What is Spoof Text?

Spoof is a text which tells factual story, happened in the past time with unpredictable and funny ending. Spoof text is very similar to recount text. Both spoof and recount tell about the past event with chronological order. Its purpose is to amuse reader with funny story. The story mostly is ended with an unpredictable event. The different is Spoof Text has “twist” in the end of the story.

The social function is to entertain the readers with an humorous story

Generic Structure of Spoof:

1. Orientation (introduction of the participant of the story , where it happen and when. By giving the orientation, reader will recognize the story)
2. Events (tells about the chronological of the story. Several events are explored in chronological way which able to arrange the story read nicely.)

• -Event 1
• -Event 2
• - …etc…

3. Twist (an unpredictable plot in the end of the story which amuse the reader. Readers even did not predict before that it would be)

Language Feature of Spoof

1. Focusing on people, animals or certain things

2. Using action verb; ate, ran, etc

3. Using adverb of time and place

4. Told in chronological order.

Example 1:

Penguin in the Park

           Once a man was walking in a park when he across a penguin. He took it to a policeman and said; “What should I do?” The policeman replied; “Take it to the zoo!”.

           The next day, the policeman saw the man in the same park. The man was still carrying the penguin. The policeman was rather surprised and walked up to the man and asked; “Why are you still carrying the penguin? Didn’t you take it to the zoo?” The man replied; “I certainly did. And it was a great idea because the penguin really enjoyed it. So, today I am taking it to the movie”.

Generic Structure Analysis:

Orientation;introducing participants: the man, policeman, and Penguin. They were in the park

Event1; The man tended to take the penguin to the park

Event; The following day, the man were still carrying the penguin

Twist; Even, finally the man would take the penguin to the movies

Language Feature Analysis:

Focusing on certain certain participants; the man, penguin, policeman
Using action verb; carry, walk up
Using adverb of time and place; once, in the park
Told in chronological order; chronological order by days, the next day.

Example 2:

LOVING MONEY TOO MUCH

There was a man who liked money very much. He worked all of his life and wanted to save all of his money for his own future. He was a real miser when it came to his money. He loved money more than just about anything.
Even, just before he died, he said to his wife; “Now listen, when I die, I want you to take all my money and place it in the casket with me. I wanna take my money to the afterlife.” So he asked his wife to promise him with all her heart that when he died, she would put all the money in the casket with him.
Well, one day, he really died. Then he was stretched out in the casket. The wife was sitting there in black clothes next to her closest friend. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said “Wait just a minute!”
She had a box in her hands. She came over with the box and placed it in the casket. After that the undertakers locked the casket down and rolled it away. Not long after that, her friend said, “I hope you were not crazy enough to put all that money in the casket.”
The wife turned to her friend and replied; “Yes, because I have promised.” Then she continued; “I can’t lie. I promised him that I was going to put that money in that casket with him.” Feeling shocked, her friend said; “You mean that you have put every cent of his money in the casket with him?” Then the wife answered; “Surely I did. I got it all together, put all the money into my account and I just wrote him a check.”

(Re-written from www.onlyfunnystories.com)

Orientation: The above story talks about a wife and his husband who loves money too much even up to his death.
Events: Several events are explored in chronological way which able to arrange the story read nicely. Promising with her money miser husband, Putting the box inside casket, locking and rolling the casket are the events which build the complete story.
Twist: When reading the above story, for the first, readers likely think that the wife would put all the money instead of just a check

Example 3 (but here you must analysis it by your self):

What time is it?

A tramp lie down and sleep in the park. He had been sleeping for about 5 minutes when a couple walked by. The man stopped, woke the tramp up , and asked him, “Excuse me. Do you know what the time is?”

The tramp replied, “I’m sorry – I don’t have a watch, so I don’t know the time.”

The man apologized for waking the tramp and the couple walked away.The tramp lay down again, and after a few minutes went back to sleep. Just then, a woman, who was out walking her dog, shook the tramp’s shoulder until he woke up again.

The woman said, “I’m sorry to trouble you, but I’m afraid I’ve lost my watch – do you happen to know the time?” The tramp was a little annoyed at being woken up again, but he politely told the woman that he didn’t have a watch and didn’t know the time.After the woman had gone, the tramp had an idea. He opened the bag that contained all his possessions and got out a pen, a piece of paper and some string. On the paper, he wrote down, ‘I do not have a watch. I do not know the time’. He then hung the paper round his neck and eventually dropped off again.

After about 15 minutes, a policeman who was walking through the park noticed the tramp asleep on the bench, and the sign around his neck. He woke the tramp up and said, “I read your sign. I thought you’d like to know that it’s 2:30 p.m.