Petra, I seem to be playing the regular straight-man, deadpan role today. Tell me what happens in your head to make you laugh. The passage is absurd, and full of unexpected changes in direction and awkward situations, but it doesn't trigger a laugh at all for me.
Sometimes I do know what's tickling me. A rhyme will do it, like interpolate/purple ate in the Nash poem. By the way, Susan, "Very Like a Whale" has long been a favorite of mine too.
As Andrew says, surprise is important, and that rhyme is a surprise.
Shifts and mismatches in tone are good reliable tools. Yesterday's poem on The Writer's Almanac relies on that mix.
Steve, about the McMillan poem, I need an even closer close reading. In the context of chip shops, what does "Half a dozen eggs" mean, and how is it an answer to "You're looking poorly"? And is that last comment being uttered straight or in irony there in the chip shop? Sorry to be so hopeless.
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