Writing a comedy piece in literature is tricky. One has to be serious and get a point across to people so they actually care about what one is saying. Adding comedy in a piece takes away a lot of that seriousness so getting a point across is a lot harder because people are focused on what is funny and not the actual problem or point made. Wallace author of "This Is Water" and Molyneux the author of "I Am Sorry I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece" both take serious life issues such as finding yourself for Wallace and typical stereotypes for women from Molyneux and make them funny, enjoyable to read, but highlight and bring really big attention back to their main points and make the fun and easy to read story a viable and learning experience that may be eye opening. Using comedic elements these two authors capture humor and combine it with a great life learning lesson to make a piece of literature more interesting and enjoyable to read and 

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Wallace in the second sentence of his story brings up "what the hell is water" (Wallace, 1) an important life lesson that is very humorous and is hinted on and repeated throughout the story. He uses the quote asking one fish to another what water is because they live inside of water and its everywhere so it's almost like it doesn't exist. In life humans live in air, nobody notices it or really thinks about air but it is everywhere. Things that are right in front of our faces go unnoticed just because they are always there. It is so important that if we went with more than around five minutes without air one would die. Air is the most abundant and most important thing that keeps humans alive but yet humans do not take care of it. Almost like it is not important or that it really isn't there at all. Its funny how something so little and obvious can be one of the biggest problems mainly because it will never be addressed in life. The second sentence that Molyneux writes is "So I put down the chocolate bar, stopped crying, and thought yes, that is what I will do." (Molyneux, 1). Molyneux is talking about what she needs to do to start writing a comedy piece. One can see the humorous imagery of a woman crying, and eating a chocolate to "solve" all of her problems. Molyneux brings a twist on a typical stereotype and almost turns it onto herself and woman as a whole to identify a serious problem that is almost embraced in today's society. Today most movies and television shows hit onto stereotypes for women that are not always true like eating ice-cream when they are upset, trying on all of their clothes to find something to wear, or calling themselves fat all of the time because of the way a woman looks on a magazine cover. Society does not help the stereotypes to go away because these stereotypes are revisited in every movie, ad, and television show that everyone watches. Almost like the stereotypes is what people thinks happen so for recoding purposes those people make it happen and make it reality. Women as a whole have adapted to most stereotypes as well by being the one in a household to cook and clean, eating ice-cream when they are sad, and being overemotional. Society has just accepted that this is what women are supposed to do so most women comply and live their lives by what stereotypes say they have to do. Both pieces of literature take a simple life problem and bring it to light by adding a funny aspect to the problem. Making the story more likeable and making the point easier to stick out and understand. These two pieces of literature also take the problems to the extreme to highlight a true problem and make the extreme situation funny making it easier to pull out the point being made.

In "This is Water" Wallace tells the reader "please don't think I'm giving you moral advice, or that I'm saying you're "supposed to" think this way " (Wallace XV) but Wallace is giving the reader a step by step of how to make decisions and how to think. The bigger issue that Wallace is trying to inform the reader of is thinking differently about life and seeing life from another perspective because it always has a lot of angles that it can be looked at. Wallace also does not want you to feel pressured into thinking his way even though he is giving you step by step direction in how to do so. Wallace makes excellent points about how the reader should look at a situation and make an educated decision on how to approach the situation rather than approaching it as most people would. His comedy does a great job in keeping this piece interesting and eventful the whole way through. In "I'm sorry I didn't write a comedy piece" Molyneux does a great job in attacking the problem of stereotypes in women and how they affect today's society? Molyneux takes most of her stereotypes to the extreme to just make a point to the reader. One of the last stereotypes are different than the rest and seem a lot more unusual but very eye drawing. Molyneux says "I have to go back to my regular job knitting tampon cozies and being best friends with everybody." (Molyneux 418) Knitting tampon cozies seems very unusual and makes one think if people actually do that. That quote was meant to be more funny than serious but puts a big emphasis on how bad stereotypes are taken today. It shows that some people actually do think that women knit tampon cozies because that's what they enjoy to do. Being best friends with everyone in some ways is a big stretch as well. A lot of females will let a person know if they are unlinked and tell them exactly what is going on if there was a problem. This stereotype is somewhat caught in the past where women really wanted to be seen as the nicest person no matter what they had to do or who they had to be nice to. Molyneux also bashes a writer in her literature which is different and shows a different stand than most pieces of literature. It's almost like a rap disc is combined into a funny and serious story about women stereotypes. You can tell she is obviously very upset about what this man has to say and says "Christopher Hitchens is a huge douche who runs a successful child pornography business and has an inability to get an erection unless he's reading Nazi literature" (Molyneux 418). It's funny but yet disturbing and too far at the same time. I understand that the man may have bashed women and was very stereotypical in his piece of writing but the way that she accuses Christopher of running a child pornography business and does not get an erection except when he reads Nazi literature is too far. Making those accusations joking or not does not make her any better than Christopher for publishing what he did about women. This was the only part of the piece that I did not agree with even though it was funny. Taking a stand about something that really concerns you is a lot different than bashing someone just because of their beliefs. Bringing the stereotypes that most people see in women was very smart and can easily make a lot of people open their minds and see that society looks at women in a totally wrong way is the highlight of this story and it is very successful. These two pieces successfully bring to light two of the most important problems in today's society. Making it funny also makes these titles very easy to read.

Writing literature is a type of art. One of the main things someone has to consider before they even write is what their audience might be. In both "This is Water" and "I am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece" harsh language and funny aspects are used to capture many things. In using these things both pieces of literature are able to reach multiple audiences. Hopefully not young children with the foul language but most people around eighteen and over can easily enjoy these pieces. Being able to capture many audiences make both stories very likeable and well read. The vocabulary used in these stories are also very easy to read. With not many complex words or phrases make these short stories very easy to read and concentrate on the bigger problems that they are trying to highlight. Making these stories an easy read was very smart by both of these authors. Both stories use many aspects to create successful short stories.

Writing a comedy has to be hard. Writing a comedy that takes on a major social problem has to be even harder. The way both of these authors capture such serious problems in a short and funny way is amazing. These two pieces are very alike but so different. One is trying to capture the way society thinks and makes them change the way they think to hopefully change the way people see things. While the other is trying to show how stereotypes for women especially have gotten so out of hand that reality is conforming to exactly what most stereotypes say. These social problems are very hard to talk about and bring into conversation because most people do not like to discuss either because it makes them feel awkward or weird. These two authors make it to where their stories can open up conversation about a very uncomfortable topic and let everyone discuss about it. Being able to bring these types of problems into an easily accessible discussion can easily change the way people think and the way people see stereotypes. These stories being at the reading level they are could be understood by a fifth grader. Not that it is not written well just the vocabulary used is not very advanced and is easily understood by most which makes it easier to have a deep discussion about because one can really get invested into the problem and does not have to re-read a sentence twelve times just to find out what the author is trying to talk about. Writing comedies is an art. These two pieces are very similar but yet different in almost every way. They both has impacted many lives and have started many conversations about thinking smarter and women stereotypes. If most people had the courage to speak up and make a stand in what they believed in a lot of things would get taken care of faster and this world would be a lot better off.

