Blog 3: Group Analysis of the Shaggy Dog Stories

Ashley, Caitlin, Angy

During our group discussion in class, we came up with twelve features that the shaggy dog stories have in common. They are:

1.      Repetition of words that build up to the pun.

2.      The pun is introduced in the beginning.

3.      Sound connection in punch line.

4.      Dialogue.

5.      Cultural knowledge (example: Panda eats shoots and leaves).

6.      Different settings.

7.      Slang.

8.      Double meanings in the pun.

9.      Ends in a twist.

10.  The end makes the most sense.

11.  They are written in a story-telling format.

12.  Vocabulary knowledge (example: what is a shoot?).

The first feature, repetition of words that build up to the pun, is expressed in all of the shaggy dog stories. Most of the repetitive words are the characters in the stories, like panda, string, Friday, Czechoslovakian and lawyer. These repetitive words build up to the pun because they are key factors that make up the pun. The second feature, introducing the pun in the beginning, is an important feature shown in all the stories. The beginning of each of the stories is the part that introduces the main ideas such as characters, setting and sometimes dialogue. Each shaggy dog story introduction introduces a character a fact about that character. In the introductions, we learned that a panda escaped from the zoo and walked into a restaurant, a string walked into a bar asking for a beer, Robinson Crusoe was ill, and a lawyer invited a Czechoslovakian to his house. All of these facts relate to the ending pun. The third feature is sound connection in the punch line. Each punch line not only gave sense to the stories, but it gave the feeling of end. The tone of the punch line let the reader know that the story was over. All of the punch lines except for number one also had dialogue. There was also quite some dialogue in the stories, especially the one about the panda and the one about the string. The dialogue is significant to the shaggy dog story as a whole because for most of them, it is a key element. In each Shaggy Dog Story, you need to have a cultural awareness to understand the meaning of each story. For example; in the Shaggy Dog story about the panda, you need to know that the panda habitat is in China. You also need to know about or who is Robinson Crusoe. As well as knowing where Czechoslovakian's are from. All of these Shaggy Dog stories have different settings such as from being in New York, to bar hoping, being in a tent and being in the country.

    The language varies from each Shaggy Dog story. Slang words (language) are used as well; for example, "Gimme," instead of saying, " Give me." "Rookie," instead of someone in a professional field without much experience. But for each Shaggy Dog story, there are double meaning to the puns within the stories. For example," Giant panda, live's in China, eats shoots and leaves," meaning a panda live's in China, eats the bamboo shoots (sprouts) and leaves. It doesn't eat in a restaurant, shoots people and then leaves, this is where the cultural awareness comes into play. Another example is, " Thank Friday! It's God," instead of saying, "Thank God! It's Friday. As for the last story, the double meaning to the pun is, " Would you believe a lawyer who told you the Czech was in the male?" The real meaning is, " Would you believe a lawyer who told you the check was in the mail?' meaning would anyone believe a lawyer who told you that the check was in the mail since all lawyers want is money. These are all example's of the double meaning to puns in the Shaggy Dog stories.

There are different twists at the end of each of the Shaggy Dog stories where you can notice from the beginning.  You may seem like you know where the story is going but they surprise you at the end which leads to the next feature - noticing that each of the stories make sense at the end.  Like for an example, in the giant panda story - you are wondering what the panda is doing and why he is doing what he is doing until they look up what a panda is and you realize that each of what he did is a part of the definition that was found.  This works out for the other stories as well with their jokes, the beginning of stories seem confusing but once you reach the end, you have a moment where you go “oh now that makes sense!”.  This happens when stories are written in a good story-telling format which is another feature for each of these stories that they share. A good story always has a beginning, middle, and an end which each of these have even though they are supposed to be jokes, jokes are stories as well.  An example from these stories would be the last one that starts off talking about the lawyer which every great story does, introducing one of the main characters.  Then in the middle is where the action is happening which is when the man gets a sheriff because his friend was in the bear because he was eaten.  Finally, the ending where the sheriff shoots the female bear instead of the male bare where his friend was and the sheriff makes a joke “Would you believe a lawyer who told you the Czech was in the male?” which is a joke against lawyers saying that a check is in the mail.  An important feature to notice that would also help to understand the shaggy dog stories would be vocabulary knowledge.  Like what is a shoot?  In the story, you would think shoots would be towards the panda actually shooting like he did but really shoots is a part of a bamboo in which is what pandas eat.  These shows that each of the shaggy dog stories have similar features even though they are different stories to be told.