Page 65 - The Language of Humour

52 ‘MY MOTHER-IN-LAW…’
Activity with text
There is mockery in this sketch by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders,
‘Record Choice’. (A successful woman doctor is being interviewed on a
show like Desert Island Discs.) What is the target of this humour and
how do you respond to it? (No commentary follows.)

Jennifer: Before we go for your Record Choice,
let’s see if we can paint a picture of the
young Eleanor Wood, and maybe
recall a few childhood memories for
you. You excelled in school
academically and at sport. I love to
imagine this picture of you, this
Cornish dumpling, probably goalie in
the hockey team, cheerfully bouncing
around in goal, lifting everyone’s
spirits. You were, I should imagine, a
happy, jolly, sturdy person.
Dawn: I suppose so.
Jennifer: The class clown, perhaps? So many
people with physical disadvantages
like yourself often end up
compensating. Was it, dare I say, your
chunkiness, the fact that you were and
are a fuller-figured person, that made
you more determined to succeed?…
Dawn: Oh all right, you can describe me as
chunky, ample, bubbly, huggable and
so on, as long as I can describe you as
slow-witted, uninteresting, obtuse,
dull, tedious, mentally stagnant…
Because what you’re really wanting to
say about me is ‘fat’ and what I’m
skirting around about you is ‘stupid’.