Summary
Ch.19 Humor
Humorist conveys enjoyment, but writing humor is a serious work. Control is vital to humor. The writer should give away gross exaggeration and duplicated jokes. However, humor is elusive and subjective. Everyone has a different threshold of humor. The writer should combine humor with truth and never separate it from normal life, since truth always touches people's heart.
Zinsser suggests several principles for the writer of humor. Firstly, being a good writer is the prerequisite for being a humorist. Then, the writer needs to seize the funny in true life instead of ordinary outlandish and scorn. Finally, humor is built on surprise, and you can surprise the reader only so often.
Vocabulary
solemn
One strong editorial cartoon is worth a hundred solemn editorials.
庄严的，严肃的
solemn promise/commitment/undertaking/oath/vow 郑重承诺
e.g. I, __, take you, __, to be my wife (or husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy law, and this is my solemn vow.
[造句] His mood was solemn as the Prime Minister confirmed that Britsh would departure from the European Union.
simmer down
To keep him simmered down, the Owners gave him an Interest.
[informal]（怒火或激动的情绪）平息，冷静下来，平静下来
[造句] We waited in silence until he simmered down.
simmer是炖，煨的意思
Simmer vs. Stew:
Simmered means heated to be just barely boiling, or cooked in water or the like that's just barely boiling.
Stewed means cooked in hot water for a long time, so as to soften tough ingredients.
duck, fable, doggerel
Benchley added a dimension of warmth and vulnerability that wasn’t present in humorists like Ade and Marquis, who ducked into impersonal forms like fable and doggerel, where they could hide.
duck （为了避免被看见）赶忙躲起来 to move your head or body downwards to avoid being hit or seen
e.g. He ducked his head and got into the car.
[造句] He ducked into the doorway when we came in.
fable 寓言
the fable of the tortoise and the hare 龟兔赛跑的寓言故事
doggerel 打油诗
intertwine
Ultimately we realized that the two are intertwined.
（使）缠结，（使）缠绕在一起；（使）紧密关联
E.g.
He's always telling stories in which the present and the past intertwine.
His fate is intertwined with hers.
[造句] The trees' branches intertwined over the road.
only so often
Finally, don’t strain for laughs; humor is built on surprise, and you can surprise the reader only so often.
表示有时，偶尔，略微强调这是一个少见或者难得情况，也就是说surprise the reader有时也有点难
only so often is an idiom. It means sometimes or occasionally with a slight emphasis on it being a rare occasion.
和every so often意思相近，但是every so often没有少见或难得的意思
It is similar to every so often, which also means sometimes or occasionally but with a general feeling of being more common.
If I get my hair cut every three months, I might say:
Every so often I get my hair cut.
If my husband only shaves once every two years, I might say:
It's only so often I get to see my husband without a beard.
(reference: https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/49545/only-so-often-meaning)
Reflection
幽默很难，成为一个幽默作家更难。说起来幽默，总觉得是搞笑的悲伤，搞笑到最后总是严肃和悲伤的，很多喜剧创作者生活中也是很深沉的，大概是能量守恒。
这一章里有非常多的例子，介绍了很多优秀的幽默作家，但是很多我都没有耐心看下去，有时候也抓不到笑点，大概能用英语讲个笑话才算是真正的英语入门。说起来笑点这个词，我一开始想到的竟然是"haha point"，还是默默查了字典，punchline才是最准确的说法。
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