'Now I'm going to marry my first wife, then I'm going to divorce her. Now, I know what you're going to say, but stick with me, my story gets better! I'm going to marry my second wife, then I'm going to kill her! Cut her head off! Ah, you weren't expecting that, were you? Third wife, going to shoot her! Fourth wife, put her in a bag! Fifth wife, into outer space! Sixth wife on a Rotissomat! Seventh wife will be made out of jam :'
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A storyteller describes increasingly violent marital outcomes to subvert audience expectations.
- In plain terms
- A marriage story gets worse and more violent to shock the listener.
- What can you take from it?
- Shock value is often used to keep an audience engaged.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do we enjoy dark humor?
- How does shock work in stories?
Another view
The violence trivializes serious harm.
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'Cause the Roman Gods up to that point were crap, you know... Jeff, the god of biscuits... and Simon, the god of hair-dos.
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