marginal: Barely within a lower standard or limit of quality.
rhetoric: The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.
1. Anticlimax and humor
In “American Traditional Dictionary”, anticlimax is defined as “A sudden descent in speaking or writing from the impressive or significant to the ludicrous or inconsequential, or an instance of it”. Anticlimax is a most popular carrier of humor in movies, because it is easy to be understood by the audiences and effectively brings them surprises and humors. In “Forrest Gump”, Forrest always uses anticlimax to catch audiences’ attention and interesting, and then he “fools” them with unexpected ends. Forrest is not only a stupid with a small IQ, but a master of language with great humor and wit. He fools people, who treat him as a fool.
Example 1
Forrest: Now the really good thing about meeting the President of the United States is the food.
Here is a classic anticlimax humor. In the dialogue, Forrest uses some descriptive words, “ really”, “of the United States”, to show us what a good thing he will share with us.
In front of the word of “good”, he adds emphasized word- “really”, which makes us believe that the thing he will mention is absolutely good for Forrest.
Meanwhile, in common people’s opinion, President is a big guy in the country. Especially when it is formally modified by “of the United States”, it is naturally to tell people “Attention, please. Ladies and Gentlemen. There must be something very, very important to be said by Forrest”. So we focus our attentions on what Forrest will say in the following. But for our surprise, the answer is “the food”. It is absolutely out of our expectation, and forms an anticlimax humor.
modify: 修飾，限制；更改，修改
The same type of dialogue by Forrest appears again in this movie. In Vietnam, Forrest says, “The good thing about Vietnam is there was always some place to go”.
As we all know, Vietnam is a nightmare for most Americans, which affects almost one generation. It hurts Americans much, so that many Americans are afraid to mention it, even today. But in Forrest’s opinion, there is a good thing about Vietnam, which puzzles us and pushes us to the curiousness, “what does he consider as the good thing in the Vietnam – the American heart-broken land. The end is simple and with some kind of stupid, which makes us feel humorous.
Example 2
Bubba: …… My given name is Benjamin Beauford Blue. People call me Bubba, ……
Forrest: My name’s Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump.
This is dialogue between Bubba and Forrest in their first meeting. As conventions, they should introduce themselves. For Bubba, he has a very long formal name (I think the screenwriter designs this long name deliberately). So it is certainly shortened by people in daily life, and it is also easily accepted by us. After hearing Bubba’s introduction, we may have thought Forrest would use his famous introduction to shine himself- “ My name’s Forrest. Forrest Gump. But the screenwriter(劇作家) escapes from the conventional pattern. He thinks the answer as a real low-IQ, “ Bubba said the complete name firstly and then told me the shorten name. I shall answer it in the same form, which will be polite.” So in the movie, Forrest firstly introduces his whole name – Forrest Gump. And then he shall tell us the name, which people call him formally. We also eagerly want to know, “How do people call Forrest Gump? Is it ‘Forrest’ or else?” But even Forrest himself doesn’t know it. After hard-thinking, he tells Bubba the exact same one, which make us funny.
Example 3
Forrest: Now because I’d been a football star and a war hero and a national celebrity and shrimping boat captain and a college graduate, the city of Greenbow, Alabama decided to get together and offered me a fine job. ……
Forrest succeeds finally. He is a football star so that he is an idol（偶像） of Americans, who are crazy about the American football. He survives from Vietnam with a medal so that he wins fames in the political society. He can play ping-pong like a maniac, and visits China as one member of the All-American Ping Pong Team, which is the first American social group comes to China after 1949 and carrying famous Ping Pong Diplomacy. So he becomes a national celebrity after getting home and makes TV program with John Leon (the spirit of Beatles). Of course, Forrest also creates lots of amazing experiences, which shock the whole nation, like discovering Watergate scandals. Above all, He is one of millionaires, who are loved by American people so much. In a word, he catches Americans’ eyes from almost every class. And he can be described in one simple sentence, “ Forrest is a famous, wealthy and educated man”. Without doubt, he is an ideal candidate to the President of United State.
Forrest is so famous and important that the city of Greenbow, Alabama should get together and consider all things seriously. And then the government “offered me a fine job”. What’s the fine job? Everybody is expecting the answer eagerly. We should think, “ Maybe President is a bit of difficult for Forrest. Congressman is right, who needn’t to consider all things” But the government gives Forrest a more difficult job, an absolute technical job- gardener, far from our expectation.
2．Comparison and Humor
In real life, comparison always lies here and there. People like to compare one item to another in order to make things clear or express something special. In movies, comparison is always magnified artistically, and it sometimes turns into sharply contrasting. In this way, some humors appear.
Example 1
Doctor: …… But his back is as crooked as politician. ……
Here is a very short and clear comparison. I guess some China people don’t really understand the comparison and know what the humor is in this sentence. The reason lies in the background knowledge about Americans’ political opinions.
Only from this simple sentence, we can glimpse Americans’ typical opinion on politicians. They feel contempt for this kind of “political animals” because they think politicians always lie in public and not feel a thing. They usually waste money from taxpayers and do nothing. And some of them like to chase girls or make one another scandals. They are not normal people, and not moral people at the same time. So the doctor comparing Forrest’s back to politician’s twisting in the morality, just tells us Forrest’s back isn’t very strait. He makes one American humor, vivid and ethical.
Example 2
Mrs. Gump: Remember what I told you Forrest. You’re no different than anybody else is. Did you hear what I said, Forrest? You are the same as everybody else. You are no different.
Mr. Hillcock (the principal): Your boy’s different, Mrs.Gump. His IQ is 75.
Mrs. Gump: Well, we’re all different, Mr. Hillcock.
Here are two comparisons in dialogues. In first plot, Mrs. Gump emphasizes to Forrest he is exactly as same as everybody else. He is normal and not stupid. She specially emphasizes the last sentence – You are no different. As soon as her voice ends, the director changes to another plot, and the principal tells Mrs. Gump seriously “ You boy is different”. Then he further tells Mrs. Gump a cruel fact –“His IQ’s 75”, to testify that Forrest is a real stupid. This forms a very sharply contrasting. It is so sharply that we can’t feel a little funny
Instead, we feel very sorry for Forrest’s mama because it is not easy to be accepted by a mother when others tell her that her child is a stupid. Some of them maybe react it strongly, sad or mad. But for Mrs. Gump, she answers it wittily. “ We’re all different”, implying “My son might be a bit on the slow side. It’s just a little different. And it’s normal because we’re all different in the world. So my son is going to get the same opportunity to go to school as everyone else.”
She is a great mother with great humorous sophism.（詭辯）
Example 3
Lt. Dan: …… If you’re ever a shrimp（壹種蝦） boat captain, that’s the day I’m an astronaut（宇航員）.
Forrest meets Lieutenant Dan in New York City when he gets home from China. They go to a bar to celebrate New Year. Forrest tells Lt. Dan he will keep promise with Bubba, so he will buy one shrimping boat as soon as he has some money. Lt. Dan doesn’t believe that, because he knows Forrest is a fool, who isn’t able to do any business by himself. Yes, he gets the Congress Medal, but Dan thinks it is a stupid thing what Goddamn（該死的） American government does to make a fool out of himself. He doesn’t really look down Forrest, but he really doesn’t believe he can do something. Meanwhile, he maybe considers he shall be the real backbone （支柱、骨幹）of America who ought to receive the Congress Medal. And only the men like him are the hope of America. But he is nothing now, even no legs. How could he chase his dream? He gets nothing from government but alms and neglect. He resents the government who rubbishes him and has some envy to Forrest because he gets honor he dreams for.
So when Forrest says he will be the captain, he shouts to the crowds and says to Forrest bitterly “if you’re ever a shrimp boat captain, that’s the day I’m an astronaut.” Please remember the time when the story happened – about in the early of 1970’s. It is shortly after the first astronaut- Neil Armstrong lands the moon. At that time, to be an astronaut is an unrealized dream for almost all mankind. How does it come to a legless? Lt. Dan uses two positions to compare in order to tell Forrest, “ Don’t be silly, you will never be a captain.” But he selects a humorous and ironical way to express it.
3．Hyperbole and Humor
In “American Traditional Dictionary”, hyperbole is defined as “A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in ‘I could sleep for a year’ or ‘This book weighs a ton.’” For Chinese people, humility is good virtue, and we think American is too simple and childish. Why? One important reason is that many Americans usually describe things or express feelings in some exaggerated ways. Sometimes, the exaggerations are far from the common sense and make some kind of humors. In “Forrest Gump”, the hero-Forrest Gump is an honest braggadocio, who adds a lot of humorous color to the dialogues.
Forrest: Hello. My name is Forrest. Forrest Gump. You wanna chocolate? I could eat about a million and a half of these. My mama always said, “ Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” Those must be comfortable shoes. I bet you could walk all day in shoes like that and not feel a thing. I wish I had shoes like that.
The dialogue is at the beginning of the movie. Forrest sits on a bus bench and talks to a strange nurse. Forrest boasts he can eat about a million and half of chocolates. It is a typical American exaggeration, obvious and humorous. Of course, it is very easy for us to know that no one is able to eat so many chocolates as a human, maybe God will. Here Forrest overstates it in one billion of times, through which and with the tone of speaking, we will easily find Forrest is not in normal IQ.
In the following sentences, Forrest’s speech reveals some simple life philosophy. And at the last of his first important speech, Forrest, as other Americans, begins to flatter the nurse by her shoes and he uses another exaggeration- and not feels a thing.
Only from these words, Forrest shows us he is not a common people. He is something.
4．Pun and Humor
John Dryden describes the pun as “ to torture a poor word in tens of thousands of ways”. And in “Collinth English Dictionary”, pun is “the use of words or phrases to exploit ambiguities and innuendoes(暗諷、影射) in their meaning, usually for humorous effect.”
ambiguity: Doubtfulness or uncertainty as regards interpretation:
含糊不清；不明確解釋有疑問或不確定
Pun is the main carrier in humors, which are printed in texts. Puns usually need the receivers to chewing it over and over and finding something funny. So it’s not easy for audiences to tell the pun and feel humorous when they enjoy one movie just for one time. However, puns still are often used in movies with some simple forms.
Forrest: What’s going on?
Student: Coons are trying to get into school.
Forrest: Coons? Well, raccoons try to get on our back porch, mama, just chases them of with a broom.
Here is a very simple and interesting Meaning Pun used in the dialogue. The screenwriter uses a homograph（同形異義字）- coon, which has two meanings. One is “A carnivorous（食肉類的） North American mammal（哺乳動物） having grayish-brown fur, black mask like facial markings, and a black-ringed bushy（濃密的） tail”. The meaning is what Forrest thinks. Another is “Used as a disparaging term for a Black person”, like the word of nigger. Here the student intends to tell Forrest that two niggers try to enroll in the college.
disparaging: 蔑視的, 毀謗的, 輕視的
coon: [動]浣熊, 無可救藥者, <蔑>黑人
nigger: <美>被歧視者, 黑鬼(對黑人的蔑稱)
In American history, the state of Alabama is one of the most serious states, which imposing the social separation of races. And the University of Alabama is the last college forbidding the Black registering in. We also can be certain that many people in this college, or even in the whole state, are not friendly to the Black. So the student picks an insulting word referring to the Black students. But for Forrest, he has no opinion of race discrimination. He thinks it is normal for the Black to enter the college and study with them. But it won’t cause so many people, even the Governor, the Commander and so many reporters, to attention it. It must be coons (animals) trying to get into the school, which surely is a big interesting thing for Forrest. But he also doesn’t understand why the small animals will cause so many big figures to the college. He thinks his mama and a broom are much enough to chase them off. The screenwriter uses a pun building a simple and pure Forrest’s image.
5．Irony and Humor
Irony is “An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning”, usually for humorous or rhetorical effect. Ironies are widely used in the movies’ dialogues. You should have the capacity of good sense of humor and knowledge in American cultures.
Forrest: I only caught five
Boat Salesman: A couple more and you can have yourself a cocktail. ……
Although Bubba tells Forrest everything about shrimping, but Forrest still finds that shrimping is tough. One day, he only catches five after a-whole-day hard working. The boat salesman just makes a joke to Forrest in order to cheer him up. Meanwhile, he also tells Forrest a fact that Forrest catches too few.
There is also a background about the shrimp cocktail. Shrimp cocktail is a mixture of small pieces of shrimp, served cold and eaten at the beginning of a meal. It is usually an appetizer. So the number of shrimps that are used in the shrimp cocktail is not big. Several are enough. Here the boat salesman just uses the cocktail to make fun of the number of shrimps Forrest catches.
6．Transfer and Humor
Transfer is to convey or cause to pass from one place, person, or thing to another. In dialogues, talkers usually convey one topic to another one, or change from one focus to another. Especially when the question is too sharp or not convenient to answer. Sometimes one talker is deliberate to transfer the topic in order to avoid hurting another talker. The transfer in dialogues often causes some unexpected effects, like humor.
Officer: Private Gump
Forrest: Yes, sir
Officer: As you were. I have your discharge papers. Your service is up, son.
Forrest: Does this mean, I can’t play ping pong no more?
Officer: For the army it does.
In this dialogue, the officer sends the discharge papers to Forrest and tells him his service in army is over. But for Forrest, the first response is he can’t play ping pong any more. He makes us a surprise and fun because there is no directly connection between playing ping pong and ending service in the army. It is according to Forrest’s intelligent level, which makes him think everything straightly.
For the officer, he certainly knows Forrest is not high in his IQ. And he doesn’t answer the question directly, like “ No, my son. You can continue to play ping pong. But blah, blah, blah.” He answers the Forrest’s stupid question from another angle. Only by a few words, the officer explains the thing clearly, even for Forrest.
blah: Dull and uninteresting
Conclusion
Of course, the humors of movie are represented not only in the dialogues, but also in the design of plots or actors’ body languages. this is banner
In “Forrest Gump”, the screenwriter and director hide lots of humors in the designation of plots. For example, Forrest rubs elbows with many famous personalities over the last half of the century including Elvis Presley, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. And he also involves in many big events in the history of America, like Vietnam War, Ping Pong’s Diplomacy and Watergate Scandal.
As to body languages, we have to mention a great master, – Charlie Chaplin. You would find it difficult not to laugh at his early films. Of course, Tom Hanks is also a good actor, who surely acts a gifted fool perfectly through his eyes, expression and his actions. We can find lots of humors in his acts.
Totally, the humor is a very distinguished characteristic in American Movies. It is usually represented to audiences by dialogues, plots and actors’ body languages. Especially in dialogues, humors are vivid and witty through applying some rhetoric.
I will end my paper by some integrated words from “Forrest Gump”: Hello. My name’s Forrest, Forrest Gump. I might be a bit on the slow side. But my mama says “stupid is as stupid does”. I have no ideas to be famous and just want to be me. But for no particular reason, I’d been a football star and a war hero and a national celebrity and shrimping boat captain and a college graduate. My mama always said, “Life is a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” I just do the best with what God gave me, and you?