Spoof Text is a text which tells about factual story, happened in the past time with unpredictable and funny ending. Spoof text is very similar to recount text. Both spoof text and recount text tell about the past event with chronological order. However, the purpose of Spoof Text is to amuse reader with funny story. The story mostly is ended with an unpredictable event. The other different is Spoof Text has “twist” in the end of the story.
Social Function
The Spoof Text is used to entertain the readers with a humorous story
Generic Structure of Spoof Text:
• Orientation (introduction of the participant of the story, where it happen and when. By giving the orientation, reader will recognize the story)
• Events (tells about the chronological of the story. Several events are explored in chronological way which able to arrange the story read nicely.)
• 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 Text
Focusing on people, animals or certain things
Using Past Sentence
Using action verb; ate, ran, was walking, etc.
Using adverb of time and place
Told in chronological order.
Example 1:
Penguin in the Park
Orientation
Once a man was walking in a park when he come across a penguin.
Events
Event 1. He took him to a policeman and said, “I have just found this penguin. What should I do?” The policeman replied, “Take him to the zoo”.
Event 2. The next day the policeman saw the same man in the same park and the man still carrying the penguin with him. The policeman was rather surprised and walked up to the man and asked “why are you still carrying that penguin about? Didn’t you take it to the zoo?”
Twist
“I certainly did” replied the man.
“And it was a great idea because he really enjoyed it, so today I am taking him to the movie, and the next day I’ll take it to the beach. It’ll be so much fun” said the man.
Example 2:
A Clown in The Zoo
One day a clown was visiting the zoo and attempted to earn some money by making a street performance. He acted and mimed perfectly some animal acts. As soon as he started to drive a crowd, a zoo keeper grabbed him and dragged him into his office. The zoo keeper explained to the clown that the zoo’s most popular gorilla had died suddenly and the keeper was fear that attendance at the zoo would fall off. So he offered the clown a job to dress up as the gorilla until the zoo could get another one. The clown accepted this great opportunity.
So the next morning the clown put on the gorilla suit and entered the cage before the crowd came. He felt that it was a great job. He could sleep all he wanted, played and made fun of people and he drove bigger crowds than he ever did as a clown. He pretended the gorilla successfully.
However, eventually the crowds were tired of him for just swinging on tires. He began to notice that the people were paying more attention to the lion in the next cage. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he decided to make a spectacular performance. He climbed to the top of his cage, crawled across a partition, and dangled from the top to the lion’s cage. Of course, this made the lion furious, but the crowd people loved it.
At the end of the day the zoo keeper came and gave him a raise for being such a good attraction. Well, this went on for some time, he kept taunting the lion, the audience crowd grew a larger, and his salary kept going up. Then one terrible day happened. When he was dangling over the furious lion, he slipped and fell into the lion cage. The clown was really in big terrible situation. He was terrified.
Sooner the lion gathered itself and prepared to pounce. The clown was so scared. He could do nothing and he began to run round and round the cage with the lion close and closer behind. Finally, the lion could catch him. The clown started screaming and yelling, “Help me, help me!”, but the lion was quick and pounces. The clown soon found himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and suddenly he heard a voice from the lion’s mouth; “Shut up you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?”.
Versi Indonesia
A. Defenisi Spoof
Spoof text adalah sebuah teks yang menceritakan sebuah cerita yang terjadi pada masa lalu dengan akhir cerita yang lucu yang tidak dapat diprediksi atau diperkirakan. Jadi biasanya berisi anekdot, permainan kata yang lucu atau bisa jadi gabungan kedua-duanya.
B. Perbedaan Spoof dan Narrative Text
Kedua genre ini, Spoof Text dan Narrative Text memiliki kesamaan dalam hal berisi kejadian yang terjadi pada masa lampau dan bertujuan untuk menghibur pembaca. Namun ada perbedaan mendasar di antara keduanya. Narrative text bertujuan menghibur pembaca dengan harapan pembaca dapat mengambil hikmah di balik cerita tersebut. Sementara Spoof memang bertujuan menghibur pembaca (entertaining readers) tapi lebih menekankan pada kelucuan cerita daripada pengambilan hikmahnya. Dan letak kelucuan ceritanya akan dijumpai pada akhir cerita. Jadi kata kunci untuk Spoof text adalah LUCU, jika tidak lucu maka bukan spoof text.
C. Tujuan Spoof Text
Dilihat dari pengertiannya, kita bisa mengambil kesimpulan sendiri bahwa tujuan komunikatif spoof text adalah untuk menceritakan sebuah cerita fiktif dengan gaya humor.
D. Generic Structure Spoof Text
Orientation: berisi pengenalan tokoh, latar, setting dll.
Events: berisi peristiwa atau kejadian.
Twist: ending cerita (akhir cerita yang dianggap lucu, kadang tidak terduga, dan biasanya plintiran atau plesetan)
E. Ciri-ciri Spoof Text
Biasanya menceritakan kejadian yang dialami seseorang: I, we, she, he, they etc.
Tenses yang digunakan adalah Past Tense.
Untuk menceritakan detail cerita, biasanya terdapat dialog sehingga pasti ada tanda: “…text dialog…”
F. Contoh Spoof Text dan Penjelasannya
Sum Ting Wong.
Jacky Wong got married with Lia Wong. Both of them had a white skin and straight hair.
They are really a well-matched couple.
One year later, Wong family got a new baby. A nurse brought them a son with curly hair and a black skin.
The nurse congratulated and said, “What name will you give to this son?”
With a confused face, Jacky Wong grumbled, “Sum Ting Wong!”
Penjelasan:
Teks di atas tergolong Spoof karena dilihat dari sisi bahasa menggunakan past tense.
Orientation: paragraf (1) mengenalkan pelaku dan gambarannya.
Event: pada paragraf (2). adalah sesuatu yang lucu, berupa plesetan atau plintiran (TWIST) pada paragraf terakhir (4) pada kalimat “Sum Ting Wong” yang merupakan plesetan dari “some thing wrong” (ada yang salah), maksudnya ada yang salah dengan anak Jacky wong dan Lia wong. Wong dua-duanya putih kok anaknya hitam.
Example:
Green Pink and Yellow
Can you name the colors in English? Yes, you’re right. Blue, red, yellow, and so on. By the way, I have funny story about the colors. Do you want to hear it? Okay, listen to me carefully.
One day, an English teacher was explaining about colors to his students.
After he had finished explaining, he asked his students. “Who can make a sentence using the words green, pink, and yellow?”
Kris the cleverest student in the class, quickly raised up his hand and answered, “when the yellow morning sun comes, I see a beautiful girl wearing a pink dress walking through the green grass”.
“Great! Kris, you are a very good student.” said the teacher.
“Me, me, sir” Niel, the most stupid student in the class said while rising his hand. And the said, “I heard the telephone was ringing green …… green, then I pink up the receiver and I said “Yellow, who’s speaking there?”
ABSENCE
Joe's Mother got angry because her son got a low mark on English test.
"Why did you get such a low mark on that test?" Asked mother angrily. Asked by his angry mother, Joe just kept silent and went out.
A few moment, Joe came back home and met his mother again. His mother asked the same question.
Joe answered steadily, "Because of absence."
"You mean you were absent on the day of the test?" Mother wondered.
Joe replied, "No, but the kid who sits next to me was."
So thats all.. I hope you can understand, what the orientation, events, till the twist. Finally, have a good study and good bye.
EXERCISE
THE BLONDE AND THE LAWYER
A blonde and a lawyer are seated next to each other on a flight from LA to NY.
The lawyer asks if she would like to play a fun game.
The blonde, tired, just wants to take a nap, politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks.
The lawyer persists and explains that the game is easy and a lot of fun.
He explains, "I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me $5.00, and vise versa."
Again, she declines and tries to get some sleep. The lawyer, now agitated, says, "Okay, if you don't know the answer you pay me $5.00, and if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500.00."
This catches the blonde's attention and, figuring there will be no end to this torment unless she plays, agrees to the game. The lawyer asks the first question. "What's the distance from the earth to the moon?" The blonde doesn't say a word, reaches into her purse, pulls out a $5.00 bill and hands it to the lawyer. "Okay" says the lawyer, "your turn."
She asks the lawyer, "What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four legs?" The lawyer, puzzled, takes out his laptop computer and searches all his references, no answer. He taps into the air phone with his modem and searches the net and the library of congress, no answer. Frustrated, he sends e-mails to all his friends and coworkers, to no avail. After an hour, he wakes the blonde, and hands her $500.00.
The blonde says, "Thank you", and turns back to get some more sleep.
The lawyer, who is more than a little miffed, wakes the blonde and asks, "Well, what's the answer?" Without a word, the blonde reaches into her purse, hands the lawyer $5.00, and goes back to sleep.
1. The story tells us about …
a. A plane which a blonde and a lawyer took.
b. A lawyer who played a game with a blonde.
c. A lawyer who bet on something with a blonde.
d. A blonde who was tricked by a lawyer.
e. A blonde who lost her money.
2. What did the lawyer want to play with the blonde?
a. hide and seek
b. chicken limbo
c. jump rope
d. guessing game
e. scrabble
3. What was the rule of the game finally?
a. If the blonde could not answer the lawyer’s question, she paid him $5.00, and vise versa.
b. If the blonde could not answer the question, she should pay $5.00. If the lawyer could not answer her question, he should pay $500.00.
c. If the blonde could not answer the lawyer’s question, she paid him $500.00, and vise versa.
d. If the blonde could not answer the lawyer’s question, she paid him $500.00. If the lawyer could not answer her question, he paid her $5.00.
e. If the lawyer could not answer her question, he paid her $500.00. If the blonde could not answer his question, she did not have to pay him.
4. How much money did the blonde benefit from the game?
a. $5.00
b. $50.00
c. $500.00
d. $510.00
e. $490.00
5. Who was cleverer, the blonde or the lawyer?
a. the blonde
b. the lawyer
c. none of them was clever.
d. Both were clever.
e. They were the same.
6. The word “miffed’ in the last paragraph has the similar meaning to…
a. shy
b. happy
c. generous
d. doubt
e. angry
The Zoo Job Story
One day a clown was visiting the zoo and attempted to earn some money by making a street performance. He acted and mimed perfectly some animal acts. As soon as he started to drive a crowd, a zoo keeper grabbed him and dragged him into his office. The zoo keeper explained to the clown that the zoo's most popular gorilla had died suddenly and the keeper was fear that attendance at the zoo would fall off. So he offered the clown a job to dress up as the gorilla until the zoo could get another one. The clown accepted this great opportunity.
So the next morning the clown put on the gorilla suit and entered the cage before the crowd came. He felt that it was a great job. He could sleep all he wanted, played and made fun of people and he drove bigger crowds than he ever did as a clown. He pretended the gorilla successfully.
However, eventually the crowds were tired of him for just swinging on tires. He began to notice that the people were paying more attention to the lion in the next cage. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he decided to make a spectacular performance. He climbed to the top of his cage, crawled across a partition, and dangled from the top to the lion's cage. Of course, this made the lion furious, but the crowd people loved it.
At the end of the day the zoo keeper came and gave him a raise for being such a good attraction. Well, this went on for some time, he kept taunting the lion, the audience crowd grew a larger, and his salary kept going up. Then one terrible day happened. When he was dangling over the furious lion, he slipped and fell into the lion cage. The clown was really in big terrible situation. He was terrified.
Sooner the lion gathered itself and prepared to pounce. The clown was so scared. He could do nothing and he began to run round and round the cage with the lion close and closer behind.
Finally, the lion could catch him. The clown started screaming and yelling, "Help me, help me!", but the lion was quick and pounces. The clown soon found himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and suddenly he heard a voice from the lion’s mouth;"Shut up you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?".
1. What the zookeeper do seeing the clown started to drive a crowd ?
A. He throw a net and catch him
B. He give the clown some tip
C. He grabbed the clown and dropped it to his office
D. The clown run away from zoo
E. The clown is closing to the zookeeper
2. What is the Clown’s new job ?
A. Attract guitar skills to the visitors
B. Do some attraction with gorilla suits
C. Mime some animal acts
D. Cleaning services
E. He didn’t have a new job yet
3. What happened with the Clown when he taught the lion ?
A. He mock the lion
B. He throw a meat to the lion
C. He sing a song
D. He was slip into lion’s cage
E. He perform a gorilla scrawl
4. What is the mainly function of text ?
A. To entertain and storied an unpredictable ending
B. To share an information about something
C. To advertise or selling something
D. To tell about the procedures to do something
E. To inform a news
5. What is the general structure of the text ?
A. Orientation – Events - Twist
B. Orientation – Issue - Twist
C. Resolution – Steps - Arguments
D. Twist – Orientation - Steps
E. Orientation – Arguments – Twist
6. According to you, which is the “Twist” paragraph part in the text above ?
A. Paragraph 1
B. Paragraph 2
C. Paragraph 3
D. Paragraph 1 and 2
E. None
Questions 7 to 10 are according to this text
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."
7. Why the tramp don’t know about the time ?
A. Because he has an amnesia
B. Because he didn’t have any watch
C. Because he still tired
D. Because he was disturbed by the couple
E. Because he hate the couple
8. What is the tramp’s idea after the woman had gone from his sight ?
A. He sleep again
B. The tramp chase that woman
C. He write a sign in a paper and hung it down
D. He tries to find his watch
E. He didn’t have any idea
9. What was the police told to the tramp after he saw the sign ?
A. The police told the tramp the time.
B. The tramp woke up and he run away.
C. The police giving him a watch
D. The police woke the tramp up and steal the sign
E. The police bring him to the watch shop.
10. From the following statements, which one is TRUE according to the text ?
A. The couple woke the tramp up and mock him
B. The tramp get angry after the woman asked him
C. The tramp is sleeping in the park for 1 hour
D. The police came and told the tramp that the time is 2:30 p.m.
E. The tramp open the bag and take a small pillow.
Essay
Two Blind Pilots
Two blind pilots both are wearing dark glasses, one is using a guide dog, and the other is tapping his way along the aisle with a cane. People laugh nervously as the men enter the cockpit, and then the engines start up. The passengers begin looking around nervously to see if this is just a practical joke.
The plane moves faster and faster down the runway and the people sitting in the window seats realize they’re headed straight for the water at the edge of the airport. As it begins to look as though the plane will go into the water, people start to scream.
At that moment, the plane lifts smoothly into the air. The passengers relax and laugh a little, and soon all start to relax. In the cockpit, one of the bling pilots turns to the other and says, “You know, Bob, one of these days, they’re going to scream too late and we’re all going to die.”
Questions
1. What do the pilots bring on the plane with them?
________________________________________________________________
2. How do the pilots know when to lift off?
________________________________________________________________
3. In the beginning, do the passengers think the pilots are joking?
________________________________________________________________
4. Are the pilots really blind?
______________________________________________________________________________
What Time is It?
A homeless man laid down to sleep in the park. He had been sleeping for about five minutes, when a couple walked by. The man stopped, woke up the homeless man, and asked him, “Excuse me. Do you know what time it is?” the homeless man replied, “I’m sorry - I don’t have a watch, so I don’t know the time.” The man apologized for waking the homeless man and the couple walked away.
The homeless man laid down again, and after a few minutes, went back to sleep. Just then, a woman, who was out walking her dog, shook the man’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 homeless man 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 done, the homeless man 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 now know the time.’ He then hung the paper around his neck and eventually fell back asleep. After about 15 minutes, a policeman who was walking through the park, noticed the man asleep on the bench and the sign around his neck. He woke up the homeless man and said, “I read your sign. I thought you’d like to know that it’s 2:30 p.m.”
Questions
1. What was the homeless man’s idea?
________________________
2. How many people asked the man what time it was?
________________________
3. What is the twist?
Resources
http://www.nurdiono.com
http://inggrisonline.com
http://englishahkam.blogspot.co.id
http://muhammadaldiblog.blogspot.co.id
http://blogbahasainggrisku.blogspot.co.id
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