Chapter 19 Humor

1.parody

What make those pieces work was that they struck close to the form they were parodying.

to copy someone or something in a way that makes people laugh:

例：His style has often been parodied.

2.current

Humorist operate on a deep current than most people suspect.

an idea, feeling, or opinion that a particular group of people has:

例：The committee reflects the different political currents within the organization.

current of

例：There was an underlying current of discontent among teachers.

3.resurrect[ˌrez.ər'ekt]

Next resurrected Archy and Mehitabek, by Don Marquis, to show that this influential humorist also used an unorthodox medium-doggerel-for his message.

■to bring someone back to life 使复活，使起死回生

例：Almost all Christians believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.几乎所有的基督徒都相信耶稣死而复生。

■to bring back something into use or existence that had disappeared or ended 重新使用；恢复；使重新流行

例：She has been busily trying to resurrect her Hollywood career.她一直奔忙，试图重振她的好莱坞演艺生涯。

4.shed

His own influence hasn't been so easily shed.

 to get rid of something that you no longer need or want:

例：The company is planning to shed about a quarter of its workforce.

例：The magazine is desperately trying to shed its old-fashioned image.

仿：If you want to shed pounds，a healthy diet is needed.

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Shed is used especially in journalism. In everyday English, people usually say that someone or something gets rid of something.

拓展. shed light

a. shed light on to make something easier to understand, by providing new or better information

例：Recent research has shed light on the causes of the disease.

例：Investigators hope to shed light on what started the fire.

b. if something sheds light, it lights the area around it:

The lamp shed a harsh yellow light.

单词还有动物蜕皮的意思，此外还有表达shed tears

5.wing

In short, our class began by striving first for humor and hoping to wing a few truths along the way.

 wing it (spoken) to do something without planning or preparing it:

例：We’ll just have to wing it.

Thoughts

看这章标题是幽默，于是带着轻松的心情开始阅读，结果却还是和前一章一样难读。所以只对理论性的内容有一些印象。对于幽默这个概念，一般是电视里看的比较多，比如喜剧啊，小品啊，或者综艺节目，比如《天天向上》、《极限挑战》，但真要想想看过什么幽默的书籍，还真是很少。只能想到以前喜欢看韩寒的一些调侃的文章，或者网上的一些段子。韩寒的文章总是在反讽一些社会现象，读来让人觉得大快人心。

作者说到的principles for the writer of humor：

1. 　a superb writer：master the craft of writing good "straight" English

2.  Don't search for the outlandish and scorn what seems too ordinary

3.   don't strain for laughs, humor is built on surprise.

幽默其实是写作的高级别了，是必须建立在好的写作的基础上，然后又让人在不经意间感受到幽默。