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[[File:perelman_2289.jpg|frame|"His nose, broken in childhood by a self-inflicted blow with a hockey stick, has a prehensile tip, ever quick to smell out an insult; at the least suspicion of an affront, Perelman, who has the pride of a Spanish grandee, has been known to whip out his sword-cane and hide in the nearest closet."]]
{{quote|''Button-cute, rapier-keen, wafer-thin and pauper-poor is S.J. Perelman, whose tall, stooping figure is better known to the twilit half-world of five continents than to Publishers' Row. That he possesses the power to become invisible to finance companies; that his laboratory is tooled up to manufacture Frankenstein-type monsters on an incredible scale; and that he owns one of the rare mouths in which butter has never melted are legends treasured by every schoolboy.''
|'''[[S. J. Perelman]],''' describing himself.}}
▲{{quote|''Button-cute, rapier-keen, wafer-thin and pauper-poor is S.J. Perelman, whose tall, stooping figure is better known to the twilit half-world of five continents than to Publishers' Row. That he possesses the power to become invisible to finance companies; that his laboratory is tooled up to manufacture Frankenstein-type monsters on an incredible scale; and that he owns one of the rare mouths in which butter has never melted are legends treasured by every schoolboy.''|'''[[SJ Perelman]],''' describing himself.}}
Sidney Joseph "S.J." Perelman (American, 1904-1979) was a humorist whose work appeared in several different media. [[The Other Wiki]] puts it bluntly: "Perelman's work is difficult to characterize."
Perelman co-wrote the scripts for the [[Marx Brothers]] films ''[[Monkey Business]]'' (1931) and ''[[Horse Feathers]]'' (1932) (which should establish his humorist bona fides), and won an [[Academy Award]] in 1956 for his screenplay for ''[[Around the World
But it is his humor writing which is commended here. Andrew Ferguson wrote about Perelman's 1948 book ''Westward Ha!'' in that well-known humor compendium, the ''Wall Street Journal'', in 2006: "For sheer verbal virtuosity, for his dizzy manipulation of language, Perelman deserves a place at the top of the trade." His wordplay was reminiscent of [[James Joyce]], but Perelman's style was different-- read the quote above and you'll see.
Perelman could apparently write about anything. For example, an off-hand phrase he stumbled upon in a ''New York Times Magazine'' article ("...the late Pandit Motilal Nehru-- who sent his laundry to Paris-- the young Jawaharlal's British nurse etc. etc.") became his 1955 classic "No Starch in the Dhoti, S'il Vous Plaît", a series of imaginary letters that might have been exchanged in 1903 between an angry Pandit Nehru in India and a Parisian laundryman. One posthumously-published piece ("To Yearn Is Subhuman, To Forestall Divine") references ''[[
Those seeking an introduction to Perelman should check out one of the many collections of his work, such as ''The Most of S.J. Perelman''.
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{{creatortropes}}
* [[The Charmer]]: With overtones of [[Casanova Wannabe]] or [[Dirty Old Man]] (see [[Self-Deprecation]] below). Quite a few of Perelman's stories use his flirting with attractive ladies (or escorting one on a date at a friend's behest) as a plot point. Perelman's real-life affairs give this a [[Reality Subtext]].
* [[Crunchtastic]]: His fondness for wordplay made adspeak an especially ripe target, though other commercial tropes got mocked as well, including:
** [[Before and After Pictures]] ("Sauce For the Gander")
** [[Everything Talks]] ("Well, Roll Me In a Turkish Towel!", "This Little Piggy Went to Market", "I Am Not Now, Nor Have I Ever Been, a Matrix of Lean Meat")
** [[Hopemongering]] ("Tomorrow -- Fairly Cloudy")
* [[Horrible Hollywood]]:
* [[MST]]: ''[[Mystery Science
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: There's at least one piece out there where Perelman decries women as frivolous creatures unable to comprehend perfectly sensible actions like [[It Makes Sense in Context|using a tape recorder to eavesdrop on the conversation of the groceries in the refrigerator.]]
* [[Pungeon Master]]: Often in the form of [[Punny Name
* [[Self-Deprecation]]
* [[Travelogue Show]]:
* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: He tried to sneak a pun in German into a Marx Brothers movie. Groucho (who tended towards the [[Viewers are Morons]] belief) objected.
{{reflist}}
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