Chapter 1, "As a Kid I was the Youngest" Summary

In the first essay, Vonnegut begins this book by discussing humor, its importance in his life, and its importance to the world in general. At first, he describes his youth. As the youngest child in a family of intellectual talkers, he always wanted to jump into the conversation, but even as a child he knows the rest of the family (his father, mother, older brother, older/sister) are not interested in his childish days.

One day he makes a joke, and everyone stops to pay attention. This begins Kurt Vonnegut's days as a joker, since telling a joke allows him to break into a conversation. As a child, he saw this as the only way to break into an adult conversation, and so he fell in love...