I'm just glad to read in this thread that I'm not the only who enjoys
In the Vault. Granted, Mr. Fifer points out its schlocky, cheesy,
Tales from the Crypt-like feel, but I did find it odd that neither he nor Mr. Lackey commented on the story's inherent humor. Yes, they made fun of it, but neither actually ever seemed to say, "This story is just plain funny." Of course, most
Tales from the Crypt stories were horrifically funny, so maybe they were making that point without actually referring to its humor. Still, from Mr. Lackey's opinion as I understood it from this episode, it just seemed like he didn't see it as a funny.
I found it interesting that Anthony Tedesco read for both this story and
The Hound;
The Hound being regarded by Mr. Fifer and Mr. Lackey as parody (self- or otherwise), and S.T. Joshi even remarking in his later interview about the comedy of
The Hound. It's clearly over-the-top, and that can add to a sense of morbid comedy, but I do wonder just how much - if at all - Lovecraft intended the story to have any semblance of humor. In that sense, I read
In the Vault the same way. After all, the second sentence of the story ends with "no average reader can be brought to expect more than a hearty albeit grotesque phase of comedy." Even as the next sentence tries to dispel any sense of humor, I read it as "Oh, you're going to laugh, but no. I'm serious, this is really scary!" That just makes it even funnier to me. And of course, to hear our hosts' comments... "He would drink on the job... and he was bad at his job," or "That's what you get for going to work drunk," or "He wasn't an evil man; he was just a half-wit."
Again, I don't know if Lovecraft intended it to be humorous... any more than
The Hound was supposed to be. But
In the Vault always has me laughing out loud, and I just found it interesting that Mr. Lackey's critique seemed to discount the humor beyond his comments during the reading and calling it succinct. No offense Chris.
I guess I just share Chad's sense of humor when it comes to this story.
