Mark Twain was the funniest man of his time. His writing inspired comedy as readers know it today. With The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Mark Twain's Short Stories, he had every reader smiling and laughing aloud. He made readers laugh at innocence, at his plot and characters, and sometimes he turned it around so that readers laughed at themselves.

Readers were compelled to laugh at Twain's characters' naiveté. For example, Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn asked, "Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does""(86). A reader had to laugh at the frivolous question. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer when Tom asked, "Say, Becky, was you ever engaged", one had to grin at his innocence(57). Readers chuckled because the children were so sincere. Twain created a scene in which readers would smile at Tom's solemnity as...