Kategoria BISAC: Humor >> General

ho was Mario Puzo's model for the Don Corleone character in The Godfather? Was it Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno? The infamous Salvatore Maranzano? No . . . it was Puzo's mother Senator Joseph McCarthy was responsible for the infamous "Hollywood Blacklist," right? Well, actually . . . no, he had nothing to do with it.

Perfect for the cocktail party pundit or trivia buff, the quirky tidbits in The Awful Truths turn history, culture, sports, and entertainment upside down. The book examines some of our culture's oldest, most popular myths, and tells the fascinating, hilarious,...

Enlighten Up Already

Monet? Manet? Who can even tell the difference? Well, with the help of the newest mental_floss tome, you can Want to learn how to tell egg rolls from spring rolls, nuclear bombs from dirty nuclear bombs, or even how to tell an idiot from a moron (there's a real scientific difference)? Piece of cake Whether you're trying to impress your boss, your mother-in-law, attractive singles, or a pack of fourth graders (you know how they love semantics), mental_floss gives you all the tips and tricks to have you sounding like a genius.

The bathroom read to end all bathroom reads

What does Greece (the country) have to do with Grease (the movie)? And what does Grease (the movie) have to do with greasy food? Plenty, if you ask the folks at mental_floss.

Based on the magazine's "Scatterbrained" section, the mental_floss gang has taken on the Mount Everest of trivia challenges: connecting the entire world through the juiciest facts they could find. How do you get from Puppies to Stalin; from Humpty Dumpty to Elizabeth Taylor; from the Hundred Years' War to 8 Minute Abs; or even...

Friends? Romans? Countrymen?
You never know whom you'll have to impress
at your next corporate shindig or keg party.

Whatever the target audience, mental_floss knows staring facedown into the punch bowl isn't the trick. In fact, that's exactly why we're handing you Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets--a totally effective, foolproof guide to starting and sustaining conversations on every topic under the sun. Want to wax wise about barbarians, socialist theory, and jazz musicians? What about Keynesian economics, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and James Joyce's...

"His humor is cerebral and complex, a blend of romance and nostalgia; it sparklingly parodies the American (and human) condition.... His stories and satires glow with a sense of time and place." --The Washington Post

"This is an absolutely delightful book.... Hubbard is considered to be a regional humorist, but like all really good humorists, he speaks to everyone." Humor: International Journal of Humor Research

"Now an then an innocent man is sent t' th legislature."

"When a feller says, It hain t th money, but th principle o th thing, it s the money."

During the early years of this century, the fictional Abe Martin became one of the most popular cracker-barrel philosophers this country has ever known. First created for the Indianapolis News by Kin Hubbard, the humorous and sometimes...

Nervous Laughter examines 40 years of situation comedy, decade by decade, providing the first truly panoramic view of TV's most popular dramatic form. Within this context, Hamamoto traces what he describes as the dominant liberal democratic ideology implicit within situation comedy and explains its enduring popularity. Critically analyzing four decades of television situation comedies from "The Honeymooners" to "The Bill Cosby Show," Hamamoto shows how the sitcom reflects, explains, legitimates, and challenges the society in which it is grounded, illuminating the power of laughter both to...

Critically analyzing four decades of television situation comedies from The Honeymooners to The Bill Cosby Show, Hamamoto shows how the sitcom reflects, explains, legitimates, and challenges the society in which it is grounded, illumining the power of laughter both to reaffirm and to question existing social structures. . . . Hamamoto offers a well-researched and refreshingly lucid study, immensely readable for its astute scholarship. Indispensable for students and scholars of television, popular culture, and comedy. "Choice"

"Nervous Laughter" examines forty years of situation comedy,...

Gifted travel writer, poet, professor of English, and insightful observer of human nature, Colleen McElroy journeyed to Madagascar to undertake a Fulbright research project exploring Malagasy oral traditions and myths. In Over the Lip of the World she depicts with equal verve the various storytelling traditions of the island and her own adventures in trying to find and record them.

McElroy's tale of an African American woman's travels among the people of Madagascar is told with wit, insight, and humor. Throughout it she interweaves English translations of Malagasy stories of...

Experienced speakers know the value of humor for adding punch to their point and muscle to their message. That's why 1001 More Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking belongs in every pastor's and speaker's library -- including yours Like its rib-tickling predecessor, 1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking, this volume is a gold mine of one-liners, jokes, and humorous anecdotes for almost any situation or subject. Pick your topic: Attitudes, Evangelism, Romance, Weddings . . . you'll find what you're looking for, conveniently alphabetized, numbered, and indexed for instant...

Guided by the fastidious journals of an eminent Victorian adventurer by the name of Lord Dufferin, Time Moore sets off to prove his mettle in the most stunningly inhospitable place on Earth-the Arctic. Armed only with his searing wit, wicked humor, and seasickness pills, our pale suburbanite-wracked by second thoughts of tactical retreat-confronts mind-numbing cold, blood-thirsty polar bears, a convoy of born-again Vikings, and, perhaps most chilling of all, herring porridge. When he is not humiliating himself through displays of ignorance and incompetence, Moore casts a sharp eye on the...

Concentrating on the allegorical aspects of satiric allegory, Leyburn discusses in detail such works as Gulliver's Travels and Butler's victorian satire Erewhon.