Assignment 8: Dave Cooks the Turkey

The short story of "Dave Cooks the Turkey", by Stewart Mclean, is a hilarious story of an everyday dad who is told, by his wife, to cook the Christmas turkey, a skill that many men lack. Throughout the story Stewart Mclean uses three techniques of humour to express himself. The three techniques include blunder, caricature, and satire. Blunder is wit based on a person who makes a mistake, which makes them appear foolish. This technique is used many times throughout the story. Dave appears foolish infront of his wife when she caught him saying 'uh oh'. "I thought 'uh oh,'" said Dave. "I didn't say 'uh oh.' Thinking 'uh oh' isn't like saying 'uh oh.' They don't send you to jail for thinking you want to strangle someone." "What?" said Morley. (Pg. 7) Another humorous technique that was used was caricature, which is an exaggeration of a person's mental, physical, or personality traits, in wisecrack form. Caricature is used when Dave is complaining about what his wife does in her spare time explaining that "They drank tea, or beer, and the host baked something, and they worked on stuff." (Pg. 5) Lastly, satire was used throughout the story. Satire is wit that is critical humor including sarcasm, that makes fun of something. For example, Dave thinks, "Oh. Great, I'll get the drinks", when he notices that Jim and his mother were coming over for super. Because Dave did not want Jim and his mother to come over he sarastically told his wife that he'll prepare the drinks, when the truth is that was the last thing he wanted to do. In conclusion, Dave is someone who has wit, exaggeration, and sarcasm which was presented in the story in the forms of blunder, caricature, and satire.