Spoof & Anecdote Text

Spoof.

Definition:

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:

- Orientation

- Events

- Twist

Languange Features:

- Focusing on people, animals or certain things

- Using action verb; ate, ran, etc

- Using adverb of time and place

- Told in chronological orde

Ex:

The Zoo Job Story

One day a clown was visiting the zoo and attempted to earn some money by making a street performance. He acted and mimed perfectly some animal acts. As soon as he started to drive a crowd, a zoo keeper grabbed him and dragged him into his office. The zoo keeper explained to the clown that the zoo's most popular gorilla had died suddenly and the keeper was fear that attendance at the zoo would fall off. So he offered the clown a job to dress up as the gorilla until the zoo could get another one. The clown accepted this great opportunity.
So the next morning the clown put on the gorilla suit and entered the cage before the crowd came. He felt that it was a great job. He could sleep all he wanted, played and made fun of people and he drove bigger crowds than he ever did as a clown. He pretended the gorilla successfully.
However, eventually the crowds were tired of him for just swinging on tires. He began to notice that the people were paying more attention to the lion in the next cage. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he decided to make a spectacular performance. He climbed to the top of his cage, crawled across a partition, and dangled from the top to the lion's cage. Of course, this made the lion furious, but the crowd people loved it.
At the end of the day the zoo keeper came and gave him a raise for being such a good attraction. Well, this went on for some time, he kept taunting the lion, the audience crowd grew a larger, and his salary kept going up. Then one terrible day happened. When he was dangling over the furious lion, he slipped and fell into the lion cage. The clown was really in big terrible situation. He was terrified.
Sooner the lion gathered itself and prepared to pounce. The clown was so scared. He could do nothing and he began to run round and round the cage with the lion close and closer behind. Finally, the lion could catch him. The clown started screaming and yelling, "Help me, help me!", but the lion was quick and pounces. The clown soon found himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and suddenly he heard a voice from the lion’s mouth;"Shut up you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?".

Anecdote.

Definition:

A text which retells funny and unusual incidents in fact or imagination. Its purpose is to entertain the readers.

Generic Structure:

- Abstract

- Orientation

- Crisis

- Reaction

- Coda

Languange Feature:

- Using exclamation words; it's awful!, it's wonderful!, etc

- Using imperative; listen to this

- Using rhetoric question; do you know what?

- Using action verb; go, write, etc

- Using conjunction of time; then, afterward

- Using simple past tense

Ex:

From Bankrupt Candle to Best Seller Soap

In 1879, William Procter and James Gamble's best seller was candles. They had begun business together in Cincinnati. While they were in peak of popularity, the candle company was in trouble as Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb. It looked as if their candle product would become obsolete. People would like to use light bulb and would not use candle anymore.

The fears became reality when the market for candles plummeted since the candle product were now sold only for special occasions. The outlook of candle company appeared to be bleak and depressing for Procter and Gamble. The situation was more miserable. Several months later the accident occurred. Without thinking one of the employee left to go to lunch and forgot to turn off the machine. Since the machinery was left in operation, air would work its way into the mixture.

However after discussing with his supervisor, the employee decided not to discard the mixture. Instead, he poured the mixture into frames and the soap hardened. Thus, the floating soap was born. Harley Procter decided to give the soap a name that people could remember. Then the soap was named IVORY. This ivory soap became the mainstay of the Procter and Gamble Company.

Amazingly, Procter and Gamble began to receive letters from buyers of this "accidental" soap. They wanted more of the soap that floats. Ivory soap was introduced to the marketplace. Even though this interesting formula was one of their best products, they were perplexed as to how this happened. The mysterious formula for the floating soap was resolved when the lunchtime accident was revealed.

The Differences between Spoof & Anecdote Text:

Spoof Text :

1. Text which relate to funny story and unusual incidents.
2. Has generic structure on how it is composed and the generic structures of spoof are orientation, events, and twist

Anecdote Text:

1. Text which relate to funny story and unusual incidents.
2. Has generic structure on how it is composed and the generic structures of anecdote are abstract, orientation, crisis, reaction and coda.