Best of
Comedy

1981

The Complete Yes Minister


Jonathan Lynn - 1981
    It is a fascinating diary... It is shorter than Barbara Castle's... and although it is rather more accurate than Dick Crossman's, itis distinctly funnier' - Lord Allen of Abbeydale (formerlyPermanent Secretary at the Home Office) in The Times'It has an entertainment and educational value which isunique. It is uproariously funny and passes the acid test ofbecoming more amusing at every subsequent reading... I willgo so far as to claim that in the characters of Jim Hacker andSir Humphrey Appleby, Messrs Lynn and Jay have createdsomething as immortal as P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Woosterand Jeeves' - Brian Walden in The Standard

I Want to Go Home!


Gordon Korman - 1981
    Rudy Miller is so unhappy spending the summer at Camp Algonkian Island that he devises dozens of tricks to get himself sent home.

Life at Blandings


P.G. Wodehouse - 1981
    Wodehouse entices us into the demesne of Blandings Castle - an apparent paradise where it is eternal high summer, with jolly parties, tea on the lawn and love trysts in the rose garden. But for Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, there is always something to disturb this tranquil scene.This omnibus contains Something Fresh, Summer Lightning and three short stories (The Custody of the Pumpkin, Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best and Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey).

They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?


Patrick F. McManus - 1981
    McManus celebrates the hidden pleasures, unappreciated lore, and opportunities for disaster to be found in such outdoor recreations as camping, hunting, and fishing

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life & Times


Carl Barks - 1981
    Completely recolored in the style of the 1930s and 1940s Disney animated cartoons. Illustrated.

Thelwell's Pony Cavalcade: Angels on Horseback/A Leg at Each Corner/Riding Academy


Norman Thelwell - 1981
    From the first publication of Angels on Horseback in 1957, the Thelwell pony entered the language and the libraries of horse-lovers everywhere.

Wodehouse on Crime


P.G. Wodehouse - 1981
    One dozen prime examples of the late writer's stories about crime, criminals, and cunning detectives include "The Crime Wave at Blandings," "Strychnine in the Soup," and "Ukridge's Accident Syndicate"

The Best of Hagar the Horrible


Dik Browne - 1981
    Gathers selections from the popular comic strip about Hagar, a Viking, and his family, and describes the background of the artist and the characters in his comic.

Cosmic Banditos


A.C. Weisbecker - 1981
    Quark is a down-on-his luck pot-smuggler hiding out in the mountains of Colombia with his dog, High Pockets, and a small band of banditos led by the irascible Jose. Only months before, these three and their fearless associates were rolling in millions in cash and high-grade marijuana, eluding prosecution on "ridiculously false" drug and terrorism charges. But times have quickly grown lean, and to liven up their exile, Jose decides to mug a family of American tourists.Among the spoils are physics texts, which launch Mr. Quark on a side-splitting, boisterous adventure north to California, where he confronts the owner of the books with his own theories on relativity, the nature of the universe, and looking for the meaning of life in all the wrong places....

Don't Sit Under the Grits Tree With Anyone Else But Me


Lewis Grizzard - 1981
    Ruminations on lardbutts. bra-padders. Good ol'boys and giggling Yankee girls. The joys of white bread and knowing your way around a 1957 Chevrolet. And lots more from one of America's favorite writers.

Pidgin to da Max


Douglas Simonson - 1981
    The sequel, Pidgin To Da Max Hana Hou, also became a best-seller. The anniversary edition combines the words and illustrations in those two collections in a paperback format.

The Bloodhounds of Broadway and Other Stories


Damon Runyon - 1981
    Populated by guys and dolls, show girls and gangsters, Runyon's world captured the imagination of a vast public "more than somewhat," as he would have put it. It is a world of sentiment and surprise, and above all, humor. Runyon intorduced millions of readers to a milieu of colorful smalltime hoodlums and hustlers--the likes of Nathan Detroit, Harry the Horse and Nicely Johnson--and their "dolls," such as Dark Dolores, Madame La Gimp, and Miss Missouri Martin. Runyon described his characters in the inimitable idiom her adapted from real-life street talk. Runyon's ever-present narrator serves as our eyes and ears, whether the scene is Broadway, the racetracks of Miami and Saratoga, football games in Ivy League New England, or even (in his Christmas fable, "The Three Wise Guys") Bethlehem (Pennsylvania). Many readers know Runyon's work better from movies than from his writings--hardly surprising, considering that more than two dozen films have been made from his stories, including Guys and Dolls, The Lemon Drop Kid and Pocketful of Miracles from this collection. This volume once again makes available an outstanding selection of Runyon's hugely entertaining Broadway stories, many of them for the first time in paperback

Appreciate Me Now, and Avoid the Rush Yet More Brilliant Thoughts


Ashleigh Brilliant - 1981
    . . illustrated epigrams that will inspire your personal quest for telling communication. Fresh, funny, wistful, bright; they may well reflect some of your own deep or whimsical thoughts. Ashleigh's Pot Shots are acclaimed, told and re-told, by young and old, secular and religious, mainstream and offbeat they speak to everyone. What they say: Clifton Fadiman: Most enjoyable; Isaac Asimov: Good one-liners; Richard Armour: Wise, and witty; People magazine: Artistic trailblazer, Ashleigh Brilliant coins epigrams that would drive Oscar wild. Ashleigh's Pot Shots are copyrighted and the names Pot Shots and Brilliant Thoughts are registered trademarks.

Every Goy's Guide to Common Jewish Expressions


Arthur Naiman - 1981
    For one thing, my mother was nothing like the stereotype. She used to abandon me on our cabin floor for days at a time while she went out deer hunting...

Scaredy Cats


Audrey Wood - 1981
    But as they get further away from home the kittens are plagued by imaginary fairy tale fears. Will they make it to town safely, or will they really be scaredy cats and give up before they reach their destination? An amusing story that will help children to understand and overcome their own fears.

Mad As A Hatter


Sergio Aragonés - 1981
    Sergio Aragonés puts on his THINKING CAP and comes up with A TOPPER to his seven previous CROWNING ACHIEVEMENTS...and when you finish trying this skullduggery on for size, we guarantee that you, too, will be MAD AS A HATTER!

In One Era & Out the Other


Sam Levenson - 1981
    Levenson does the New York shtik -- the bracing hard life (""We had a permissive father. He permitted us to work""); culture and excursions (""Next time I take you anyplace I'm gonna leave you home!""); commerce (butcher-bargaining vs. today's supermarket); food (things that melt in the mouth and harden in the stomach, viz., ""a delicate potato pancake could be reborn as a hockey puck""); love and marriage and death. Levenson's low-keyed style allows him to slip into both genial sermonizing and solemn matters with ease. A nice man, a nice book for the family circles with East Side ties.

That Woman Must Be on Drugs: A Collection of Sylvia


Nicole Hollander - 1981
    

She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown


Charles M. Schulz - 1981
    Aided by her coach, Snoopy, Peppermint Patty prepares for a big ice skating competition.