Examples Of Vonnegut's Humor

Vonnegut’s humor and satirical elements have become ubiquitous in his work. His sense of humor developed at an early age: “he first learned to be funny at the family dinner table. As the youngest child in the family, the only way he could get anyone to listen to him… was telling jokes” (Farrell 5). He would also tune into popular radio comedians and perform slapstick comedy with his older sister, Alice (Farrell 5). Vonnegut’s lifelong pessimism fueled his darker humor. It “had its roots in his parents’ despairing response to being blindsided by the Depression (Allen). The death of his mother in 1944 and his experience in World War II also lead to the development of his darker humor. Critics “claim that his real strength is very much tied to

It allows the harsh truth to go down with a little bit of sugar. Vonnegut strategically deploys humor throughout Slaughterhouse-Five to magnify a theme. Before Billy is transported to Dresden, the Englishman says, “I envy you lads… You lads are leaving this afternoon for Dresden--a beautiful city...You needn’t worry about bombs, by the way, Dresden is an open city. It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any importance” (Vonnegut, SF 186). The use of this irony underscores the brutality of the Dresden bombing. Dresden was a city of no military importance that got obliterated. Vonnegut’s humor is also portrayed in his use of science fiction elements. He is actually very familiar with math and science. Between the late 1940s to 1951, Vonnegut worked at General Electric as a machinist, cutting rotor blades for jet engines (Farrell 8). In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kilgore Trout, an unpopular science fiction writer paralleling Vonnegut, writes absurd novels as a comic relief. One such story is entitled The Gospel from Outer Space; it follows an extraterrestrial studying Christianity. He concludes that Christians are a cruel bunch because of their slipshod storytelling in the New Testament (Vonnegut, SF 138). Similarly comedic are the Tralfamadorians themselves: “they were two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber’s friends. Their suction cups were on the