Comedy In John Mcnally's Troublemakers

Peter Ustinov once said, “Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious”. In his collection of short stories, “Troublemakers”, John McNally uses comedy in this exact way. He draws his reader in with quips and witty one-liners to further expand on whatever dark and serious theme he is trying to communicate. This technique is present in many of his writings and can be seen as a sort of pattern or link that connects all of his short stories from “Troublemakers”.
McNally’s first story in “Troublemakers” is The New Year. The story begins with a young man named Gary at a party. He is having a great time when he learns that Linda, the girlfriend he plans on leaving, is pregnant. Feeling overwhelmed and anxious, Gary leaves the party and drives home. He is distracted and visually impaired from the heaps of falling snow, and gets into an accident with a deer. Gary is only 5 miles from home and decides to walk. His father is in his room when Gary gets there and non verbally agrees to give him a ride to pick up his car. Gary and his father are silent on the car ride there. His father has not spoken since his ex-wife announced her engagement to his best friend. After driving to the crash site, Gary’s dad

Two middle schoolers, “Gene ” and Ralph meet with Ralph’s cousin, Norm to go to a Halloween party. They realize that they are not going the right way and Norm says he has to make a stop. He pulls into a parking lots and tries to sale stolen Tootsie Rolls. This plan fails and he is upset with his lack of cash. He takes the money he does have (about $100) and sends “Gene” inside an unknown home to give money to an unknown person. Once inside, “Gene” finds out Norm beat his girlfriend and she is blackmailing him in exchange for not going to the cops. “Gene” is angry and tells Norm that his girlfriend wants to see him at home later, when in reality she is angry about not getting $1000 and will call the