Are We There Yet?

In my personable opinion, Vacation 58 is the most enjoyable story we have read so far from The 50 Funniest American Writers. I’ll admit I was expecting this book as a whole to be pretty hysterical, and even though it hasn’t sent me into fits of laughter, it is significantly less sleep-inducing than Morreall so I can’t complain. But today’s reading in particular I actually found humorous, and not because I knew these stores were designed to make readers laugh.

The entire time I was reading, I was reminded of the novel Candide by Voltaire. It was the same kind of humor, extreme hyperbole and doused in exaggeration. It is comedic because none of it is feasible. The story begins slowly; at first the family just encounters struggle after struggle as they attempt to get on the road. Every little thing seems to set them back, and every time you think they are finally ready to go, something else comes up. It is one cognitive shift after another.

As the story progresses, the events become more and more dramatic. Because really, when was the last time you were driving and you suddenly realized you had dragged your dog to death? Yet that is what makes it so funny, the ease at which these horrible events happen, and the lack of emotion surrounding them. For example, when Aunt Edythe dies, they all react by strapping her to the roof and then dumping her at Normie’s house. There is no weeping, no mourning that she has passed away. They even feel bad that they don’t feel more sorrow at her death. What makes this event all the more dramatic is the fact that she’s been dead for hours and none of them even knew.

            Hughes repeatedly sets up these situations, drenched in irony, where you are expecting the story to progress in a natural way and then out of nowhere come these ridiculous curveballs (i.e., the Father robbing a motel, attacks from Indians, Walt Disney). And after each of these catastrophic events, the reactions are minimal. The family just keeps going; little emotion is devoted to handling the events that have just happened. No one seems to be seriously phased. And that is a cognitive shift in and of itself, because you are expecting horrific reactions from the other characters when these things happen. And yet they just continue on their journey.

The ending of the story is no different. The dad is arrested after shooting Walt Disney, and as the whole family is leaving the narrator remarks “We sort of forgot about dad as soon as the engines on the airplane trembled… we drank Coca-Cola… we enjoyed sandwiches as we flew into the pollen-free Arizona air” (Hughes 285). This is hardly the natural response we would expect from a family having to leave behind their father as he is getting tried for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. The nonchalance that is characteristic of their responses underscores the irony and creates even more comic relief. I remember reading in one of Morreall’s chapters that the more exaggerated or unbelievable something is, typically the funnier we find it. And this certainly holds true in this particular story. As awful as it is to say, if the dog would have just been left outside the car would it still be as funny? Of course not. It is the incongruity and lack of reality about these situations that amuses us.