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60 pages 2 hours read

David Lubar

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2005

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Background

Authorial Context: David Lubar and His Use of Humor

Humor as a genre is central to young adult literature, partly because humor is lighter, making the text more approachable for younger readers. Humor also creates a more relatable text, allowing reluctant readers to engage with the narrative; laughter becomes a connection point between the reader and the characters, and that connection builds motivation to continue reading. In Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, Lubar employs humor to draw readers in and create a safe environment to examine serious teen issues such as bullying and alienation. Lubar weaves fart jokes and self-deprecation with heavy situations that are relevant to young adults, and because the story is lightened by humor, the serious topics don’t dominate the narrative. In this way, Lubar examines uncomfortable truths while keeping young readers entertained.

For example, Lubar humorously presents the issue of bullying from the novel’s beginning. When Louden (Mouth) Kandeski switches to a jacket with a hood because seniors knock off his hats, Scott Hudson sees seniors “hang him from the top of a door by the wood shop” (54). The image is comedic, but Lubar mirrors it later in the novel as a tragedy when Mouth attempts to hang himself after enduring months of small cruelties disguised as jokes. Scott’s self-deprecatory humor often disguises his fear of becoming a victim of violence at school; his first interactions with Wesley Cobble led him to believe that Wesley might “punch me and kick me until there was nothing left but painful memories and calcium dust” (96). Again, the imagery is funny. Lubar believes that when readers have to figure out “the unstated middle, the joke hits the funny bone with a solid whack” (“David Lubar on Sophomores and Other Oxymorons and Humor.” Fresh Fiction, 18 August 2015). In this case, the unstated middle is Scott’s complete physical disintegration at Wesley’s hands, but the uncomfortable truth the image obscures is that Scott is justifiably terrified regularly in the school setting. Lubar also employs incongruity to create a humorous effect; for instance, Scott’s profound insecurity regarding girls becomes funny when he reacts to his brother’s reassurance that girls will eventually notice him by thinking, “Right. They’ll notice me. If I paint myself orange and glue hamsters to my shirt” (50). The comedy is in the details: the color orange and hamsters are so incongruous together that the image generates a laugh, but again, Scott relies on humor to hide his fear.

Significantly, Lubar abruptly shifts tone from humorous to somber in the two chapters that detail Mouth’s suicide attempt and Scott’s conversations with Mouth in the hospital. The tone shift illustrates the gravity of self-harm. Scott is serious in his journal and no longer litters his observations about school and home with comedic devices such as incongruity, hyperbole, or understatement. Lubar further demonstrates that all jokes about suicide are objectionable; Scott slams Danny up against the lockers because he makes a joke about Mouth and is willing to take a swing at Wesley if his friend also jokes about Mouth. By using humor as a vehicle to carry weighty subjects such as bullying and self-esteem, Lubar signals young readers that it’s okay to laugh, but he also draws the line for what subjects are too heavy for humor to carry.

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By David Lubar