawyer, agreed.” This, also, is something that people can relate to, whether it’s the idea of trying to get a freebie from a lawyer or getting a freebie from a friend/acquaintance, even though you might not have done it before, the thought is something that people can relate to. This type of language is the type that is recognizable and catches the reader’s attention and therefore makes the punch line effective.

Through the language, you can also have social identities. For example, when Robinson Crusoe’s helper “danced and prayed for the gods to come and help his master,” it displayed his social identity. It shows that Friday, his helper, has a very close relationship with the gods. He seems to be performing some sort of religious act by dancing and praying. Many people connect to God in different ways based on their religion. It also shows that he cares for and has a close relationship with his friend Robinson Crusoe. Just by this one piece of language you are able to make an association between a character and his actions.

Intertextuality also plays its part in the shaggy Dog stories. The punch line in this story is “His helper answered, "Thank Friday! It's God!"  This is an example of intertextuality because it plays with two meanings. The first is actually within the context of the story where he’s thanking his helper for saving his life/helping him when he needed it the most. Basically
Robinson Crusoe asked for help from Friday because he was sick, and Friday prayed for him and God appeared, implying he was saved. Which is why he said “Thank Friday, its God.” The second is a connection outside of the story and falls under Gee’s “Conversation” tool (Big C). This requires prior knowledge of a particular social culture (pop culture) which knows the phrase as “Thank God it’s Friday.” This second meaning implies that people are happy it’s Friday because it’s the end of the work week and they don’t have to work the next couple of days (most people). The people that fall within this social culture are usually excited, relieved and happy to start off the weekend and not have to worry about anything work-related. This is why this culture usually says the phrase, “Thank God it’s Friday.

In analyzing the intertextuality in the shaggy Dog stories, I realized it’s important to have prior social knowledge in order to understand the joke. Another example of this is with the lawyer story. It’s important to have a general knowledge that all lawyers are liars, or at least it’s joked about in that way, in order to understand the joke. Without understanding that the Sheriff thought the lawyer to be a liar, which is why he shot the female bear rather than the male bear as the lawyer told him, the punch line would be ineffective.

After seeing the different ways that social language, social identities, and intertextuality is used in Shaggy Dog stories, I understand that all these were key components in making the stories funny. These tools are used to build up a sort of atmosphere to prepare the listener to laugh.