1. Sedaris takes this potentially boring experience and turns it into a humorous essay by pointing out and making fun of his own downfalls. At the beginning of this humorous essay, Sedaris begins explaining how shocked he was when the teacher asked the class if they knew the alphabet: "It was startling because (a) I hadn't been asked that question in a while and (b) I realized, while laughing, that I myself did not know the alphabet" (274). Sedaris is basically saying how pathetic it is that he did not know the alphabet, but instead of dwelling on it, Sedaris decides to make fun of it. This can be seen as deadpan humor. Sedaris does not make jokes to entertain the audience but to make him feel better about himself.
The funniest parts of the essay were when Sedaris purposely misspelled the words that he was unable to comprehend because of his inexperience with the language: "Were you always this palicmkrexis?" (276). When Sedaris misspells those words, he is attempting to appeal to the audience by being funny.
Sedaris reveals things about himself at the beginning of the essay by openly stating facts about himself: "At the age of forty-one, I am returning to school" (274). That is pretty self explanatory. But throughout the essay, Sedaris reveals things about himself in an indirect manner. Although he is making fun of his flaws, he is openly aware of them and making those flaws known in a less obvious way.
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