Famously, in the 1960s, Hal Holbrook, an actor, recreated Mark Twain's lectures. Watch the following youtube clip in which Hal Holbrook acts out one of Mark Twain's lectures. As in the quote above, note that Twain's humor often contains a serious message. In the quote above, for example, Twain is making a (very modern!) criticism of politicians.
In this video, Twain talks about the nature of man -- how we squabble, fight over religion, war with other nations, and other such things. Note his sarcasm: "Man is a reasoning animal..." From this lecture, what are Twain's feelings on mankind and the way we treat one another? What is his message? Quote at least one line from the video that shows his sense of humor while also demonstrating his more serious message. Explain. Pin-point a moment in his lecture when he gets very serious and you can tell he does really care about this topic -- quote a bit of it and explain it. What do you think of Twain's method of making his argument with humor? Is it more or less effective than a straight-forward, serious argument? Does the humor take away or add to the message?
Remember, you need to write at LEAST two paragraphs!
Twain's feelings are saying that we fight people who have different religions. Take Isis and the riots they are causing to Americans. We are fighting against them and in some cases we discriminate all Muslims and are inconsiderate of them. "These animals had disagreed on a theoretical detail!" This quote is trying to say how a simple disagreement leads to killings and riots. His message is to work things out, but also stand your ground. "Otherwise our nation has sold our honor for a phrase." This means that we are saying that we are Patriots and we show our honor for them, but is this really what we are doing. We can say we are the United States of America all we want, but we're not doing anything to fix that.
ReplyDeleteThis is a straight forward argument because of the parts where he speaks his mind and directs the message. The humor also adds to the message because it keeps them listening to it. Most people wouldn't interpret the message if it was him straight up talking. The humor also proves his point a little bit because it gives an extra example. He does it the humorous way then gets serious.
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-Adrian J.[:P]
I believe in this video, the message Mark is trying to explain is about religion. He talk how each one of the animals disagree on something that is theoretical! I believe he is trying to humor our humanity's religious arguments. As he talks about the animals arguments, he explains how man is the only animal that deals in the atrocity in war. He explains how man could be able to exterminate his own kind. He uses animals as a metaphor for what our world is like today.
ReplyDeleteIn this video he has a sense of humor, but then becomes serious or dark. I believe he is trying to explain how we should not be feuding like this to our own kind. Mark feels as if, we should not result in such violence we do today. He talks about how the wars we have and how it is useless. "Man is the only animal that deals in the atrocity in war."
- Ian B.
Mark Twain was saying that mankind is a species of violence. He emphasizes that we fight more than a cat and a dog. He said "I experiment with a cat and a dog, taught them to be friends-"(0:57). So a cat and a dog can get along but humans constantly fighting their own kind. On 4:31 He said man is the only animal that deals in the atrocity of war.
ReplyDeleteBy speaking with Humor, it helped people with paying attention. If he only spoke serious people would be bored. They might not even care if their too bored with it. But I don't think it really adds to the message. The serious parts really showed how much he cared better than the times he was humorous. That is my opinion of this video.
I believe that Mark Twain wants us to know that people do not get along if their ideals are different. Our ideals are the reason people fight. Either it be religion or even just who is the leader of the group, people fight. They are the same kind yet they can't work together. We go to war with our own kind.The animals Mark Twain used could live peacefully on the idea of they needed to survive. Why can't we live in peace without having one person be leader?
ReplyDeleteMark Twain uses humor to get attention of the people. They listen if they're entertained.This helps the audience learn the meaning of the lecture. The point of the lecture is to tell you that humans resort to violence thinking it is the answer. This is understood by the audience when there is humor involved.
Mark Twain’s message in this video was that we use violence to fight people that may not have the same religion or beliefs as us. In addition, many people these days discriminate people just because they have different beliefs. For instance. the attack in Paris and many other isis attacks are caused because of the actions of a few people. For example, in Paris many died because of the false actions of a few people. The point of this is that we should not treat others with violence but try and solve the problem by communicating. We should not treat others any differently than we would want others to treat us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Pierce that people don’t always get along when you have different beliefs. For example, people that don’t get along seem to solve their issues through violence, but don’t always get the job done, especially in the right way. I also agree with Adrian that many are put in danger and trouble due to the actions of a few(Isis). Not only did i take note to these ideas, but I also used Oscar’s idea that mankind is becoming a huge source of violence and war upon war. That is what Mark Twain is trying to get across. -Jackson
I think that Mark Twain saw mankind as some kind of jumble of chaos. From this video, I got the message that the thing that is, was, and always will tear people apart is their religion. For example, Holbrook says that he puts all these different kinds of animals in a cage and they live in peace. Then, he goes on by saying that when he put a bunch of people from different places and with different religions together and when he came back "there wasn't a specimen left alive" (2:08). I think the animals were supposed to represent humans without religious issues. But with the religion its a chaotic disaster.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the humor in this lecture adds to the argument. If something is so serious the whole way through, people will start to zone out. However, something that is fun and entertaining is always something that you want to pay attention to. Although I think that the message was delivered, I think it could've been sent more straight-forward in a more serious fashion. Either way, straight-forward or fun and humorous, the message would've been delivered. All in all, a humorous video delivered a serious message about religion that still affects society today.
I think Mark Twain thought mankind was not ethically right and we base each other's status on belief and action. I thinks his message was that while we are smarter and more reasonable, we still fight one another unlike most species (note that chimpanzees are the only other species to actively kill each other and are cousins of ours). My quote is "Man is the only atrocity that deals in war." (4:30). I feel this is when he gets serious because before saying it, he paused, and didn't have a humorous tone while saying it either. He didn't put any sarcasm into the next four sentences, although people laughed.
ReplyDeleteWhile he talked about the problems of religion and our species, I felt the humor took away from the argument. Although the issue is dark, Twain's humorous way of presenting it makes the situation a bit more cheerful. I doubt a more serious speech wouldn't do much, in terms of the issue. We wouldn't get world peace, but it would be a bit more effective, maybe inspiring more people to take action. Lastly, I think it is still a major issue today, but maybe a little more or less urgent than it was back then.
Mark Twain's message, is that just because we think, by human nature, means that whatever they do or don't believe in, is automatically right, and they use violence as a way, to say "that's not right." My quote is "You see, man is also the religious animal." (2:28) This says that humans, if they have a religion, often don't like other religions, such as when 911 happened, many religions, in the U.S.A, except Islam disliked Islam.
ReplyDeleteAround 3:30, he starts talking about assassins, in wars, and how they were used for the leaders of the enemy. It did lead to laughing, but he was not sarcasting, and rather serious. He doesn't like it how just because we are of different religions, we go to war with them. The humor is a way to appeal to more people, and it makes this dark subject, more "happy."
- Julian M.
I think he was getting at the point that humans are one of the most violent beings on Earth. He says "Man is the only atrocity that deals in war." He is saying that we are the only ones that deal with problems using violence. He said that he can put a bunch of different animals in a cage and they are nice to each other. Then he explains that humans just get in fights about other peoples' beliefs and rank.
ReplyDeleteIf you took people like Vladimere Putin and put them in a room with someone like Obama, they might work out why Putin is bombing people for no reason, unless he is just crazy. But those are people who are used to putting themselves in other peoples' shoes. If you took normal people, like mark said, a buddhist, a jew, a muslim, a christian, etc. they would be fighting the entire time about why other peoples' beliefs aren't right. When really, they are all almost the same. Sure humans might be the only people that have religious feelings and beliefs, but that shouldn't stop them from being nice to each other.
-Asha A.
Mark Twain firmly believes in the fact that religion separates people. I think that he wants people to realize how uncivilized religion causes some people to be. Religious groups who use violence to resolve problems and differences are examples of this. Twain states: "Man is also the religious animal. He's the only one that's got the true religion" (2:24-2:30). He thinks that most religious people believe that their religion is the only "right" one. Many terrorist groups probably think like this, as well. People follow their religion for a reason, and one of the main reasons, is because they think the religion is right.
ReplyDeleteI think that Twain's humorous approach enhanced his lectures. He kept his listeners engaged, while conveying his passion for the topic. His lectures were easy to follow, and listen to. Mark Twain had a very unique voice, that people listened to.
Mark Twain seems to believe that mankind is a dumb race that has created multiple ways in which they hate each other. He shows this in his humorous dialogue, which both enhances and shows the importance of his words. He tell us of the ways mankind has dug its own grave, and shows us how he believes religion muddles our minds.
ReplyDeleteTwain believes that we are all animals- but that we are the worst ones, since we firmly believe we are the only smart ones, the ones who our Creator likes. He says, "Man is really the most interesting jackass there is" (Hal Holbrook in "Mark Twain Tonight", 0:14). Mark Twain is comparing us to a donkey, saying that we too are animals, but we are the most interesting. Of course, that's sarcasm, so he is really saying, we are animals too, but somehow we managed to become these theoretical people who fight over opinions.
Twain thinks that religion is the base of our problems. He exclaims, "Why, when I come back, there wasn't a specimen alive!" Mark had put in multiple specimens. But when he began putting in unique humans, the humans not only killed themselves, but others around them. They both acted as cannibals, and destroyed their environment.
Perhaps Twain's most strongly felt point is the fact that us humans kill our own kind. He pauses at his most important times, such as at 4:35. He thinks about how though we are animals too, we kill our kind. He seems to understand that man is delusional in its notion that even if your country is wrong, you should say it is right. We go to war for the smallest things, and we disagree to disagree. You don't like it? Die.
Mark Twain was easy to listen to because of his humor. He wasn't afraid to self-depreciate. For example, he says, "Why, I've been studying this species for years, and I find the results humiliating!" (0:58) If you haven't already noticed, Twain was a man too. Yet, he talks about how we need to improve, reinforcing his statements.
Mark Twain lived years ago, but he lived in an age with much of the same problems as the modern day era. This man realized that we had a problem, and took it upon himself to solve it. His words were one of a comedian, and a wise man. The world may never see a man like Samuel Clemens again.
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Cheers,
Sriha S. =^.^=
You are one of the few that understood when he said it was "humiliating," he was pointing out that he's human, too, and so the shame is his to share! Good job!!!
DeleteI think Mark Twain was trying to explain that we, human beings, are the only living organisms that have wars to kill our own kind. Mark Twain exhibits that us human beings are just uncivilized. I mean, I'd understand if we were being attacked by aliens and we'd had to fight against them to live. But Mark Twain exaggerates that we fight against ourselves for no reason. He says we are so cold blooded that we must fight against ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI think that using humor to explain something very serious id very effective. If you just stand there talking for hours about something that has no interesting topic in it. If you talk about politics for hours with no exciting help to back it up, then people will begin to fall asleep. Using humor in a lecture, like Mark Twain's, helps show the seriousness in your argument. Mark Twain uses humor to show his seriousness on his topic.
" He [mankind] is the only one, at presorted wages, goes forth in cold blood to exterminate his own kind."
-Eliza A.
I think Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) sorry if i mispelled his name, was trying to say that since we are the only living human form on earth we can have a war killing each other................ because we ALL have a different RELIGION. For example if we want to get a deal done with someone, like confronting someone we have to use violence in order to finsish a deal or in order to solve the problem. For example the Muslim group that took many lives by flying planes right into 2 buildings blowing themselves up but killing many people, thousands of INNOCENT people. ( I am not trying to offend any Muslim in the world) Overall Mark Twain is trying to say we use violence to fight people that aren't the same religion as us. - Carlvesi L.
ReplyDeleteAdding to my comment another thing Mark Twain is trying to say is in order to confront someone that has either the same religon as us or not, you have to use violence to finish the problem. - Carlvesi L.
ReplyDeleteMark Twain's message about mankind and what he thinks about it is that humans are one messed up species. We aren't all that different from each other, but religion somehow makes people turn on each other because they believe in something different. We're criticizing people on the way they think. We're going to such great lengths because we don't agree with one another, even murder, all because we're being stubborn about which is the one true religion. We're stereotyping each other based on religion, race, culture, and many other things when they don't even really matter. I mean is your religion really so important that you have to kill innocent people? For example, if your favorite sports team lost would you go out and kill people because you're angry? The human race is one messed up, violent, and stubborn species.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mark twain when he says, "Why, I've been studying this species for years, and I find the results humiliating!" It is humiliating to know that people can't just accept that yeah we're going to think, speak, dress, and do a lot of things differently but does that really matter to you, personally? I mean if I don't speak a certain way, or think a certain way, even believe in a certain something is that really going to affect you? This is why humanity is how humiliating, people are being bullied because of this, people are killing others because of this. Its just humiliating to see how messed up we are, how willing we are to go through all this trouble just because we can't accept that we're going to differ from one another, but we're all human beings, it's just stupid.
I think Mark Twain feels that mankind fights against each other to get to the top or be in charge. His message is to treat each others the way you want to be treat. We all should live in peace, not at war. After he says, "Man is a reasoning animal" he also says, "I have been studying the reasoning animal and the results are humiliating". He explains how he put a bunch of different animal together, they all lived in peace. When he put leaders of different countries and armies together, not anyone of them was left alive. Mark shows that humans want to be in control.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing Mark says is, "Man is the only animal that deals in the atrocity of war". He shows that mankind will go so far as to killing their own kind to be in charge or get what they want. I think that Mark Twain's method of making his argument with humor is smart and interesting. This method is more effective because people will get bored just listening to a serious argument. Humor has people pay more attention to what the speaker is saying. It adds more to the message.
-Julianne R.
I think Mark Twain is trying to say that man settles everything in violence. He also said," Man is the only animal the deals in the atrocity of war."He said he made a cat and a dog friends but couldnt make to different religions friends. He wants us to realize that we have never, ever settled anything without violence, which is pretty bad.
ReplyDeleteI dont see why we all can just have our land and not try to capture others. If we all just respected each other and not tried to capture everyone else land, there would be no wars. No violence, no killing, no nukes that killed millions of people, just peace and thats the world we should live in. - Max Vidal
I believe that Mark Twain is trying to say that man would to anything to gain power.
ReplyDeleteMan would go to extreme limits just to get a piece of land that is dried to the point where it can't be inhabited. One reason for this is would understand ethics. We can choose whether something is right or wrong, and no matter what anyone else thinks, we would probably just go out and do it with no second thought. However, animals can't choose if something is right or wrong, only if something is bad or good for them. Let's say you have a cat and a mouse, and the cat helps the mouse to escape, the mouse would most likely just let it since it is the only way for it to live, and it wouldn't be stubborn because they had a bad history with cats.
Another reason why is because man has religion. People will protect their religion from anything just as little as criticism. If you are in a religion that my religion hates, then I hate you, is the mentality of man. Like mark said, he would try to put people from different religions together, and each would die trying the protect their own religion. So even if what ever they are doing has negative effects, if it has something to do with religion, they will do it.
I think that mark twain is trying to say that we always solve our problems in violence just to be in charge. We all just solve our problems the wrong way just to get what we want. We never just speak and communicate with eachother. I think that instead of solving all our problems with violence, we should stop and think why can't we work out our problems without war or fights. We have so much hatred filled up in our body we never just communicate with eachother.
ReplyDeleteI also think Mark Twain was trying to say was that religion holds a big wall between our society's. People want to protect there god and their land so much that they will do extremes even when it's not right. For examples, the holy land. We had all these wars against eachother to gain that land and it just ended up with the se people who stared with it. I think that man should stop waist ong there solving there problems with violence and stop and think for a moment.
I think mark twain was trying to say that humans have a reason for everything we do. Including violence. No matter how bad of a thing we do there's ALWAYS a reason behind it. Animals can be put in cage and all become friends in just a couple of days, as Twain experimented. But if you were to put religiously different humans in a cage or house together, there would be no peace. They all would have a reason not to be in peace.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I think Twain was trying to say is that man resolves everything with violence. Like Twain said, "man is the only animal that is in the atrocity of war." They will use war to get something that they want. For example, a long time ago, our country wasn't free. Our solution to it being free? War. In this world violence is the answer to a lot of problems. It shouldn't be but it is. -katelyn c
I believe that Mark Twain is saying that humans use violence too often.. We are the only species that uses violence very often. We try to settle everything with violence, as someone said above.He believes that if we accepted each other, there would be less violence. We wouldn't have differences that some people don't like.
ReplyDeleteMark Twain uses humor in his speeches to engage his audience. He does not want his speech to be boring or non-entertaining to his audience. If he were to not add a joke here and there throughout his speech, the audience would not listen to his point, and remember him.
I think that Mark Twain was trying to say that men settle things with violence. As Katelyn said there is a reason for everything that people do. This also says that you don't need to solve everything with violence. I also think that people use violence when they don't have too. As Tyler said man will do anything to gain power. This also says that Mark Twain has many ideas for the right ways to use violence or nonviolence.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Mark Twain was trying to get through that even if violence is your first choice try to overcome that and not use violence. As max said why do we have to be bad to each other why can't we just be kind to each other.
I think that Mark Twain was saying that men use violence automatically. They use violence no matter the circumstances and just use it too often. I also think he wants people to actually think about why our species thinks of violence to solve things.
ReplyDeleteI also think Mark Twain incorporated humor so that people would remember his speech and maybe better understand and relate to his words. It's made very clear that Mark Twain doesn't support the violence that goes on between man tries to get through to his listeners that violence won't make a difference.