dehumour1-2, Exercise 2: Twain's essay as evidence

Model answer (check the details):

What the essay is: a comic essay by an American humorist (1880), written in the manner of a long complaint, with exaggeration for effect. It mocks the German language, with its genders, cases and compound words, and is not a study of German humour.

Evidence that Germans have no sense of humour? No. The essay is about grammar, not about the people's sense of fun, and Twain's own comic method was exaggeration. Using it as evidence for the stereotype confuses a joke about a language with a claim about a nation.

Evidence that Twain had one? Yes, in the sense that the essay is a skilful comic performance. That tells us about Twain.

Neither, in the sense of the stereotype: the essay shows that foreign writers found the German language comic, and that Germans are among the people who read and enjoy it (check the German reception).

The point: a text from outside the culture is a poor test of the culture's own humour. The test is what Germans write, perform and laugh at.