Best of
Comedy

1971

Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own!


Erma Bombeck - 1971
    With Erma Bombeck in your corner, laughter is the best coach you can have....

Riotous Assembly


Tom Sharpe - 1971
    Offering all the qualities of his general bestselling fiction, this is Tom Sharpe's blazing satire of South African apartheid, companion to Indecent Exposure.

If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries What Am I Doing in the Pits?


Erma Bombeck - 1971
    She gets anxious about running out of ball bearings; about snakes sneaking in through the pipes; about making meaningful conversation on New Year’s Eve. Married life, she realizes, is an unpredictable saga even when you know exactly how loud your husband snores every night—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. In this crisp collection of essays, Bombeck shows off the irresistible style that made her one of America’s favorite humorists for more than three decades. When she sharpens her wit, no family member is sacred and no self-help fad is safe.

Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall


Spike Milligan - 1971
    gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked "This is your enemy". I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train . . .'In this, the first of Spike Milligan's uproarious recollections of life in the army, our hero takes us from the outbreak of war in 1939 ('it must have been something we said'), through his attempts to avoid enlistment ('time for my appendicitus, I thought') and his gunner training in Bexhill ('There was one drawback. No ammunition') to the landing at Algiers in 1943 ('I closed my eyes and faced the sun. I fell down a hatchway').Filled with bathos, pathos and gales of ribald laughter, this is a barely sane helping of military goonery and superlative Milliganese.'The most irreverent, hilarious book about the war that I have ever read' Sunday Express'Desperately funny, vivid, vulgar' Sunday Times'Milligan is the Great God to all of us' John Cleese'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy' Eddie Izzard'That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man' Stephen FrySpike Milligan was one of the greatest and most influential comedians of the twentieth century. Born in India in 1918, he served in the Royal Artillery during WWII in North Africa and Italy. At the end of the war, he forged a career as a jazz musician, sketch-show writer and performer, before joining forces with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe to form the legendary Goon Show. Until his death in 2002, he had success as on stage and screen and as the author of over eighty books of fiction, memoir, poetry, plays, cartoons and children's stories.

The Wizard of Wallaby Wallow


Jack Kent - 1971
    a mouse comes to the wizards door and asks if he could have a potion.The mouse does not know what the potion will turn him into. The mouse has to decide if he will drink the potion or if he is happy how he is.

The golden evenings of summer


Will Stanton - 1971
    . . the aroma of the backyard lilac bush . . . the inviting appeal of the vacant lot next door . . . the riches of a bottle-cap collection . . . the temptation of the cookie jar . . . the summers that never ended.Capture a moment and journey back with us to the good old days . . . those very, very good old days.

Dud and Pete: The Dagenham Dialogues


Peter Cook - 1971
    Originally broadcast in Not Only...But Also, these sketches preserve the idot wisdom of Cook and Moore's celebrated, cloth-capped alter-egos, Pete and Dud.

My Favorite Intermissions: Lives of the Musical Greats and Other Facts You Never Knew You Were Missing


Victor Borge - 1971
    signed books

Dennis the Menace Voted Most Likely


Hank Ketcham - 1971
    Who else?

The Comedy of Neil Simon


Neil Simon - 1971
    For more than thirty years, Simon's wry and astute observations on life, love, and the human condition have been making audiences laugh uproariously even as his beautifully realized characters touch their hearts. These five plays, including the Pulitzer- and Tony-award-winning Lost in Yonkers, show Simon at the pinnacle of his extraordinary career. Rumors Lost in Yonkers Jake's Women Laughter on the 23rd Floor London Suite Including the author's introduction: "How to Stop Writing and Other Impossibilities"