by Daryl Bagley

Created on: May 14, 2010

“Priscilla was, hands down, the largest student in our particular institute of learning.” In this hilarious short story written by Richard Peck, you will hear all about what goes around comes around as Priscilla Roseberry takes on the toughest bully in the school, and his “wimps”. Richard Peck’s short story, “Priscilla and the Wimps” is a high level comedy that uses irony, puns, one-liners, and hyperbole to convey the idea that what goes around comes around.

Because this story evokes more grins and smirks, the level of comedy is high. All four of the Elements of humor found in this short story were high comedy. High comedy is comedy that takes some thinking, and is typically focused on the characters, the dialogue, or the ideas, unlike low comedy, which makes people laugh out loud without using any thought. Puns, one-liners, and hyperbole would all fall into the high comedy spot, as they don’t cause people to go into riots of laughter, and they do require thinking.

In my opinion, the puns were the funniest element of humor. In this short story, many of the puns were related to Priscilla’s size. I believe that the author used these puns to really point out how big the Priscilla was. For example, towards the end of the story, Richard Peck writes, “Well this is where fate, an even bigger force than Priscilla, steps in.” In a way, these puns were close to being hyperbole, as they usually exaggerate a little bit. This brings me to my next point.

The next element of humor Richard Peck uses is hyperbole. Many times the author uses hyperbole to stress a point. By saying” The school was old Monk’s Garden of Eden,” Richard Peck was trying to stress the fact that Monk didn’t have any problems at school. Hyperboles are very rare in this short story, but they make an evident point.

Another great humorous element found in this short story is irony. There are many examples of irony found in this short story. The irony is used mainly to point out different oddities There is irony from the girls name to the unbearable event that befell the bully. The irony shows you that anything can happen and not to assume.

The final humorous element found in this short story is one-liners. Even rarer than hyperboles, one-liners are scattered through out this short story. One example of a one-liner is “Gang members don’t need names. They’ve got group identity.” I believe that the one-liners have no use but to entertain.

“Priscilla and the Wimps” is a very funny short story that uses humor to convey the fact that what goes around comes around. Using four forms of high humor, puns, hyperbole, irony, and one-liners, Richard Peck was able to display this lesson to us.

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