Mark Twain is known internationally for writing humorous tales that captured the local color of the west. He used a various number of techniques to capture this humor in his stories. In "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" Twain uses extensive exaggeration to blow scenes out of proportion and make them funny, regional dialect of the west to help capture the local color and amusing characters that seem serious and use made up words to add that final touch of humor.

One technique that Twain uses to add a bit of humor to his stories is extensive exaggeration. In "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" Simon Wheeler tells stories of Jim Smiley and exaggerates on every aspect. An example of this exaggeration is when Simon is telling a story about Jim's dog Andrew Jackson. "A dog might tackle him and bully-rag him and bite him and...