Insert Flap “A” and Throw Away by S.J. Perelman (Text Tow #16)

       A well-known humorist and a top writer for the prestigious New Yorkers, S.J. Perelman once again demonstrated his exceptional ability of sarcasm in his exceptionally sarcastic short story “Insert Flap ‘A’ and Throw Away”. Published in 1944, the short story details the origin of insanity: the normal human tendency against overtly motley manifestations, especially, in Perelman’s case, the flagrant directions of making a Self-running 10-Inch Scale-Model Delivery Truck.

       The audience of the short story varies from time to time; yet, the distinction only lies in education. Humorous short pieces are for those who understand and those who can see through the humor for the deeper meaning of the author. For those who did, Perelman’s purpose is clear: to ridicule the unnecessary complexity of the human world. The method is also clear: through irony and imagery.

       The irony of the whole process of making the “Self-running 10-Inch Scale-Model Delivery Truck” is laid out overtly from the beginning. An obvious comparison between the “shortest, cheapest method of inducing a nervous breakdown ever perfected” and Self-running 10-Inch Scale-Model Delivery Truck- method instantly displays the un-needed complications society tend to have (Oates 186). Jiffy-Cloz, the infamous nervous-breakdown method, contains “dozen of gigantic sheets of red card board, a packet of stables, and a set of abstruse directions designed to give the builders a vivid sense of frustration, anger, and helplessness” (Oates 187). On the other hand, the Model delivery truck, bought from an ordinary toy store, likewise consists of “ninety-eight segments, two lambkins, and a set of confounding directions”(Oates 187). The result, as Perelman portrayed, is him “bunting the infernal thing along with my nose and whinnying, gouging them with his nail and forcing them together” (Oates189). The complications of the Self-running 10-Inch Scale-Model Delivery Truck and the numerous other unnecessary complexities the Model represented is as Perelman illustrated, only useful for driving this society to the brink. People have no need of making things complicated, so, as Perelman urged, they should not.

       Or else, everyone will be having a “long and expansive recovery” (Oates 189).