Category Archives: Comedy

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

I was just munching on some cereal and reading one of my (many) Peanuts books.

Sporadically, throughout the late 1960’s strips, Snoopy can be seen working on a novel, and receiving input from Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and the rest of the gang.

It turns out that, a while back, someone went to the trouble to compile the complete text.  Here is Snoopy’s novel, copypasta’d from here:

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

by Snoopy

Part I

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out!

A door slammed. The maid screamed.

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon!

While millions of people were starving, the king lived in

luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was

growing up.

Part II

A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the

tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.

At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital

was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient

in Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly.

Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas

who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the

daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?

The intern frowned.

“Stampede!” the foreman shouted, and forty thousand

head of cattle thundered down on the tiny camp. The two

men rolled on the ground grappling beneath the murderous

hooves. A left and a right. A left. Another left and right.

An uppercut to the jaw. The fight was over. And so the

ranch was saved.

The young intern sat by himself in one corner of the

coffee shop. he had learned about medicine, but more

importantly, he had learned something about life.

THE END

And here’s a description of Snoopy’s desired cover art:

“How about a bunch of pirates and foreign legionnaires fighting some cowboys with some lions and tigers and elephants leaping through the air at this girl who is tied to a submarine?”

-Snoopy

Now that’s some damn fine writing.

          It Was A Dark And Stormy Night
          by Snoopy

          Part I

   It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out!
A door slammed. The maid screamed.
   Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon!
   While millions of people were starving, the king lived in
luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was
growing up.

          Part II

   A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the
tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.
   At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital
was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient
in Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly.
   Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas
who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the
daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?
The intern frowned.
   "Stampede!" the foreman shouted, and forty thousand
head of cattle thundered down on the tiny camp. The two
men rolled on the ground grappling beneath the murderous
hooves. A left and a right. A left. Another left and right.
An uppercut to the jaw. The fight was over. And so the
ranch was saved.
   The young intern sat by himself in one corner of the
coffee shop. he had learned about medicine, but more
importantly, he had learned something about life.

          THE END

I’ve Always Wanted to Know This: What English Sounds Like to Others

Every time I meet a non-native English speaker, I invariably ask them the same question:

I make fun of other languages all the time.  I can spout out gibberish that sounds like Russian, Chinese, French, etc.  What happens when someone who speaks a different language tries to spout out English gibberish?  What does English gibberish sound like?

Well, I guess I’m not the only one who is curious about it.  Here’s what English possibly sounds like to people from other countries.

This one might be my favourite – 14 seconds in: