SPOOF
TEXT
Definition
and Social Function of Spoof
Spoof is a text which tells factual
story, happened in the past time with unpredictable and funny ending. Its
social function is to entertain and share the story.
Generic
Structure of Spoof
1.
Orientation; is a opening part which tells us the issue or the problem that
will be solved or told in the story. Orientation gives us the important thing
about the characters and their problems.
2.
Events; parts where the story explained into paragraphs that linked each other.
Events are not limited into one or two scene or act. Events also adds more
specific problems that happened, explains how the problems raise, and the
dilema.
3. Twist;
will be explained in the next page. Twist can only be found in spoof texts.
Language
Feature of Spoof
1.
Focusing on people, animals or certain things.
2. Using
action verb; ate, ran, etc.
3. Using
adverb of time and place.
4. Told
in chronological order.
What is twist?
This
question is likely to answer what is the difference between narrative text and
spoof. However, according to wikipedia, a twist ending is a plot twist
occurring near or at the conclusion of a story, an unexpected conclusion to a
work of fiction that causes the audience to reevaluate the narrative or
characters.There are three common types of twisting ending.
Humorous Twist
Many
stories have twist with a happy, amusing, or heartwarming ending. It is funny
and makes reade amused. Humorous twist ending sometime is called Lighthearted
twist.
Ironic Twist
Stories
with a twist or surprise at the end do not necessarily have to have ahappy
ending. Many have been written that have an ironic twist. This ironic twist
ending often reveal something about the darker side of human nature. In other
word ironic twist is tragic.
Misconception Twist
A
narrator who has incorrect information built around their own perception of
events that they pass along can build an unpredictable ending. The ghost who
doesn’t know he or she has died, the robot who feels human emotions, the
narrator who does not know they are a mannequin in a store are some ways to
create a twist based on faulty or withheld information.
A spoof text is amusing. It is really entertaining as well as
educating. A spoof text can be very simalar to NARRATIVE, RECOUNT or even NEWS
ITEM. All are mostly composed in PAST TENSES mode. A spoof text is arranged in
the generic structure of ORIENTATION, EVENTS, and TWIST. Because of this TWIST
(an unpredictable ending), the story seems very funny. Take a look on the
following example of spoof text!
Story 1.
What time is it?
A tramp lie down and sleep in the park.
He had been sleeping for about 5 minutes when a couple walked by. The man
stopped, woke the tramp up , and asked him, "Excuse me. Do you know what
the time is?" The tramp replied, "I'm sorry - I don't have a watch, so
I don't know the time."The man apologized for waking the tramp and the
couple walked away.
The tramp lay down again, and after a few
minutes went back to sleep. Just then, a woman, who was out walking her dog,
shook the tramp's shoulder until he woke up again.
The woman said, "I'm sorry to trouble you, but I'm afraid I've lost my
watch - do you happen to know the time?" The tramp was a little annoyed at
being woken up again, but he politely told the woman that he didn't have a
watch and didn't know the time.
After the woman had gone, the tramp had
an idea. He opened the bag that contained all his possessions and got out a
pen, a piece of paper and some string. On the paper, he wrote down, 'I do not
have a watch. I do not know the time'. He then hung the paper round his neck
and eventually dropped off again.
After about 15 minutes, a policeman who was
walking through the park noticed the tramp asleep on the bench, and the sign
around his neck.
He
woke the tramp up and said, "I read
your sign. I thought you'd like to know that it's2:30 p.m."
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation : a tramp sleep in the park.
Event
1 :
a
couple walk by and ask him the time, but he doesn’t know it
because he doesn’t have watch.
Event
2 : a
woman walk with her dog and ask him about the time, politely he say that he
doesn’t know it.
Event
3 : the
tramp get an idea to write down 'I do not have a watch. I do not know the time' so
people will stop ask him about the time and won’t disturb him.
Twister : a
policeman was misunderstood, he wake up the tramp and then tell him about the
time.
This is another example of spoof text. This
story is funny, humorous, and twisting. The story has unpredictable ending
through organizing the tricky plot. Take a look!
Story 2. The Perfect Husband?
Several men are in the locker
room of a golf club. A cell phone on a bench rings and a man engages the
hands-free speaker function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops
to listen.
Man :
"Hello."
Woman :
"Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?"
Man : "Yes."
Woman : "I'm at the mall now and found this beautiful
leather coat. It's
only
$1,000. Is it OK if I buy it?"
Man :
"Sure, go ahead if you like it that much."
Woman : "I also stopped by the
Mercedes dealership and saw the new 2007
models. I
saw one I really liked."
Man : "How
much?"
Woman : "$80,000."
Man : "OK,
but for that price I want it with all the options."
Woman : "Great! Oh, and one more
thing. The house we wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking
$950,000."
Man :
"Well, then go ahead and give them an offer, but just offer $900,000."
Woman :
"OK. I'll see you later! I love you!"
Man : "Bye,
I love you, too."
The man hangs up. The other men in the
locker room are looking at him in astonishment. Then he smiles and asks: "Anyone know whose phone
is???!!!"
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation : a cell phone in the bench inside of the golf club’s
locker room rings, a man
engages the
hands-free speaker function and begins to talk so that everyone else in the room stops to listen.
Events :
conversation happened between the man and a woman in the phone, the woman asks
much money to spend for what she wants, and the man just agreed her wishes.
Twist :
at the end of their conversation, all man look at the “perfect” man in
astonishment, but the man smile and ask,
“Anyone know
whose phone is?”
Reading a spoof text can be
very interesting as it has an unpredictable plot of the story. There will be a
tricky "arrangement". As we build understanding of the plot to
certain condition, a spoof text will be ended with a special contradictory
ending. Bellow is another example of spoof text.
Story 3. Honey, What's For Supper?
An
elderly gentleman of 85 feared his wife was getting hard of hearing. So one day
he called her doctor to make an appointment to have her hearing checked. The
Doctor made an appointment for a hearing test in two weeks, and meanwhile
there's a simple informal test the husband could do to give the doctor some
idea of the state of her problem.
“Here's
what you do,” said the doctor. “Start out about 40 feet away from her, and in a
normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30
feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response.”
That
evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he's in the living
room. He says to himself, “I'm about 40 feet away, let's see what happens.”
Then in a normal tone he asks, “Honey, what's for supper?”
No response.
So the
husband moved to the other end of the room, about 30 feet from his wife and repeats,
“Honey, what's for supper?”
Still no response.
Next he
moves into the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his wife and asks, “Honey,
what's for supper?”
Again he gets no response.
So he walks up to the kitchen door,
only 10 feet away. “Honey, what's for supper?”
Again there is no response.
So he walks right up behind her.
“Honey, what's for supper?”
“Damn
it Earl, for the fifth time, CHICKEN!”
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation : An elderly gentleman feared his wife was getting
hard of hearing so he
called her doctor to make an appointment to have her hearing checked,
and the doctor gave him a simple informal test.
Events :
he did what the doctor told him, he ask his wife, “honey, what's for
supper?” from about 40 feet until 10
feet away. But he
got no response.
Twist :
until he came right behind her, finally he got answered, “Damn it
Earl, for the fifth time, CHICKEN!”
how ironic that he’s
the one who got
the hearing problem.
A
potato farmer was sent to to prison just at time when he should have been
digging the ground for planting the new crop of potatoes.
He
realized that his wife would not be strong enough to do the digging by herself,
but that she could manage to do the planting, and he also knew that he did not
have any friends or neighbors who would be willing to do the digging for him.
So he wrote a letter to his wife which said “Please do not dig the potato
field. I hide the money and the gun there.”
Ten
days later, he got a letter from his wife. It said, “I think somebody is
reading your letter before they go out of prison. Some policeman arrived here two
days ago and dug up the whole field. What shall I do now?”
The prisoner wrote back at once. “Plant the potatoes, of course!”
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation : A
potato farmer was sent to to prison just at time when he should
have been digging the
ground for
planting the new crop of potatoes.
Event :
he realized that his wife would
not be strong enough to do the digging by
herself, but she could manage to do the planting. With no-one to help him digging, he
wrote a letter that said “Please do not dig the potato field. I hide the
money and the gun there.”
Twist :
he got a letter from his wife that told him that the police dug up the
whole field, he wrote back a letter
that said “Plant the potatoes, of course!”
Story 5. Penguin in the Park
Once
a man was walking in a park when he across a penguin. He took it to a policeman
and said; "What should I do?" The policeman replied; "Take it to
the zoo!".
The
next day, the policeman saw the man in the same park. The man was still
carrying the penguin. The policeman was rather surprised and walked up to the
man and asked; "Why are you still carrying the penguin? Didn't you take it
to the zoo?"
The man replied; "I certainly did. And it was a great idea because the penguin
really enjoyed it. So, today I am taking it to the movie".
Analyzing the Text
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation ; introducing participants: "He"
and Penguin. They were in the park.
Event 1 ; The man tended to take the penguin
to the park.
Event 2 ; The following day, the man were
still carrying the penguin.
Twist ; Even, finally the man would
take the penguin to the movies.
Language Feature Analysis
Focusing
on certain certain participants; He, penguin, policeman.
Using
action verb; carry, walk up.
Using
adverb of time and place; once, in the park.
Told in
chronological order; chronological order by days, the next day
Last
week I went to the theatre. I had a very good seat. The play was very
interesting. I did not enjoy it. A young man and a young woman were sitting
behind me. They were talking very loudly. I got very angry. I could not hear
the actors. I turned around. I looked at the man and the young woman angrily.
They did not pay any attention.
In
the end, I could not bear it. I turned around again. “I could not hear a word”
I said angrily.
“It’s none
of your business” the young man said rudely. “This is a private conversation”
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation : introducing a
writes as point of view “I” which is in a theatre last week.
Event
1 :
the other theatregoers, young man and young woman, were talking noisily.
Event
2 :
the writer used physical language by turning around to the young man and young woman
talk to not to make noisy.
Event
3 :
the writer used verbal language by saying “I could not hear a word”.
Twister :
the young man misunderstood the writer’s word and said; “It’s none of your business.
It’s a private conversation”.
One
day Nasreddin had been invited to the dinner party. He went to the party by
wearing old clothes.
When
he arrived in the party, nobody looked at him and nobody gave him a seat. He
got no food in the party so he went home and change his clothes. Next he put on
his best clothes. He wore his newest coat and went to the party again. The host
at once got up and came to meet him. The host offered him the best table and
gave him a good seat and served him the best food.
Nasreddin
sat and put off his coat. He put his coat and said; “Eat the food, Coat!” the
hosts and guests were very surprised and asked Nareddin; “What are you doing?”
Nasreddin replied calmly; “When I came here with my old clothes, nobody looked
at me.
Then
I went home and put on my best clothes. I came back in my newest coat and you
all give me this best food and drink. So, you give food to my coat instead of
me”. Getting Nasreddin's answer, they just shook the head.
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation : one day, Nasreddin was invited to a dinner party.
Event 1 : He was in the party with his old cloth.
Event 2 : He was in the party with his best newest coat.
Twist : Among the hosts and guests, he asked his coat to eat the
served food.
Soon
after he left college, Dave found one of his uncles who was very rich and had
no children of his own died and left him a lot of money, so he decided to set
up his own real estate agency.
Dave
found a nice office. He bought some new furniture and moved in. he had only
been there for e few hours when he heard someone coming toward the door of his
office.
“It must be my first customer,” Dave
thought. He quickly picked up the telephone and pretended to be very busy
answering an important call from someone in New York who wanted to buy a big and
expensive house in the country.
The man
knocked at the door while this was going on. He came in and waited politely for
Dave to finish his conversation on the phone. Then the man said to Dave; “I am from the telephone company and I was
sent here to connect your telephone.”
Notes on the Spoof’s Generic Structure
Orientation : Dave
was a lucky man. He suddenly became a very rich man because of the death of
his rich uncle who had no children. He inherited his uncle’s money.
Event
1 :
Being rich, he wanted to set up his estate company.
Event
2 :
He
had his new office. In his office, he pretended to be a very
successful businessman. He
acted as
had an important client. He
showed
by making conversation on the phone.
Twist : The
man
whom he showed is a telephone technician. He came to
Dave’s office to connect that
phone.
There
was a man who liked money very much. He worked all of his life and wanted to
save all of his money for his own future. He was a real miser when it came to
his money. He loved money more than just about anything.
Even,
just before he died, he said to his wife; "Now listen, when I die, I want
you to take all my money and place it in the casket with me. I wanna take my
money to the afterlife." So he asked his wife to promise him with all her
heart that when he died, she would put all the money in the casket with him.
Well,
one day, he really died. Then he was stretched out in the casket. The wife was
sitting there in black clothes next to her closest friend. When they finished
the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the
wife said "Wait just a minute!" She had a box in her hands. She came
over with the box and placed it in the casket.
After
that the undertakers locked the casket down and rolled it away. Not long after
that, her friend said, "I hope you were not crazy enough to put all that
money in the casket." The wife turned to her friend and replied;
"Yes, because I have promised." Then she continued; "I can't
lie. I promised him that I was going to put that money in that casket with
him."
Feeling
shocked, her friend said; "You mean that you have put every cent of his
money in the casket with him?" Then the wife answered; "Surely I did.
I got it all together, put all the money into my account and I just wrote him a
check."
Notice
on Generic structure of spoof sample
Spoof text is very similar to recount
text. Both spoof and recount tell about the past event with chronological
order. Its purpose is to amuse reader with funny story. The story mostly is
ended with an unpredictable event.
The above spoof
sample has generic structure as follow:
Orientation : It is the introduction of the story. By giving the
orientation, reader will recognize, for the first
time, who involves in the story.The
above story talks about a wife and his husband who loves money too much
even up to his death.
Events :
Several events are explored in chronological way which able to
arrange the story read
nicely.Promising with her money miser
husband, Putting the box inside casket, locking and rolling
the casket are the events which build the complete story.
Twist :
This is the unpredictable event/thing/way which amuse the
reader. Readers even did
not predict
before that it would be.
When
reading the above story, for the first, readers likely think
that
the wife would put all the money instead of just a
check.
Story 10. It’s Time to Go to
School!
Early
one morning, a mother went in to wake up her son. "Wake up, son. It's time
to go to school!"
"But why, Mom? I don't want to
go."
"Give me two reasons why you
don't want to go."
"Well, the kids hate me for
one, and the teachers hate me, too!"
"Oh, that's no reason not to go
to school. Come on now and get ready."
"Give me two reasons why I should
go to school."
"Well,
for one, you're 52 years old. And for another, you're the Principal!"
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation : a mother wake up her son to go to school, but her
son don’t want it.
Events :
they are keep arguing each other, her son said that two reasons why he don’t want
to go, first the kids hate him and also the teacher.
Twist :
her mother also give two reasons why he must go, first he’s 52 years old and also he
is the principal.
Note
on Spoof Text
A funny story is always interesting. It really amuses reader. This
amusement is actually the main function of spoof text.
How spoof text tries to amuse the reader is actually including in
the way it is structured. We all know that SPOOF text is built with generic
structure of ORIENTATION, EVENTS ant TWIST. Two phases in the first are
commonly found in the other text genres.
Recount text, for example, has the structures of orientation and
events too to hold the reader’s interest. However the end of the story is what
makes spoof text differ from recount text.
From the above example, we see clearly
that the end of the story is really amusing and that we call TWIST which is the
heart of spoof text.
