At the opening of Samuel L. Clemens' "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," (also called "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," the "notorious" probably developed as familiarity with the story's content grew and people realized how little the narrator was actually inclined to celebrate the story) the reader finds a first-person narrator who is comically cynical, a lovable curmudgeon who essentially tells the reader that what follows is useless information, and a waste …
showed first 75 words of 1205 total

showed last 75 words of 1205 total
…same time, this story carries a satiric look at the very notion of tall tales. The kind of American mythology that were popular at this time were really ridiculous on the face of them if they were read with a critical eye, which is what Twain illustrates by having a character who was completely monotonous in his delivery, try and tell this absurd, funny story without ever hinting at any sense of irony or humor.