What are two humorous events in To Kill A Mockingbird chapters 1–3?

Humor is often present in events that are funny to the person who is not a part of them.  In To Kill a Mockingbird chapters 1-3, three humorous events are the entrance of Dill, and Scout’s first day of school.

First of all, Lee often uses humor when introducing Maycomb and its characters to us.  The entrance of Dill is quite memorable.

We went to the wire fence to see if there was a puppy- Miss Rachel's rat terrier was expecting- instead we found someone sitting looking at us. Sitting down, he wasn't much higher than the collards. (ch 1)

Most of the descriptions of Dill are humorous.  He is larger than life, even though he is described as small.  When we first meet him here, the children think he is a puppy.  He introduces himself with his big name “Charles Baker Harris” and tells them he can read.  Jem is not amused, because Dill is seven years old and should be reading.  Dill’s hair is described as “stuck to his head like duckfluff” and he tells the story of how he won a beautiful child contest and he went to the movies twenty times with the money.

A second humorous event is Scout’s first day of school.  The teacher, Miss Caroline, is completely clueless.  She “looked and smelled like a peppermint drop” (ch 2), and we are first introduced to her when Scout says that she had already been punished before lunch on her first day of her first year of school.  When she is introduced, the children are mildly suspicious.

I am from North Alabama, from Winston County." The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region.  (ch 2)

The matter of fact dry wit with which the adult narrator describes Scout’s misadventures can only make the reader chuckle.  Miss Caroline reads a story about cats, and Scout notes that the class has no imagination.  She screams when she finds lice on a child’s head, and the older boys try to protect her.  On top of this, several of the children have repeated first grade and are there to keep order.  By lunchtime, Scout is rubbing Walter Cunningham’s nose in the dirt for getting her in trouble when she tried to explain why he wouldn’t take a quarter.

All of the humorous events in the story point us to hidden truths.  One of the reasons Dill is so funnily odd is that he is terribly lonely, since his family hoists him off all of the time.  Scout’s first day of school indicates larger class and cultural differences which will be key to the story later.  Lee deftly uses humor to give us crucial information.

Is there anything humorous in chapter 2 of To Kill A Mockingbird?

There are several funny episodes in this chapter. First, Scout says that Jem, rather than Atticus, accompanies her to the first day of school. Jem seems overly pleased about doing so, and then Scout says that she hears coins jingling in Jem's pocket on the way to school and believes that money changed hands in this interaction. In other words, Atticus bribed Jem to take Scout to school. Jem's instructions to Scout upon reaching school are also humorous. He tells her not to approach him in school with requests to enact portions of Tarzan and not to mention his private life.

The story that the teacher, Miss Caroline, reads to Scout's class is also funny, as it features talking cats and a character named Mrs. Cat who calls the drugstore to order malted mice. Miss Caroline does not notice that her class, most of whom are farmers' children, are not at all interested in this type of book.

There are many humorous sections in chapter two. 

First, it is funny to hear Scout's blanket statements about people. For instance, when Miss Caroline introduced herself as from Winston county in North Alabama, Scout completely judged her. Moreover, what makes things funnier is that Scout speaks with so much conviction. Here is a quote that shows this:

North Alabama was full of Liquor Interests, Big Mules, steel companies, Republicans, professors, and other persons of no background.

Second, the interaction between Miss Caroline and Scout is also very humorous, because Scout says to her that no one taught her to read, definitely not Atticus. In other words, Scout says that she was born reading. This is very innocent. Here is a quote that shows this:

“Teach me?” I said in surprise. “He hasn’t taught me anything, Miss Caroline. Atticus ain’t got time to teach me anything,” I added, when Miss Caroline smiled and shook her head. “Why, he’s so tired at night he just sits in the livingroom and reads.”

Finally, Scout completely misunderstands what the Dewey Decimal System is. She think is it something that Miss Caroline does by holding up cards with words on them and swinging them around. Scout shows that she completely misunderstands what is going on. 

What are two humorous events in chapter 3 of To Kill A Mockingbird?

In chapter three of To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout fights with Walter Cunningham. Jem makes a humorous comment after he breaks up the fight: 

Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop. "You're bigger'n he is," he said.

Although Jem is probably being serious, his comment comes across as humorous. No doubt, Scout is bigger than Walter, but the fact that Scout is a girl and beating up a boy is a humorous event. Scout fights like a boy. She is a tom boy. Jem has always treated Scout like a boy. His comment is humorous because he never mentions that Scout is a girl fighting a boy. He only comments that Scout is bigger than Walter. This creates a smile for the reader. 

When Scout mentions that Walter Cunningham is nearly as old as Jem, her comment is humorous:

"He's as old as you, nearly," I said. "He made me start off on the wrong foot."

She is a tough little girl who does not take any sass form anyone. The reader can only smile at the actions of Scout.  

Another humorous event from chapter three happens when Scout gets in trouble for ridiculing Walter Cunningham for pouring syrup  all over his food. Calpurnia orders Scout to report to the kitchen. Calpurnia disciplines Scout for her rude behavior toward her guest, instructing her on how wrong it is to judge company:

"There's some folks who don't eat like us," she whispered fiercely, "but you ain't called on to contradict 'em at the table when they don't. That boy's yo' comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear?"

Scout becomes angry at Calpurnia for her strict discipline. Scout threatens Calpurnia. The reader finds Scout's comments humorous as she is feeling sorry for herself:

I told Calpurnia to just wait, I'd fix her: one of these days when she wasn't looking I'd go off and drown myself in Barker's Eddy and then she'd be sorry.

Here, the reader smiles at the comments of Scout. She is cute when she is pouting. Of course, she is not going to drown herself. She is being overly dramatic. Her actions cause the reader to find humor in the surrounding events. 

Another humorous event from chapter three happens when Scout asks her father if she can leave school after her first day. She is quite serious. She mentions that she can be like Burris Ewell who only reports to school on the first day and then never returns. Although Burris's situation is a serious one, it is humorous to think that Scout is thinking of quitting school after only the first day. Truly, Scout has had a difficult day at her first day of school. Again, Scout causes the reader to smile at her dilemma. 

What is the most important scene in To Kill a Mockingbird?

One could argue that Boo's saving of Scout and Jem is the most important scene in the book for a number of reasons. First of all, because it reveals that Boo Radley sees himself as the Finch children’s protector. We already knew, from his leaving Scout and Jem little keepsakes in the knot of a tree, that he wasn’t the one-dimensional boogeyman figure everyone in town has always thought him to be. But now we can see that Boo’s more than just a misunderstood soul, one of life’s mockingbirds; he’s also a heroic figure who will do whatever he can to protect the Finch children from danger.

Further significance in this scene comes from its theme of the death of innocence. Throughout the book, both Scout and Jem have matured to the extent that they now know a whole lot more about the adult world than they once did. Yet for all that, they’re still children and retain some last few vestiges of childhood innocence. But all that changes when Bob Ewell attacks them as they make their way home from the Halloween party. Thanks to him, Scout and Jem have entered into the adult world with a crash and a bang. From now on, their lives will never be the same again.

Part of the power of To Kill A Mockingbird is its many dramatic scenes, so it is difficult to pick which is the most significant. In my opinion, however, the most important scene in the novel—and the one that delivers the strongest emotional punch—occurs when Atticus walks out of the courtroom. Having lost his case defending Tom Robinson, the entire black audience in the upper tiers nevertheless stands up silently as he passes out of respect for what he has done.

This ties together and crystallizes several themes in the novel. As the novel emphasizes, one should do the right thing even if the cause is hopeless. This scene shows that Atticus has done the right thing but has also lost his case. It also illustrates through the response of the black community that his doing the right thing is more important than the outcome. It drives home the point that acting with integrity matters more than any end result.

The novel is also about a little girl's hero worship of her father, and so it is significant that Scout is able to witness this tribute; it confirms for her that her father is a man worthy of admiration and respect.

While there are many significant scenes throughout the story that correspond to Harper Lee's themes and illustrate Scout's maturation and moral development, one could argue that the most important scene takes place at the end of chapter 30, when Scout metaphorically applies her father's earlier lesson regarding mockingbirds. Shortly after Bob Ewell's attack, Sheriff Tate decides to conceal Boo's heroics by lying to the community about Bob Ewell's death. Sheriff Tate tells Atticus that he will inform the community that Bob Ewell tripped and fell on his own knife during the altercation. Sheriff Tate knows that it is wrong to fabricate a story but is willing to lie about Bob Ewell's death to protect Boo Radley from the community's limelight. Sheriff Tate understands that Boo Radley is an extremely shy, reclusive man and believes that being thrust into Maycomb's limelight will do him more harm than good.

Shortly after Sheriff Tate explains his decision to conceal Boo's heroics and lie about Bob Ewell's death, Atticus asks Scout if she understands Tate's reasoning, and Scout responds by saying,

Well, it’d be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?

Scout's ability to metaphorically apply one of her father's earlier lessons regarding mockingbirds not only demonstrates her maturation and moral development but also underscores Harper Lee's primary theme of the novel, which is the importance of protecting innocent, vulnerable beings. In this scene, Scout likens Boo to a symbolic mockingbird, because he is innocent and defenseless against the community's opinion. Sheriff Tate's actions are similar to Atticus's defense of Tom Robinson (who is also a symbolic mockingbird), because he is attempting to protect an innocent, vulnerable individual.

It is hard to pick the most important scene in the novel. Of course, there are significant moments between Atticus and Scout. The trial, interactions with Boo, and the themes of race and class are all very important. Scout's discussion with Miss Maudie at the beginning of Chapter 10 ties into some of these issues. Scout recalls her father once telling her that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. She asks Miss Maudie about this. Miss Maudie replies: 

Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. 

This is one of the more significant lessons in the book and is obviously where the title of the novel comes from. It is a sin to kill or harm anything or anyone who is innocent. The mockingbird does no harm and only provides music. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are mockingbirds. Boo does not harm anyone and he proves to be generous and helpful throughout the novel. He covers Scout with the blanket when Miss Maudie's house is on fire and he saves the children in the end. Tom harms no one. His only "sin" was that he tried to help Mayella and got falsely accused in the process. It was sin that he was charged, convicted and killed. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is to harm the innocent. 

How does humor manifest in To Kill a Mockingbird?

For a novel that deals with human tragedy and the loss of innocence, To Kill a Mockingbird is remarkably humorous. Until the tone shifts in Part II and grows increasingly more serious, it’s hard to open the book to a page without a passage or an anecdote that evokes amusement or a laugh-out-loud response. The novel is often amusing, and sometimes it’s downright funny. Written in the retrospective point of view with the adult Scout telling the story, the humor emanates mostly from two sources: Jem, Scout, and Dill’s adventures growing up in Maycomb before they are exposed to the hatred inherent in racism, and the tone of Scout’s voice as narrator.

Looking back, Scout is often amused by her childhood and the culture in which she grew up. As she narrates the novel, she shares her amusement in anecdotes and a tone of voice that reflect her pleasure in remembering them. Sometimes humor is found in exaggeration or understatement as she describes herself and her experiences; some passages in the novel are gently satirical in describing the culture of Maycomb. Most of the humor is found in Scout’s recalling the numerous challenges she and Jem presented to their father when they were children. As Miss Maudie teases Atticus while looking at Jem and Scout’s “morphodite” snowman, “Atticus, you’ll never raise them!” Atticus does raise them, and very well, but his job, according to Scout, wasn’t easy.

During their summers together in Maycomb, Jem, Scout, and Dill spend their days playing while Calpurnia keeps an eye on them. Cal can’t watch them every minute, though, and left to their own devices, they create some of the funniest incidents in the novel. Rolling downhill in a tire on the sidewalk in front of the Finch house is a favorite pastime—until Scout is crammed inside the tire, it goes out of control, and she is deposited, head spinning and knees shaking, in the front yard of the fearful Radley house where the even more frightening Boo Radley lives.

The children’s early obsession with Boo is innocent and naïve, and their conception of him is hilarious, one that could only be born in the creativity of a child’s imagination. Scout remembers Jem’s “reasonable” description of Boo, as delivered to Dill:

Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.

Never doubting the accuracy of Jem’s description, Dill immediately wants to see Boo for himself. If Dill wanted to “get himself killed,” Jem advises, “all he had to do was go up and knock on the [Radleys'] front door.”

The children’s growing obsession with Boo leads to other humorous incidents, two of which get them into trouble with Atticus, who has told them to leave Boo alone. They “play Boo Radley,” acting out the gossip they have heard about him and his parents. They embellish the stories about Boo, creating quite a script to perform with stage props pilfered from the Finch household. Scout recalls that “[o]ne day we were so busy playing Chapter XXV, Book II of One Man’s Family, we did not see Atticus standing on the sidewalk looking at us, slapping a rolled magazine against his knee.” Atticus’s irritation is obvious, but it does not deter them.

Jem, Scout, and Dill are soon in trouble again when Atticus sees Jem trying to deliver a note to Boo by attaching it to the end of a fishing pole and shoving it through a shutter on the Radley house. Scout recalls that Jem’s plan to make sure Atticus didn’t catch him in the act seemed foolproof. Scout and Dill would stand guard, and if Atticus were sighted, Dill would ring a bell in warning. Dill, as Scout remembers, was armed with her mother’s silver dinner-bell, and when Jem’s plan went awry, “I saw Dill ringing the bell with all his might in Atticus’s face.” In the tone of Scout’s voice as she relates these childhood antics, readers can hear the amusement that infuses much of the novel.

Scout’s amusement is also evident when she relates memories of her skirmishes with Calpurnia, some of her battles with Alexandra, and her relationship with school. Especially entertaining is Scout’s campaign to avoid going to school, one phase of which was cussing: “I was proceeding on the dim theory, aside from the innate attractiveness of such words, that if Atticus discovered I had picked them up from school he wouldn’t make me go.” Scout’s asking her Uncle Jack “to pass the damn ham, please” at Christmas dinner may be one of the funniest passages in the book.

The culture of Maycomb, Alabama, is also reviewed in a humorous tone from time to time. For instance, Scout relates that when Atticus began practicing law, his first two clients were Haverfords, “in Maycomb County, a name synonymous with jackass.” After killing a blacksmith over a horse and being “imprudent enough to do it in the presence of three witnesses,” the Haverfords rejected Atticus’s advice to take a plea and “insisted that the-son-of-a-bitch-had-it-coming-to-him was a good enough defense for anybody.” It wasn’t.

Scout also touches humorously on the culture of Maycomb when she describes how her first-grade class reacted when their new teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, informed them she was from Winston County in North Alabama:

The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region. (When Alabama seceded from the Union on January 11, 1861, Winston County seceded from Alabama, and every child in Maycomb County knew it.) North Alabama was full of Liquor Interests, Big Mules, steel companies, Republicans, professors, and other persons of no background.

Rural Maycomb County obviously had no use for its cousin to the north. What it did value, Scout recalls, was its own history and a large variety of Maycomb County’s agricultural products, both of which were celebrated in a school pageant written by Mrs. Grace Merriweather. Given “Mrs. Merriweather’s imagination and the supply of children” to dress in meat and vegetable costumes, the pageant would have been impressive, Scout remembers, had she not fallen asleep in her ham costume, missed her cue, and woke up just in time to race on stage and ruin Mrs. Merriweather’s grand finale with the state flag.

Scout’s description of the pageant is the last instance of humor in To Kill A Mockingbird, for it takes place immediately before Bob Ewell’s savage attack on Jem and Scout and the moving conclusion of the novel. The end of the pageant must have been hilarious, though, because after Scout’s disastrous debut as a ham, “Judge Taylor went out behind the auditorium and stood there slapping his knees so hard Mrs. Taylor brought him a glass of water and one of his pills.” The little girl dressed up as a ham certainly didn’t think the incident was funny, but through the retrospective point of view, Scout as narrator enjoys remembering it. It is through these anecdotes and Scout’s amusing retrospective assessments of Maycomb that the novel is often very humorous and irresistibly charming.

Are there moments of humor in To Kill a Mockingbird?

My favorite funny part in To Kill a Mockingbird occurs in chapter 6. The kids are watching Mr. Avery, a neighbor as he is just hanging out on the porch:

"Golly, looka yonder." He pointed across the street. At first we saw nothing but a kudzu-covered front porch, but a closer inspection revealed an arc of water descending from the leaves and splashing in the yellow circle of the street light, some ten feet from source to earth, it seemed to us. Jem said Mr. Avery misfigured, Dill said he must drink a gallon a day, and the ensuing contest to determine relative distances and respective prowess only made me feel left out again, as I was untalented in this area.

My students regularly miss this entire passage and I completely enjoy pointing it out to them because it is total early high school humor. It also shows how an author can be funny but almost mask that humor behind formal language. The "closer inspection revea[ing] an arc of water... splashing in the yellow circle of the street light" is an old man peeing off the side of a porch. The boys were obviously impressed by his distance ability. Then, "the ensuing contest to determine relative distances and respective prowess" makes Scout feel left out because she doesn't have an instrument to use in order to participate in the peeing contest that Jem and Dill have as a result.

Another moment of great humor occurs around Christmas time (chapter 9) when Scout begins cussing in an effort to get Atticus to pull her out of school. I can just hear a little girl asking to "pass the damn ham." It makes me chuckle.

In chapter 20, Lee uses the revelation that Mr. Dolphus Raymond actually drinks coke in the bottle and sack he uses to let people think that he's drunk. Here, she uses humor to reveal a truth about human nature. People need explanations for why others do something out of the mainstream of society.

Harper Lee uses these humorous moments to color the storyline even more than it is already. This attracts a variety of readers.

Can you provide an example of humor in To Kill a Mockingbird?

In Chapter 8, Mr. Avery shows his superstitious side and blames the snow on the children's misbehavior. Using some of Miss Maudie's snow as well as their own, Scout and Jem make a snowman in the image of Mr. Avery. 

Jem sloshed water over the mud man and added more dirt. He looked thoughtfully at it for a moment, then he molded a big stomach below the figure’s waistline. Jem glanced at me, his eyes twinkling: “Mr. Avery’s sort of shaped like a snowman, ain’t he?” 

Atticus is impressed and slightly amused when he recognizes the snowman looks like Mr. Avery. But then he asks Jem to change him. Jem uses Miss Maudie's hat and hedge clippers to disguise the Mr. Avery snowman. Mr. Avery later redeemed himself in helping out when Miss Maudie's house caught fire. 

Some other moments of humor are when kids are simply acting like kids. In Chapter 26, Cecil Jacobs gives his report on "Old Hitler" and mispronounces a few words ('prosecutin' instead of "persecuting"). Miss Gates corrects him but there is also a moment of, maybe not humor but, a satirical comment on racism and hypocrisy in Maycomb. Miss Gates criticizes Hitler for persecuting another race but Scout recalls how Miss Gates essentially did the same thing outside the courthouse: 

I heard her say it’s time somebody taught ’em a lesson, they were gettin‘ way above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an‘ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home—

What's the most humorous scene in To Kill A Mockingbird?

For a novel which covers such serious themes as racial prejudice and injustice, there are some seriously funny moments.   My favorites include Atticus's response to Bob Ewell's spitting on him;  the image of an overcorsetted Aunt Alexandra sitting on the porch; Mr. Avery's natural display; the "cooties" on the first day of school; Miss Maudie telling off those "foot-washin' Baptists"; Dill's far-fetched explanations for all kinds of things, but especially his dad; the snowman (woman) in the yard...and the list goes on.

I love all the parts where Scout unwillingly is funny (and often teaches the adults present a lesson through her innocence).

- the first day of school with Miss Caroline
- the "ladies tea" and the fact that Scout is still wearing pants under her dress
-  the pageant - missing her cue, coming out late, wearing the ham costume.  I definitely love that one.

Harper Lee puts a humorous and satiric spin on the racial prejudice motif as Scout and Jem watch the townspeople file into the courtroom.  When Mr. Dolphus Raymond enters, Scout asks Jem why he is sitting in the colored section; Jem explains.  Then, the discussion between the two turns to the mixed children.  Scout asks how a person can identify the mixed children because one looks black to her.  Irked, Jem says,

'I told you, Scout, you just hafta know who they are.'

'Well how do you know we aint' Negroes?'

'Uncle Jack Finch says we really don't know.  He says as far as he can trace back the Finches we ain't, but for all he knows we mighta come straight out of Ethiopia durin' the Old Testament.'

Here Harper Lee hints at the miscegenation that took place in the South; so, sometimes white people were not always really white people.  Their prejudice against blacks, then, takes on a wrily humorous and satiric aspect.

There is a scene in which Mr. Avery does a performance he thinks is private, but it turns out that the kids are watching him. He happens to be urinating off the side of the porch and it seems to be making a arch of liquid that the kids can see in the streetlight. This starts a competition between the boys Jem and Dill. The competition seemed to be about distance, who could shoot their urine the farthest. Scout is disappointed because she doesn't have the same skills in that area.

What are examples of comic relief in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Much of the humor in the novel comes from Scout's naiveté; she constantly uses words that she does not know the meaning of. In addition, she sometimes overreacts.

One scene that provides considerable comic relief occurs when it snows in Maycomb for the first time in Scout's lifetime. When she wakes up and looks outside, she screams and frightens her father:

The world's endin', Atticus! Please do something—!

The snowfall creates an opportunity for the children to build a snowman. Once they finish, Jem places Miss Maudie's hat on "him," thus creating gender ambiguity. Scout thinks she hears Maudie describe the snowperson to Atticus as a "morphrodite," mishearing and misremembering the term "hermaphrodite."

Scout's tendency to try to act older provides important comic relief when the men go to the jail to try to remove Tom Robinson. Not quite understanding what lynching is, but desperate to defuse an obviously tense situation, Scout starts talking like a lawyer, using terms she heard from her father. Recognizing her classmate Walter's father, she greets him by asking about a legal situation:

Hey, Mr. Cunningham. How's your entailments getting along?

After making some small talk about his son and shocking the adults with her boldness, she resumes this tactic, speaking directly to her father:

Well, Atticus, I was just sayin' to Mr. Cuningham that entailments are bad an' all that, but you said not to worry, it takes a long time sometimes . . . that you all'd ride it out together.

This behavior successfully curtails the men's actions. Ashamed, they leave the jail.

There are scattered examples of humor throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, and it is one of the elements that has kept the novel so popular through the years. My favorite examples:

• JEM'S LOST PANTS.  One comes when Jem appears in the street not realizing he is standing in his underwear. He is saved by Dill's quick thinking, contriving a story that they have been playing "strip poker," though it is unlikely that any of the children understand the term.
• MR. AVERY.  Jem, Dill and Scout were witnesses to an event that only happened once, but they were awed by the performance given by Mr. Avery, who was a boarder on the Finches' street. One night they saw Mr. Avery on his porch along with "an arc of water descending from the leaves and splashing in the yellow circle of the street light..." The boys apparently entered into a peeing contest of their own, of which Scout felt "left out again, as I was untalented in this area."

What is a humorous part in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee?

One of my favorite funny moments throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Chapter 23. Scout becomes upset after Aunt Alexandra forbids her from hanging out with the Walter Cunningham because "he---is---trash." (Lee 301) Jem intervenes and takes Scout by the shoulders into his room. Inside his room, he attempts to console Scout by offering her a Tootsie Roll. Scout notices how Jem's body is growing and maturing. Jem turns around and tells Scout he'll show her something if she doesn't tell. Jem unbuttons his shirt, smiles at Scout and asks her, "Well can't you see it?" (Lee 301) Scout is confused and asks Jem what exactly he is attempting to show her. Jem says, "it's hair," and is excited to share with Scout that he also has it growing underneath his armpits. Scout's reply is hilarious because she simply says, "It's real nice, Jem," even though she doesn't see a thing. (Lee 302) The image of a hairless, preteen boy pointing to specks of hairs on his chest that are barely visible is one of the memorable funny moments throughout the novel.

What is the funniest part of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee?

The humor found in the nighttime drama of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, has to be the issue surrounding Jem's pants.

As with many things we experience in life, some things are humorous only after the event is over. In the novel, when the kids sneak out in their tireless pursuit of knowledge of Boo Radley, they camouflage their presence by crawling through the underbrush in an attempt to sneak closer to the Radley house.

The humor, for me, comes from the classic nature of children on an adventure. There is subterfuge, fear, and common sense in the planning and execution. Their plan is clear; along with their fear is the thrill of the danger of being caught. The reader also witnesses Jem's common sense when he tells the others to spit on the hinges of the gate so that it will move noiselessly.

Harper Lee does an excellent job of transporting the reader to the damp underbrush, to the explosion of discovery (the gunshot), and even the sheer terror the children experience, particularly when Jem falls behind because his pants are caught on the bottom of the fence. He is only able to escape because he kicks them off.

The last piece of humor is the appearance of the children in the midst of the adults who come out to investigate the firing of the gun...as Jem stands there in his boxers. Dill's wonderful imagination steps in to explain the absence of Jem's pants, but fear arrives once again as Jem is told to get the pants back. He knows he cannot leave them on the fence to be discovered in the morning, and so he must return to face his fears all over again. (It is not until the following chapter that the reader learns about the condition in which Jem discovers his pants.)

However, the comedy presented in the form of a childhood prank takes on more serious implications when the gun goes off; it then becomes humorous again when Jem and friends appear without Jem's pants and with an unlikely excuse; but terror returns when Jem must go back for his missing clothing.

In the moment, it may not seem to be funny, but in hindsight, it does provide the reader with a chuckle; and for those who might actually find themselves in a similar situation, humor might be present long after the fact, when the fear is gone and time has softened the sharp edges of the experience.