Besides Chuck Jones -- how about nominating another novelist, esp.
considering his rather profound debt to Twain-- I mean, of course, Kurt
Vonnegut.  Certainly, Vonnegut is not nearly as "funny" as he seemed to be
during, say, the Nixon era.  Still, the guy is generally and consistently a
gas, and the Twain-Vonnegut connection is really quite pronounced.

I just re-read Tom Sawyer last week -- and noticed the many times that
Twain writes, "And so on" or "And so forth" -- this stylistic feature
really reminded me of Vonnegut's (sometimes overused) reliance on the same
thing.

By the way -- "Take the Money and Run"  was shown here last night on PBS --
remember how funny Woody Allen was back in the (post)Nixon era??

Dr. Harold K. Bush, Jr.
Saint Louis University