In Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County," the sesterer, Simon Wheeler, exaggerates his description of the frog's
talents. For instance, he acts as though the frog were intelligent and thoughtful as he
comments,
You
never see a frog so modest and straightfor'ard as he was, for all he was so
gifted.
This exaggeration is
typical of western humorists, and with his dialect, Wheeler's effective
exaggeration clearly adds to the humor of Twain's story. This exaggeration that is
intended to delight the reader is also evident in the passage in which he describes how
Smiley "learn that frog to jump":
He'd give him a little punch behind, and the net
minute you's see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut--see him turn one summer
set, or maybe a couple, if he got a good start, and come down flatfooted and all right,
like a cat.....
Smiley said all a frog wanted was
education, and he could do 'most anything--and I believe him. Why, I've seen him set
Dan'l Webster down here on the foor--Dan'l Webster was the name of the frog--and sing
out, "Flies, Dan'l flies!" and quicker'n ou could wink he'd spring straight up and snake
a fly off'n the counter there, and flop down on the floor ag'in as solid as a gob of
mud, and fall to scratchin' the side of his head with his hind foot as indifferent as if
he hadn't no idea he'd been doin' any more'n any frog might
do.
The exaggeration and
dialect of Smiley in the story within a story definitely adds to the humor as well as
providing Twain with the fodder for his satire on the tall tale, and cultural
differences in the western and eastern sections of the United
States.
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