Moore: An Anatomy of Humor

"Hello. I'm Charlene. I'm a mistress"(5). From the short story "How to Be an Other Woman", written by Lorrie Moore, welcome to Charlene's life. As a first time mistress, Charlene struggles with the desire to become someone else. The story takes into account her thoughts and wishes of the growing situation from falling in love with a married man. Charlene becomes obsessed with her lovers wife and frequently does different things to be just like her. For example, she observes her style and details of her organizational life to eventually follow the same lifestyle. As time goes on Charlene becomes attached to her married lover; she waits for his presence like a puppy waiting for its owner by the door. Although she knows in the back of her mind that he is married. Instead of getting barmy and angry about the things that he puts her through, she simply covers her sadness with laughter and humor.

Lorrie Moore uses many types of humor in all of her short stories within her book, Self-Help. Although most of the stories, including How to Be an Other Woman, do not seem funny at first glace; the deeper you dissect the stories, the funnier they become. Sigmund Freud and Thomas Hobbes are theorists who have studied humor and came up with their own definitions and reasons for the use of humor. In this blog we will examine four different types of uses of humor that Moore uses in her short story, with many of them revealing much deeper meanings. These four include the uses of double meanings, puns, stereotypes, and finally defense mechanisms. All four of these methods of humor comply with Sigmund Freud and Thomas Hobbes' theories on humor.

Of note (an interview with author Lorrie Moore):
Interview
One fact that is interesting to note from this interview is when Believer Magazine asks her about the relationship between awkwardness and how we as the reader can gain access to the emotions of Moore's characters. Moore states that awkwardness is where comedy is. When we as the reader see something unusual or awkward happen to a character, it brings about humor.



For more on Sigmund Freud and Thomas Hobbes, please visit your classroom notes or Blackboard



Uses of Double Meanings


The humorous use of a word can either mean more than one thing, or sounds identical to a word of different meaning. In this story, Moore’s most prolific use of humor is her utilization of double meanings. Charlene seems to use humorous double meanings mostly while dealing with her unpredictable lover. When Charlene's admirer introduces himself as Attila, she refers to him as Hun. Another example is when he suggests that they meet for lunch, she claims she is a vegetarian and does not eat "meat". Later in the story, he calls Charlene and expresses, “I was having a dream about you [Charlene] and suddenly…woke up with a jerk,” she tells him that she “hate[s] to wake up with jerks”(20). While the former is used to add comedy to the story, the latter foreshadows that he is, in fact, a jerk. When he finally tells her that she is mistress number two and that his real wife is named Carrie, she recalls a joke about calling a woman with neither arms nor legs Carrie. Theorist Thomas Hobbes, would certainly use his egoist philosophy to claim that Charlene is using humor in an attempt to gain superiority over Carrie. As Hobbes' states in his theories, humor is about a struggle for power. By trying to gain superiority over Carrie by telling numerous jokes, Charlene is attempting to take the upper-hand. Last, the title of the story, How to be an Other Woman, is itself an example of a double meaning. At the beginning of the story, it seems that Charlene is an other woman, but as the story closes, we find out that she is, in fact, just another woman.


Uses of Puns


A pun is the replacement of one word with a similar, but not identical sounding, word for comic purposes. Lorrie Moore seems to be a particularly ‘punny’ author. In the short story How to be an Other Woman, the main character, Charlene, frequently uses puns; both in her conversations with others and in her thoughts. When she first arrives at her lover’s “castle,” she makes a pun off of a famous quote by Socrates (“The Apology”); saying “the unexamined fly is not worth zipping” (10). Later, when asked the question of occupation on a date with Hilda’s friend Mark, she tells him that she is more like a “sedentary” than a secretary. Both of these two puns seem to be used for comic relief rather than conveying any deeper meaning. Thomas Hobbes would say that Charlene’s humor is being used to gain some sort of superiority over the people that she is telling the jokes to. This is in compliance with Hobbes' theories stating, humor is a social process and is all about positions of power.

Charlene even thinks in puns. For example, when she ponders her position of becoming a mistress, she thinks about how at the age of 5 “mistress meant to put your shoes on the wrong feet...but essentially it means to put your shoes on the wrong feet" (5). While she is trying to rationalize the role of a mistress, she explains that she has become “part of a great hysterical you [Charlene] mean historical tradition” (16). These last two puns probably don’t seem terribly funny to you as a reader but there is indeed a deeper meaning. Shown in the pun on shoes, Charlene's conscious has always told her that is was wrong to be a mistress; but as she tries to rationalize it, it becomes amusing to her.


Uses of Stereotypes


Stereotypes are assumptions people make about entire groups of people, places, or things that are based on images about what those people, places or things are like. Humor often makes use of stereotypes because they humanize our perceptions of things, and the raw honesty used in jokes to portray these perceptions makes people laugh. Throughout this short story, Moore uses numerous stereotypes to attempt to bring about laughter. She starts the story off with a stereotype, describing how they “Meet in expensive beige raincoats, on a pea-soupy night”(3). This is a typical stereotype that many people hold, that two lovers meet in the rain and live happily ever after. The irony of the situation, that they don't end up living happily ever after, brings about humor. Another stereotype Moore deals with is sex, which is brought to the reader’s attention when Charlene states, “After four movies, three concerts, and two-and-a-half museums, you sleep with him”(4). This illustrates that in our society sex is no longer perceived as an act meant just for a husband and wife, but is now viewed as an act people do regularly, after the so-called “standard” number of dates. Going along with Freud's theories on humor, Freud would classify this line as an obscene joke. He defines this as a joke that expresses something sexual and brings to surface something that can only be stated in jokes. Sex isn't something normally spoken about in our culture, so by exposing it, it opens up doors that have been shut and therefore brings about humor according to Freud.


Uses of Defense Mechanisms


Defense mechanisms are unconscious ways to protect oneself from hurtful emotions or situations. Humor is constantly used as a defense mechanism to cover up pain and replace it with laughter. Humor helps to reduce the intensity of a situation, by placing laughter between the person and their impulses. Theorists such as Freud have understood humor as a form of a defense mechanism. Freud views humor as a way to temporarily escape hardships, with laughter as a mask to the discomfort we are actually feeling. Throughout Moore's short story, "How to Be an Other Woman", Freud's theory is demonstrated throughout, as humor is used as a defense mechanism to shut out Charlene’s agony. For example when he introduces his wife as an intellectual property lawyer and asks for her thoughts on that, rather than becoming furious she joke and says, “It depends. What is intellectual property law?”(4). Charlene jokes about the situation rather then letting her true feelings show. She really doesn’t like talking about his wife because it makes it evident that Charlene is not the only woman in his life, which hurts her deeply. All throughout the story, Charlene uses jokes to try to cover up her true emotions. At the end of the story she finally comes out and tells him, “I suffer indignities at your hands. And agonies of duh feet. I don’t know why I joke. I hurt”(20). Her buildup of emotions lead her to this point, and by displacing her feelings of pain and agony that she had about the affair as jokes to try to protect herself throughout the story, Charlene actually ends up in a position where she is hurt worse. This too complies with Freud's theory that humor is a defense mechanism, which can end up hurting us deeply.


In Conclusion...

People use different types of jokes in everyday life whether they are noticed or just stuck in the unconscious part of their brain. When reading Lorrie Moore's short stories in Self Help, one can see the many different ways people can bring laughter upon a situation, no matter how hard it may be. That's the beauty of a joke;it makes you smile. Through uses of defense mechanisms, puns, double meanings, and stereotypes depicted in this particular story, Charlene is able to joke her way out of feeling unhappy. With the help of Freud and Hobbes studies on the uses of jokes,Lorrie Moore's tantalizing stories become more vibrant with laughter.

Works Cited:

Moore, Lorrie. "How to Be Another Woman." Self-Help. By Lorrie Moore. New York: Vintage, 2007.

Socrates. “The Apology.” The Trials of Socrates. Trans. C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2002.

POSTED BY: Rachel Armstrong, Amanda Recker, and Jeremy Hilligoss