The Really Ugly Duckling

I re-read Jon Scieszka's The Stinky Cheeseman, and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. There are many old fairy tales in them that have been retold in different ways with little twists to them to make them "fairly stupid." I particularly enjoyed Cinderumpelstiltskin and The Really Ugly Ducking. In the latter, all the other ducks won't let the ugly duckling hang out with them (reminiscient of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer), and the poor little guy keeps saying that he will be beautiful when he grows up! But at the end when he finally does, it says that he just grows "up to be a very ugly duck." This, of course, takes the warm, fuzzy feelings of the usually happy endings of fairy tales and flushes it down the toilet. This is not what we expect since we are so used to the mean other uncompassionate "ducks" (this can be generally applied to any fairy tale, story, movie, etc.) getting their comeuppance at the end, and when they do not, it pushes us out of our comfort zone, which is what causes this version of The Ugly Duckling to become humorous for many of us. http://deidret78.tripod.com/id5.html