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." I mean, everybody had this book.("This is the captain speaking.We'll be landing in Seattle instead of Detroit because I want to finish The Client.")The ironic thing is that bestselling legal thrillers generally are written by lawyers, who are not famous for written communication.I cite as Exhibit A my own attorney, Joseph DiGiacinto, who is constantly providing me with shrewd advice that I cannot understand because Joe has taken the legal precaution of translating it into Martian.(Barry, 1993, p.27)Barry uses also satire in his account of a lunch date with Sophia Loren.Barry got to take his peek at the world of the rich and famous and told his readers about it.He uses satire—he makes fun of himself by writing that he was "working" when he lunched with the movie star (and a lot of other people).He satirizes the lifestyle of the luxury residential complex that the luncheon event and Loren promoted.He pokes fun at the free food and champagne, the high prices of the exclusive apartments, the press kit descriptions, and even the press itself.When it comes time for him to ask her a question, he asks her about cockroaches in her own luxury apartment at the complex.Here's Barry's entire article:My original plan was not to have lunch with Sophia Loren.My original plan was to eat a chicken salad sandwich, then go pick up my son at kindergarten.In fact, I had actually purchased the chicken salad sandwich at The Miami Herald cafeteria when a person in the Business Section asked me if I wanted to have lunch with Sophia Loren."Sure," I said.This kind of thing happens all the time in the news game.So I called my wife."Could you pick up Robby?" I asked."I'm going to go have lunch with Sophia Loren.""Sure," she said, in a sweet and kind and totally understanding voice.She will get even.The reason I was invited to lunch with Sophia Loren was that she was promoting something.Somebody is always promoting something in the news business, and it is our job, as communications professionals, to go and find out what it is, even if this means eating a lot of free food.In this case, Sophia Loren was promoting something up in North Dade called "Williams Island," which, according to the press packet, is "a luxury, 80acrePage 387island resort residence community on protected waters just off the Intracoastal Waterway." It's very nice.I would recommend Williams Island as a potential residence for anybody, whether he had $250 million or just $245 million.No, seriously, the brochure says they have "residential offerings" there starting at a very affordable $180,000, which I bet you could round up just by walking around and picking up the money that blows off the balconies of the nicer units.One of those units is occupied, when she's in town, by worldfamous ravingbeauty movie actress Sophia Loren, who also does promotional work for them in exchange for money.(Yes! Even Sophia Loren!)We had lunch at the restaurant on Williams Island, the Island Club.They have a new kind of Very Trendy food there called "tapas," which also was being promoted.According to Richard Lamondin, director of marketing and sales for Williams Island, "The Tapas Experience is now one of the North American rages."So we media people all sat down at our assigned tables and had the Tapas Experience, which consists of eating things off little plates.I thought they were great, except this one plate that I swear to God had a small dead octopus on it.Probably it was a prank.Probably back in the kitchen, they said: "Look what Lester found in the protected waters just off the Intracoastal Waterway! Yuck! Let's see if the news media will eat it, because it's free food!"After the Tapas Experience, they served us lamb chops, during which Sophia Loren herself came over to our table and sat down to chat with us personally.You ladies have heard, of course, that Sophia Loren is very, very beautiful, especially for a woman of 51, but let me tell you something: When she is up close, when you really get a look at her, she is Beyond Perfect.I'm sorry, ladies, but there you have it.Genetics.If it makes you feel any better, there is probably some area in which you are superior to Sophia Loren, such as playing the accordion.So after we had just looked at her for a minute, we asked her some questions.This is where I would hate to be a famous movie actress, because she got asked, for example: "Is there any message you would want to give to the women of the world?" Think about that.There you are, trying to eat your lamb chop, and you have to come up with a message for the women of the world.I know if itPage 388was me, I'd blow it.I'd say something like, "Well, they should floss their teeth." But Sophia Loren, she was very poised.She said she felt the women of the world should be Generous.She came up with that right off the top of her head.I had given careful thought to what question I would ask her.I wanted it to be the kind of question you, my readers, would want to ask in the astoundingly unlikely event you ever had a personal lunch with Sophia Loren."Have you found any large insects in your apartment?" I asked."Insects?" she said."Cockroaches," I said."They get huge down here." I held my hands about a foot apart so she'd get the idea."Not yet," she said.So there you have it: an exclusive interview with the lovely Miss Sophia Loren at her South Florida residence, the luxurious and cockroachfree Williams Island.If you want my opinion, you all should head over there as soon as possible and try the tapas and maybe purchase yourself a residence offering.And I don't say this just because they gave me a lot of free food.I say this because they also gave me champagne.(Barry, 1986 p.1B) Reprinted with permission of Dave Barry.ParodyParody is another one of the trendy humor approaches today.Subjects vary widely, but parodies are popular with contemporary readers.Parody is the best approach for some humor.At times, there is an opportunity to imitate the style of an individual, place, object, or institution.This is basic parody.To do parody well, you must study the subject about which you plan to write.Popular subjects in recent years have been preppies, yuppies, entire publications such as magazines, and various ethnic groups.Once you have mastered the characteristic style of the subject, you take a nonsensical approach to the subject.This works best with serious subjects such as political leaders or revered institutions.For example, a local humor columnist might use parody to write about a local public official that made a bad political decision or squandered public resources.Spy, National Lampoon, and Mad magazines have used parodies for many years with great success.Austin AmericanStatesman humorist JohnPage 389Kelso, who writes his humor column three days a week, parodied local pickup truck drivers in this portion of a recent column: It's time to start the drive to get jumpstarting a pickup truck declared a Winter Olympics sport.It sounds nutty
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