American Psycho 1

American Psycho is, at least in part, a parody of the manners of affluent young professionals in  NYC. What is one moment you found funny and why? If you found not a single moment amusing, why do you think that is? A failure in the novel? Your incapacity to see the humor? The general offensiveness of much of the language and action in the book?

9 thoughts on “American Psycho 1

  1. Kizzy Joseph

    American Psycho is drenched in dark humor and is somewhat reminiscent of Vandover and the Brute in its stream of consciousness, emphasis on lesiure activities (dining, drinking, etc), and men’s sexual encounters with women and their misogynistic views of them. What I found funny is how the novel’s representation of Wall Street/yuppie culture is not an unfamiliar one. Reading the novel, I couldn’t help but think of the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” and how both depict Wall Street as this bizarre world of sex, drugs, materialism and devoid of empathy and compassion. Patrick seems very aware of how bizarre his lifestyle is and forces the reader to realize that as well (close attention to clothing, how his apartment is arranged, others’ physical apperance, etc), but it is his need to fill in some void in his empty life that drives him “insane”…

  2. Danielle Surrette

    I believe the section “Morning” was meant to be funny with his extreme detail throughout the description. However, it had the opposite effect on me. I found myself getting bored at Bateman’s mourning ritual was found out. I found myself frustrated with the lack of paragraph breaks as I constantly lost the part of the page I was on. This part, in addition to the detailed clothing decisions, has made me not like the book so far. I have not see the film yet, but I can easily see how the story could be told better through a visual medium. While watching a movie I imagine I can enjoy Christian Bale acting out Patrick’s morning ritual in an obsessive and slightly ridiculous way. I can also imagine how much better it would be to see how expensive the clothes are rather than get descriptions about it–especially since I don’t recognize a lot of the labels. Because of this, I’m excited to see how filmmakers took American Psycho and created a visual format.

  3. Janka Hlinka

    I think much of the first half of the novel is comical in how absurd all of the characters, especially Bateman, are. Just as previously mentioned, there is a constant mention of different brands: what people are wearing, the different upscale restaurants, and the places people work. I don’t think there is one line in the novel that does not have a brand name in it, which is comical because their entire lives are materialistic and almost seem emotionless and that is what is considered a stereotypical successful man.

    What really struck me is the scene where the men are showing each other their business cards and Bateman becomes jealous because some of them are better than his. I could not tell why one card was better than another and therefore thought it was funny that Bateman got so worked up over a card. All of this is comical in how emotionless all of the men are and how so consumed they are in material things when no one can even remember each others names!

    1. John DeVine

      Though I know it is one of the most well known scenes in the novel and in the movie, I also found the business card exchange to be a humorous and troubling insight into the consciousnesses of these men. Bateman and his colleagues are hyper-competitive, hyper-masculine figures who believe they can assert their dominance and accrue social capital by having superior style, etiquette, or social connections. It is funny that Bateman’s logical rebuttal to McDermott’s in with the maitre d’ is to show off his new business card in the hopes that its particular shade of white is more elegant than those of the others at the table. Further, he feels physically sick with embarrassment when his card is simply forgotten on the table.

      Their close examination and knowledge of business cards and their merits reveals how distorted their perception of the world is, or may also be a critique of the effects of professional life in New York on those who live there. When people who know each other cannot recognize each other’s faces, but can list potential shades of white on a business card, there is a fundamental issue with how they view society. Showing that through the business card interaction was fitting.

  4. Layla Santos

    I did find American Psycho humourous, at least towards the beginning of the novel. Certain details and repetitive aspects I initially found funny (detailed descriptions of clothing, mentions of Les Mis, instances of mistaken identity, etc). However, I found it less funny the more I read and I think that’s due to the intensity and discomfort that builds further into the plot. The small details that seemed humorous became tied into Bateman’s overwhelmingly monomotous and isolating world. I think that shift is indicative of the novels success and I don’t think that the humorous is totally lost.

    I found myself kind of distracted while reading the conversations and Bateman’s internal dialogue. I couldn’t help but wonder how much of these moments reflect the author’s actual life. In the instances where Ellis’ characters name drop expensive brands and items, it feels very much that the elite world he’s establish in American Psycho is place very familiar to him. Whether this is true or not, this feeling I had partially detracted from the humor and the novel in general. It also left me wondering if how much these sort of things should matter when evaluating art.

    1. Hannah Morrissey

      I agree with Layla that I found a lot of the book so far to be distracting. Trying to keep up with what everyone is wearing, who they’re dating, and who they are is too much even for the characters themselves at times. For a large portion of the beginning, I struggled not having a storyline to latch on to. That being said, this exact disorientation or internal disruption created that parts that I found to be comical. One of the funniest scenes to me was the first half of the chapter “Deck Chairs” (92-101). These pages painted an absurd image in my mind with Courtney inviting her significant other’s friend on a date, but being on too many drugs herself to be conscious. This leaves Patrick to entertain himself with her friends Scott and Anne. Some of these exchanges such as Anne and Patrick discussing California classic cuisine as opposed to other types of California cuisine (94), Patrick’s insistence on Diet Pepsi for Anne’s drink (97), and Patrick only rousing Courtney to help him brag about his Onica (98) seemed like scenes out of a comedy. Finally, the dinner ends with Patrick getting the most enjoyment out of making Scott feel his new speakers are inadequate (100). As many others have mentioned in their responses, this section seems to emphasize the materialism and the triviality involved in the life Patrick leads. It is depicted so overtly as to make scenes such as this one appear almost satirical, providing some comic relief, in my opinion, to an otherwise dark world within the novel.

  5. Caroline Jaschke

    I found it funny the way in which all of the men are continually mistaken for someone else. Bateman is constantly seeing someone at a bar or restaurant and mistaking them for X, only to have a friend correct him and tell him the man is Y, and then to have someone else refer to them as W. Even Bateman himself is continually mistaken for someone else. In one instance when Bateman says, “Owen has mistaken me for Marcus Halberstam,” Bateman just goes along with it (89). The men are also all sleeping with each others girlfriends, which while creating a problematic, misogynistic atmosphere within the book, also seems to suggest that the men are all interchangeable with each other. It doesn’t really matter much who each of the men are as long as they all conform to this mold of the upperclass male, as Millie points out. The men all move through an impersonal world in which identity means little. Instead, the attention is continually placed on what the men are wearing, so that the men are reduced down to status symbols (their fancy clothing and accessories). Status is valued in this society and individual, personal identity is of little consequence. I think, however, it is also this identity-lacking world that allows Bateman to get away with his crimes. If no one is sure of each other’s identity, no one can be held responsible for their crimes. At the beginning of the semester, we talked about the fears people had of urbanization creating an impersonal world and I think we see this theme appearing in American Psycho as well.

  6. Millie von Platen

    I certainly found several moments funny. The characters in the book have their traits, habits and interactions exaggerated to a point of caricature, wherein such figures are impossible to take seriously. The protagonists serve as a parody of young professionals, which I believe is further emphasized in that the task of distinguishing between them becomes a difficult one for the reader. They all present the same absurd characteristics, and seem to wear similar Ralph Lauren double-breasted wool blazers and silk ties by so-and-so, which has the characters merge and collectively serve as a single pastiche of a certain sort of person. Of course, the exaggerations that the characters present also tend towards the unpleasant, in the way that they all seem to collectively mistreat homeless figures. Thus, they become humorous figures only to a certain degree, such as when Bateman very frankly spends a moment worrying about the sodium levels in the soy sauce he is about to consume. (Of course, perhaps he does have a high blood pressure that warrants his concern — however, I’d prefer to take any opportunity the reader gets to poke fun at the characters and their satirized distresses.)

  7. Nina Colombotos

    I don’t think I could go as far as funny, but I was maybe vaguely entertained by how childish the men were. Bateman certainly considers all women childish, but I was much more struck by the men. I’m thinking of scenes like the argument over pizza at a restaurant; the men can’t let go of not only their needs (one consistently yelling that he wants pizza) but also their ability to win an argument (whether the pizza is good or “brittle”). I thought it might have been a joke when one of the men presented the article quoting Trump, but both men took that conversation seriously. In fact, the article infuriated Bateman.
    Another aspect I guess I could maybe consider funny is what these people choose to pay attention to. At times, the childish obsession with certain things seems like a parody, whether it’s Bateman describing his morning facial care routine, or women deliberating over the presentation of sushi, or the men debating various fashion rules and standards. Everything seemed trivial, but to these young professionals in New York, it’s the most important.

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