Fairly Stupid Tale from the Past

As I take in all these discussions in class, especially the one we had Wed. about the varying versions we have found of Red Riding Hood, I began to notice a couple of verisons I seem to remember from my childhood. The one that sticks out most in my mind is a book I recieved at some point called "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales." Basically it takes a bunch of famous fairy tales (Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Frog Prince, etc.) and, mainly through parody, reconstructs them in a new and different way. A Version of Little Red Riding Hood also appears in the book. She is not Little Red Riding Hood, though, she is called Little Red Running Shorts. Basically she got this name because she recieved running shorts from her mother. The interpretation goes as follows:



Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk) acts as the narrator of the entire book. He ends up telling the entire story of "Little Red Running Shorts" as his lead-in to the story turns out to become the entire story. He tells that Little Red Running Shorts is going through the woods, and runs into a wolf, who tricks her into taking the long way to Grandmother's House, while he takes the short way. When the wolf arrives to Grandmothers, Little Red Running Shorts answers the door and says, "My, what slow feet you have." THE END.



The rest of the humor comes from the fact that Red Running Shorts and The Wolf have been waiting this whole time to reenact it, but become angry because Jack told the whole story, and now they basically have to tell it AGAIN. They walk away from the story frustrated.

At first it just seems like a parody, but looking a little deeper one can see alot more. It becomes apart of those 20th century authors, such as Roald Dahl, who totally reconstruct Little Red Riding Hood. The telling of this fairly stupid tale is similar to the 20th century versions of this fairy tale in the fact that something unexpected ends up happening to the wolf. Little Red Running Shorts beats the Wolf to the House, and rubs it in his face, parodying the lines "My what big ____ you have." With that, Little Red Running Shorts in painted as the hero and the superior to the Wolf, as in the other 20th century versions. There is, however, no violence in the storty because it is directed spcifically towards Kids. The unexpected ending, showing Little Red Running Shorts and the Wolf as merely actors working together, further breaks down the original storyline.