"Kiss and Tell" - Alain de Botton

   To produce a comic effect in “Kiss and Tell” Alain de Botton employs the characterization of the father figure, Mr. Rogers, to facilitate the sometimes unwanted but always undeniable similarities between parent and child.  Throughout the excerpt, Isabel is clearly embarrassed by her parents even doing "her best not to recognize" them.  Her father is clearly supposed to be a nerdy character, noticing "lighting fixtures" and even describes something as "fiddly".   Isabel unmistakably does not want the boy she is gonig out with to associate her with her parents.  She does her best to be different from them refraining from using the same type of vocabulary and making fun of them by pointing out how her father is about to sneeze or her "willow tree"-like dress.  In addition to this, they are accompanied by words such as "ominously" and "maniac".  De Botton also uses a metaphor to liken Mr. Rogers' actions to that of "the vigorous hand gestures of a man waving off a departing cruise ship.