Kelly is an instructor of creative writing at Oakton Community College and College of Lake County. In this essay, he suggests that, despite its grim subject matter, Deliverance actually follows a common comic structure.
Reading the last part of Deliverance, you get a funny feeling. Not "funny" as in odd, but the actual feeling that there is some sort of offensive dark comedy being played out with a perfectly straight face. James Dickey certainly isn't trying to amuse the audience—humor isn't this novel's reason for existing—but that does not mean that it can't stumble into some common comic strategy. There are all kinds of comic devices, such as wordplay and pratfalls and mistaken identities and an infinite variety more. One motif that comes up frequently in comedy is the humor that stems from watching a character.....
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