How Does Vonnegut Use Humor In Cat's Cradle

The Role of Humor in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle

"I've narrowed comedy down to two words: clown and farts. Because first it makes you laugh, and then it makes you think." Dave Attell's joke comes remarkably close to describing exactly what it is that Kurt Vonnegut is able to do with his writing. First, he makes his readers laugh, and then he forces them to think. By employing such humorous devices as irony and satire, Vonnegut is able to bring humor to a less-than-humorous subject.

Cat's Cradle is Vonnegut's novel about the day the world ended. Why, then, is it so full of jokes? By making it so, Vonnegut makes it easier for himself to get his point across. Rather than making the book

By seeing the characters in the book and laughing at them, he is forcing us also to laugh at ourselves. By openly criticizing one religion or another, Vonnegut feared he would have alienated a potential audience or created some discomfort. Rather than offend anyone, then

- or perhaps rather to offend everyone equally - he instead created Bokononism, using aspects of all religions, and exaggerating them to the point of absurdity. Though we may laugh at the Bokononists, at the same time we realize that there are certain truths in the creed. In this manner,

Vonnegut gets his audience to think about themselves and the follies of their own religions.

Another important part of the book is the constant

"tirade" against science. Jonah's writing makes it evident that he finds all scientists to be cruel, cold, and unfeeling. At the same time, Vonnegut paints the scientists in a humorous light by employing such techniques as Dr.

Breed's scolding of Miss Faust, in which he proudly proclaims how long it's been since a fatal accident. But, beyond the surface, Vonnegut is more cruel in his

Also, anytime that an artist in the book is placed in charge of something, it gets ruined, examples being Jonah's apartment and San Lorenzo (and, subsequently, the world.)

The main thrust of Vonnegut's humor seems to be toward the idea of fate. As a writer, he has been in charge of determining the fates for literally thousands of characters, and seems to have the idea in perspective. From the opening line, "Call me Jonah," to the end of the book when Bokonon tells Jonah to make a gesture to the gods, Vonnegut uses

Herman Melville's Moby Dick as a symbol of fate. Every time the subjec of fate is broached, especially with the Moby

Dick references, it is a joke. In fact, one of the book's funniest scenes (at least as far as low humor is concerned) is Jonah's discovery of Mrs. Hoenikker's grave. That scene was probably also the single most cruel stab at Melville's masterpiece and the ideas it represented. Vonnegut was in this way trying to tell his readers that fate is foolish and to put any belief into it would be absurd.

By creating entirely fictitious governments and religions, Vonnegut is able to safely make fun of