Genres
Tall tale
A story with unbelievable elements told as if true and factual, where exaggeration grows until it dominates the story.
A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, told as if it were true and factual. It stands next to the legend, differing mainly by age and by degree: in tall tales the exaggeration looms large, to the extent of dominating the story. The form's roots lie in the bragging contests that occurred when the rough men of the American frontier gathered, and exaggerated storytelling began in the 1800s as a way for Americans to come to terms with the vast and inhospitable lands they inhabited. Paul Bunyan, the huge lumberjack who eats 50 pancakes in a minute and dug the Grand Canyon with his axe, is the mascot, beside Pecos Bill, Davy Crockett and John Henry.
The tall tale belongs to folklore, and its frontier provenance makes it natural kin to the Western. Its voice, first-person and shamelessly oversized, is the whole style sheet.