Few figures throw a mightier shadow over the 20th Century cultural landscape than Groucho Marx (1890-1977), born Julius Henry Marx to assimilating German Jews in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. With three of his four brothers – Chico, Harpo and Zeppo – he created several of Hollywood’s greatest comedies, and, as a single […]
American Cornball: A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny, by Christopher Miller
American Cornball: A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny, by Christopher Miller came as a delightful surprise. Arranged alphabetically, Miller enumerates the countless tropes so frequent in American comedy circa 1900-1966, and why they were funny and what they tell us about Americans of old. Miller creates an artificial cutoff of 1966, citing anecdotally that […]
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson
William McGuire “Bill” Bryson (born 1951) has written several amusing books on language, science and travel. He has also been a fixture on television and radio, and is one of the smartest and funniest men on the contemporary scene. However, the Bill Bryson that I enjoyed the most was the gentle memoirist who […]