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By Root 10315 0

ups a third party, actor Adam Corolla, to be the subject of the teasing. [The writer is seeing the questions and making them explicit; then characteristically, she seeks out points of connection with the lens:] Why did Kimmel choose to be self-deprecating about his looks but not his relationship? One possibility, as Tannen suggests, is that men are uncomfortable discussing “personal relationships and feelings” (Understand 276). Whatever Kimmel’s reasons were, his shifting behavior in this conversation depicts the varying forms and uses of teasing. Teasing can be transformed into self-deprecation, providing the self-deprecator with dominance. But, when the teasing is resisted, the teaser has the opportunity to gain the upper hand. This sheds light on the nature of teasing as a move that provides the teaser with control, regardless of if the teaser is another man or the target of the teasing himself.

Perhaps, then, self-deprecating humor also functions as a sort of pre-emptive move in which one man points out his own flaws before the other man has the chance to do so. If a man makes fun of himself, he still has control. He refuses to surrender this power to another man and thus surrender a hierarchical position in the conversation. Take, for example, this excerpt from Senator John McCain’s conversation with NBC host Jay Leno:

Leno: And you went up to the mountains too?

McCain: We went up to our place near Sedona and had a very nice time and—

Leno: Now which house is that, number twel—

McCain: You know that’s uh let’s see it’s a very…let’s see… twenty-seven.

Leno was on the verge of making a dig about the senator’s many homes, but McCain, seeing this coming, beat Leno to the punch, cutting him off before he even finished the word “twelve.” McCain then goes on to exaggerate the number of homes that he owns. This shows that McCain not only understands the public’s perception of him, he also is aware that his surplus of homes is a funny, and perhaps even embarrassing, subject. Thus, McCain uses self-deprecation to control the conversation, taking away Leno’s opportunity to laugh at him before he laughs at himself.

Perhaps the most frequent and telling place in which selfdeprecation pops up is in stories. Late night television is an excellent medium through which to study storytelling; in addition to the release dates of the projects they are promoting, celebrities always come equipped with an anecdote or two. Tannen includes a study of the differences found in stories told by men from those told by women. Her findings indicated that “the stories the men told made them look good” while the women were more likely to tell stories “in which they [women] violate social norms and are scared or embarrassed as a result” (Understand 177). The behavior of men on late night talk shows would seem to contradict these findings: the men’s stories usually involve them telling of an incident in which, they were, indeed, “embarrassed as a result.” However, when we look at the content of these stories, it becomes apparent that these stories function on a more sophisticated level than simple self-effacement.

[This paragraph begins the writer’s summation and culmination of her analysis. Notice how deftly she uses Tannen’s key terms rather than just relying on quotation.] Whether it is Paul Rudd’s story about showing an embarrassing movie at a friend’s wedding or Steve Carrell’s anecdote about his parents flying on a plane with a Thanksgiving turkey because his cooking “sucks,” the men doing the self-deprecating do not ultimately portray themselves in an embarrassing or pathetic light. The stories that they tell at their own expense draw laughs—and the story teller is laughing with them. In this regard, the stories told are actually more flattering than they are embarrassing. The stories send the message, or metamessage, that the storyteller is able not only to laugh at himself, but also to draw laughs from his audience, all the while coming across as likable and humble. What appears to be humility or lack of self-confidence actually serves