I’m not sure how much it amuses anyone else, but I usually find humor mileage in slightly archaic/formal word choice/sentence structure being used to talk about something normal or mildly absurd. (e.g. using words like “whereupon” and “thereunto” in a sentence about candy).
Péter Esterházy’s short novel “Tizenhét hattyúk” (Seventeen Swans) is sort of this taken to the extreme. It is about the bleak life and sexual adventures of a frequently abused orphaned young woman who is working as a janitor, and it is written entirely in 17th century ecclesiastical Hungarian, often resulting in hysterical laughs. It is doubtful, however, whether the anglophone public will gain access to it in the reasonable future.
I’m not sure how much it amuses anyone else, but I usually find humor mileage in slightly archaic/formal word choice/sentence structure being used to talk about something normal or mildly absurd. (e.g. using words like “whereupon” and “thereunto” in a sentence about candy).
Treating a mundane subject with unwarranted pomp and circumstance is pretty much a comedy staple.
Bathos. Deliberately invoked register clash.
It can be flipped the other way, too, when a high status person suddenly adopts a low status register.
Péter Esterházy’s short novel “Tizenhét hattyúk” (Seventeen Swans) is sort of this taken to the extreme. It is about the bleak life and sexual adventures of a frequently abused orphaned young woman who is working as a janitor, and it is written entirely in 17th century ecclesiastical Hungarian, often resulting in hysterical laughs. It is doubtful, however, whether the anglophone public will gain access to it in the reasonable future.
The tone of this comment is incredibly funny.
That strikes me as similar to Charlie Chaplain’s character “The Tramp” eating his shoe.