Dave Barry Lies

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Dave Barry is a humorist who has a keen taste for stereotypical problems. He has received praises such as: “’the funniest man in America’-The New York Times” (“Dave Barry” n.p.). In his piece “A GPS Helps a Guy Always Know Where His Couch Is” he compares the attitudes of men and women specifically toward technology, or as he would say: “gadgets.” He opens with some form of a backstory by visualizing “some primitive guys” that are watching their wives prepare a carcass, and “Then they noticed some large, smooth, rounded boulders, and they had an idea: They could sit on the boulders and watch! This was the first in a series of breakthroughs that ultimately led to television” (Barry 94-95). This example of situational irony is only the beginning of the kind of humor he uses to express his opinion on this rather intriguing matter. This matter being the conflicting attitudes that men and women have on our ever advancing technology. As a guy, Dave Barry approaches this dispute with a …show more content…

After explaining the origin of television, Barry refers to his wife’s computer as one from “the Civil War” and that she “refuses to get a new one because-get THIS for an excuse-the one she has works fine" (Barry 95). Cleary Barry is exaggerating some, but he pairs that up with his tone to show the reader that man’s obsession with their technology is rather immature. Then, he explains that his computer gives him a message while turning off that “clearly… is not of human origin” (Barry 95). The reader is intended to comprehend this as a mere joke, but of course, Barry does not stop there. He claims there to be a danger to the planet and that aliens have relayed the message to him through his computer. This is obviously an absurd idea by itself, but Barry ingeniously uses it to explain how absurd men, and sometimes people in general, can be when they get enthusiastic about their

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