Kelly is an instructor of creative writing and literature at several colleges in Illinois. In this essay, Kelly explains that Waugh's humor is not based in deep understanding of social situations but in simple comic reversal of expectations.

Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop is a social satire, making fun of the people who inhabit its world and of the moral values of the world itself. As most satires do, the book serves to comfort those who are not rich, powerful, or socially dynamic, by showing that the eminent members of society are no better than the average person, and are, in fact, usually worse. Waugh turns the common values of the real world on their head. In the real world, the privileged command what they want, while in Scoop the wealthy are so vague about their desires that they end up generally pleased with whatever results are reported...