Comedy and Satire Exercise

The following is a brief dialogue that occurs between four adults. Robert is in his mid-forties, Dad in his mid-fifties, Mom in her early sixties and myself twenty. The setting is the first floor front room, surrounded by a table and chairs. The subject of the conversation is an overweight narcoleptic that attends our church; he even falls asleep on the altar during the celebration of Mass!

Dad: Can you believe that Harvey* actually got married?

Robert: (chuckling) Yeah, I wonder if he fell asleep during the exchange of rings!
'Do you take this lawfully wedded woman to be your wife?' and he's going 'ZZZZZZ' instead of 'I do.'

Dad: I wonder where they're going on their honeymoon.

Robert: Aw no, we can't even think about that (pause) I don't wanna think nothing of the sort.

Me: They're going to Sleepy Hollow, so I heard.

Robert and Dad: (laughing, but Robert laughs with more gusto)

Mom: Sleepy Hollow? Why would they go to Westchester for their honeymoon?

The telling of jokes is a form of release for the teller, and a moment for the audience to forget about their troubles and share a brief moment of laughter. This is how the term "comic relief" originated. In this particular joke, which some may consider "lame" or "old hat", the humor is not in the punch line; rather in the misunderstandings of Mom. The location I came up with for Harvey's* honeymoon, Sleepy Hollow, is both a literary allusion and the former name of North Tarrytown, the latter case in which my mother tried making connections to my quick witty comment. Such a comment as mine can be considered repartee; it was my "clever" reply to Robert's remark about such matters that he didn't want to divulge into.
My mother found herself "out of the loop" yet again when, a couple of weeks later, she asked my father whether or not she should go to the HIP center to receive a blood test the following day. "Of course you should since you already studied for it" he said, leaving her lost and to ask, "Why would I study for it...oh...you were trying to make a joke!" The difference between the two is that the second time around, realization hit home, as if someone rang the doorbell to shake her hand and say, "Congratulations, you finally got the dumb joke!"

*- real name has been protected.