"Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby" is a short story by Donald Barthelme.

The
premise of the story is that Colby is set to be hanged by his intellectual, sophisticated, upper-class
friends, who are all men. Colby's transgression is that he has "gone too far." In the beginning, this
seems like a ridiculously vague reason to execute someone, but later on in the story examples are
given as to how he has "gone too far." However, these reasons are just as absurd. For instance,
Colby's suggestion regarding music was deemed unacceptable and this behavior further reinforced
their decision to execute Colby.
The first thing that one notices is that the executioners are all intelligent and seemingly reasonable.
The group of "friends" are made up of various professionals. However, the message that the author
is trying to articulate is that even normal, sophisticated members of the bourgeoisie are capable of
murder. This was exemplified in Nazi Germany, where brilliant practicing doctors like Josef Mengele
became a participant in terrible human rights violations. Likewise, in the American South, there
exists photographs of clean-cut, professional-looking people smiling in front of a man hanging from a
tree branch, executed by a mob. Colby's so-called friends might be educated and cultured, but they
exhibit psychopathic behaviors even in the absurdist context of the play's premise.

The other subtext in the story is the question of morality. The reasoning of the mob provokes deep
philosophical questions about the law, the penal system, the judiciary system and capital
punishment. Since people create laws, why would it be wrong for Colby's comrades to create their
own laws and codes of morality? Who is to say that "going too far" could not be punishable by
death? In a sense, the mob who is planning to hang Colby represents the jury system. After all,
Colby's friends are literally a jury of his peers; they are a reflection of him and it is they who will
make the final judgement regarding his life. Like an actual jury in a courtroom, the mob is made up
of people from various backgrounds and professions.

The story includes many traditional elements of a fable: simple, straightforward narration; one-
dimensional characters; uncomplicated, black-and-white logic; and a morally satisfying, didactic
ending. However, unlike classic fables, which teach useful lessons, in this story the gap between the
extreme action (hanging) and the vague offense it purports to correct (going “too far”) makes it
difficult to take the lesson literally, or even, it would seem, seriously.