It’s Funny, but Why?

    Humor may be one of, if not the most, interesting devices in literature and media. What you find funny may be drastically different from what someone else does. For the sake of viable analysis, I will use my own sense of humor to analyze why I find the Iocane powder scene in The Princess Bride peak humor. At first glance, I was a bit lost as to why I found that scene funny. I was breathless with laughter the first time I watched it (I am referring to the movie, not the book), but why?

    Upon further examination, it comes down to the stakes at hand juxtaposed with the attitudes of the characters, and ultimately how the scene ended. The scene is a life or death scenario. Vizzini, the confident bard, and Westley, the cunning hero, put their lives on the line in a gambit over princess Buttercup. In the exchange of two wine glasses, one of which was allegedly poisoned, Vizzini and Westley carried on a witty argument with a paradoxical undertone. Vizzini wrly weighed the odds of which glass was poisoned with his cocky demeanor. The wit of the two men in the context of the scenario was what I found funny. I enjoy wit and layered remarks, which their argument contained, along with the stakes involved. It created irony in subverting my prior expectations of life or death scenarios such as the one presented in this case. This irony was ramped up to the max during the conclusion of the scene. Vizzini drank from the glass he believed not to be poisoned, and laughed condescendingly at Westley’s misfortune. Right after that, Vizzini dropped dead from the poison. It was revealed that both glasses were in fact poisoned. This inherently removed all of the previous stakes that had been set, but only during the scene’s resolution. I found this hilarious for that very reason. The irony that was built from this elicited a powerful response in me. This scene continues to be one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.