What enhances the humor in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

The very notion that there would be a young reverend in a mining camp is humorous because mining camps were notorious for all manner of immoral behavior and the absence of virtuous women and men of the clergy. The invented name of the absent reverend, "Smiley," is meant to emphasize the humor that the narrator has been sent on a fool's errand.

The Western dialect that Simon Wheeler uses is also meant to enhance the story's humor. Nonstandard words and phrases like "straddle bug," "foller' (for "follow"), "bannanner," (for banana), "bully-rag," and "sorter discouraged-like" would be funny, especially to a more educated, or perhaps Eastern, audience unused to such colorful language.

Smiley's description of the posture of the frog as it attempts to jump (it "hysted up his shoulders so like a Frenchman") is a humorous and harmless swipe at Europeans that would likely amuse the nineteenth-century audience.

The exaggeration of some elements of Wheeler's story also create humor. At the story's end, his claim that the frog "belched out a double handful of shot" is impossible and utterly ridiculous.

What enhances the humor in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

The humor of the story is enhanced by the contrast between the narrator and Simon Wheeler, the descriptions of Jim Smiley's betting and the satire of human foibles that Twain is able to communicate. The first bit of humor comes in the form of the obvious distaste the narrator, an Easterner, has for the uneducated Westerner, Simon Wheeler. The narrator says that Wheeler backed him into a corner and "reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph." But the narrative is hardly monotonous. It is full of wonderful descriptions of a con artist who gets conned. The narrator's description of Simley's obsession with gambling is full of funny details, like when he would he would" foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road." Wheeler even bets on the death of the minister's wife. When the ministers says his wife is getting better, Smily thoughlessly says, “Well, I'll risk two-and-a-half that she don't, anyway.”

In addition, the descriptions of the "15 minute nag" and the bull dog who died of embarrassment are as funny as they are unbelievable. When training his frog to jump, the Smiley is especially funny. But the real entertainment value is the irony at the end of the story when Smiley is outfoxed by a stranger who puts quail shot in his frog. Finally, the narrator has had it with Wheeler's story and says so, but the reader has certainly had a good laugh.

What are examples of comedy in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

The story's first paragraph is a confession by the narrator that he had been duped. This kind of self-effacing humor is universally amusing, as it is human nature to laugh at oneself and invite others to join in the amusement.

Twain's use of Western dialect is also amusing. The first sentence that Simon Wheeler utters is a lengthy run-on, as are many subsequent ones, and they are peppered with humorous, nonstandard words like "feller," and "curiosest." The list of things that Jim Smiley would bet on are comical for their absurdity: cat fights, chicken fights, or simply where a straddle bug would go; Wheeler says "and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico." The fact that Simon Wheeler is a large individual who turns his chair to trap the narrator in a corner makes for some comical imagery, as does Smiley's bull pup who is described as having an "underjaw...[that would] stick out like the fo'castle of a steamboat."

There is a bit of satirical humor with regard to President Andrew Jackson, who at the time of the story's writing had been dead for twenty years. Jackson had been a polarizing president for his views on the expansion of slavery and forced relocation of American Indians. Jim Smiley's bull pup is named Andrew Jackson, and the fact that the dog lost a fight and then slunk off and died might say something darkly humorous about the way Jackson is, or ought to be, remembered.

The exaggeration, or hyperbole, in Simon Wheeler's story also makes for a comic effect. Turning the frog, Dan'l Webster, upside down and having five pounds of shot fall out is impossible, but quite funny.

What are examples of comedy in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

In the famous short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain, the narrator visits a tavern to inquire about a man named Leonidas W. Smiley. Instead, the old tavern keeper, Simon Wheeler, in a humorous feat of misdirection, proceeds to narrate a series of tall tales about a person named Jim Smiley, who loved to bet on just about anything and at various times owned a horse that always won races, a bull pup that always won dog fights, and a frog that always won jumping contests. In the end, a stranger outsmarts Smiley by filling his frog's belly full of quail shot.

Twain offers examples of several forms of comedy in this story. First of all, Wheeler's delivery of his story about Jim Smiley can be referred to as deadpan humor, because, as the narrator explains, he presents it without expression.

He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm ...

Wheeler's account of Smiley's activities is also an example of droll humor, which means that it is eccentric or capricious.

The stories that Wheeler relates about Smiley can be described as anecdotal humor. According to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an anecdote is "a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident." Anecdotal humor is humor based upon personal stories that may or may not be true. This certainly fits Wheeler's stories about Smiley.

Hyperbolic humor is humor based upon details that are highly exaggerated. Twain gives numerous examples of this in Wheeler's depictions of Smiley's penchant for betting and the strange animals that Smiley owned.

Farcical humor and screwball humor are similar in that they both derive their humorous effects by employing improbable events and frantic action. Twain uses these types of humor when Wheeler tells the final anecdote about the contest between the jumping frogs. The stranger wins the contest, takes his money, and immediately leaves. Smiley wonders what is wrong.

And he ketched Dan'l by the nap of the neck, and lifted him up and says, "Why blame my cats, if he don't weigh five pound!" and turned him upside down, and he belched out a double handful of shot. And then he see how it was, and he was the maddest man - he set the frog down and took out after that feller, but he never ketched him.

We can see, then, that Twain does use various forms of comedy in this hilarious story.

What are examples of comedy in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

A master of comedy, Mark Twain employs several comic devices in his short story "The Celebrated Frog of Calaversas County."

HYPERBOLE

In his description of Jim Smiley, Simon Wheeler exaggerates the man's propensity to bet on anything, declaring,

"If he even see a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to--to wherever he was going to, and you took him up, he would foller that straddle bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road."

Simon Wheeler certainly uses obvious exaggerations in his description of his frog's talents.  For instance, he says,

"You never see a frog so modest and straightor'ard as he was, for all he was so gifted."

Smiley said all a frog wanted [needed] was education, and he could do 'most anything.

In describing Simon Wheeler, the narrator himself uses hyperbole:

...he regarded it [his story] as a really important matter, and admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in finesse.....

COMIC COMPARISONS

One obvious comparison that is humorous is the name of the frog belonging to Simon Wheeler:  Daniel Webster, one of America's leading statesmen.

Jim Smiley has a dog without hind legs named after a president:  Andrew Jackson.

COMIC SITUATIONS

The description of Jim Smiley's dog whose legs were cut off by a circular saw that Smiley insists upon betting on until the dog "give Smiley a look, as much as to say his heart was broke, and it was his fault...."

The most humorous situation occurs as the opponent to Simon Wheeler, Jim Smiley, out tricks Wheeler by "fill[ing] him pretty near up to his chin..." with quailshot.

List and explain two humorous accounts in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".

The narrator of the inner stories in this Mark Twain classic, Simon Wheeler, tells a string of anecdotes that run into each other—all related to the gambling habit of Jim Smiley. All are humorous, even the idea of betting on which preacher at a camp meeting would be the "best exhorter." The story about the horse and the one about the dog each relies on dialect, imagery, and irony for its humorous effect.

The story about Smiley's "fifteen-minute nag" uses humorous dialect in the following phrases: "for all she was so slow and had the asthma," "she'd get excited and desperate-like," and "always fetch up at the stand just about a neck ahead, as near as you could cipher it down." These quirks of language reveal the narrator's lack of education and folksy style, which add interest and color to his stories. The sight and sound imagery of the nag kicking, coughing, sneezing, and blowing its nose brings a very funny picture to mind, like a cartoon. The fact that this apparently asthmatic and ungainly horse can consistently win its races is surprising, which adds to the humor.

Smiley's bull pup named Andrew Jackson was likewise an unlikely winner, but the irony hinges on how the pup loses rather than on how it wins. Andrew Jackson is unable to win against a dog with no hind legs because Andrew Jackson's "pet holt," or favorite place to bite, was the hind legs. Wheeler tells the story descriptively so we can picture the bull pup reaching for its favorite spot to bite, finding no legs, looking betrayed, and slinking off to die. Again Wheeler's dialect adds to the humor with phrases like "he got shucked out bad," throwed in the sponge," "looked sorter discouraged-like," and "would have made a name for hisself if he'd lived." There is no denying that this anecdote also relies on a type of humor called dark humor, gallows humor, or grotesque humor. In such humor, a victim is mocked or something that one should not laugh at is made fun of. As much as readers want to feel sorry for the opposing two-legged dog whose legs were "sawed off in a circular saw" and for Andrew Jackson, who "limped off a piece and laid down and died," they find themselves snickering and possibly even guffawing at the story because of the way Wheeler tells it.

The stories related by Simon Wheeler are hilarious because they use imagery that creates outrageous visual pictures, dialect that is unusual and colorful, and surprising situations. Twain is even able to pull off gallows humor in the form of mocking a disabled dog and the death of another dog through the side-splitting narration of old Simon Wheeler.

List and explain two humorous accounts in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".

To me, the humor in this story is mostly in the absurdity of the things that Simon Wheeler is saying.  The humor is not subtle -- it's just really goofy.

For example, I really like the story of the dog that would win its fights by grabbing the other dog's hind leg and never letting go.  The idea that the dog would die of a broken heart when it fought a dog with no hind legs is just ridiculous.  To me, it's the absurdity of the situation that is funny there.

In other places, what's funny is the wording of the story.  I think, for example, that this description of the frog is pretty funny

You never see a frog so modest and straightforward as he was, for all he was so gifted.

The idea that a frog could be modest is pretty funny because that just isn't a characteristic a frog could have.

I hope that helps... it's not easy to explain why something is funny.