Best of
Funny

1984

'Toons for Our Times: A Bloom County Book of Heavy Meadow Rump 'n Roll


Berkeley Breathed - 1984
    

No Coins, Please


Gordon Korman - 1984
    Dennis is in heaven - he thinks he and his friend Rob have scored the perfect summer jobs. But Rob quickly points out what Dennis never factored in - the group of boys they're now completely responsible for. That includes Artie Geller - Donald Trump in a 10-year-old's body. Artie gives his counsellors the slip whenever possible to set up new business opportunities. Dennis and Rob soon learn they can't control Artie, and that they have to hide every one of his schemes from the tour boss to protect their own skins.Visions of beautiful female counsellors are replaced by visions of bankruptcy... and the FBI.

The Straight Dope


Cecil Adams - 1984
    Now the best of these questions and answers--from the profound to the ridiculous--are collected in book form so that you can know a little about a lot. Exploding myths, revealing shocking truths, and explaining all major mysteries of the cosmos, The Straight Dope contains more than four hundred fully-indexed entries on topics ranging from sex to consumer products, science to history, and rock 'n' roll to much, much more!

The Adrian Mole Diaries


Sue Townsend - 1984
    The difference, though, between young Master Mole and his peers is that this British lad keeps a diary - an earnest chronicle of longing and disaster that has charmed more than five million readers since its two-volume initial publication. From teen-aged Adrian's anguished adoration of a lovely, mercurial schoolmate to his view of his parents' constantly creaking relationship to his heartfelt but hilarious attempts at cathartic verse, here is an outrageous triumph of deadpan - and deadly accurate - satire. ABBA, Princess Di's wedding, street punks, Monty Python, the Falklands campaign . . . all the cultural pageantry of a keenly observed era marches past the unique perspective of Sue Townsend's brilliant comic creation: A . Mole, the unforgettable lad whose self-absorption only gets funnier as his life becomes more desperate.

Riotous Assembly : Wilt :


Tom Sharpe - 1984
    

The Blade: Shellville High School


Don Novello - 1984
    

Bachelor Boys: The Young Ones Book


Ben Elton - 1984
    BACHELOR BOYS: The Young Ones Book by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer

Garfield: His 9 Lives


Jim DavisValette Hildebrand - 1984
    . . 9 times!Cave Cat—the first cat crawled out of the sea 10 million years ago. He was happy to be out of the water—until he met Big Bob!The Vikings—he was big, he was mean, he was a Viking. Garfield the Orange had looted a lot of cities, but none like St. Paul, Minnesota.Babes and Bullets—Sam Spayed wasn’t the best private investigator in the world, but he did have one terrific thing going for him—a secretary who made a great cup of coffee.The Exterminators—no mouse was safe from the exterminators. Catching mice was their life. It wasn’t a pretty job—especially the way they did it.Lab Animal—Specimen 19-GB was not happy at the prospect of being dissected, so he did something about it. What happened set the federal government on its ear.The Garden—life was a carefree romp among hovering harmonicas for Cloey and the orange kitten . . . until they confronted the crystal box.Primal Self—he was an ordinary house cat leading an ordinary existence. A shadowy memory from another time changed all that.Garfield—the marvelous cat we all know and love. This is his life in a nutshell.Space Cat—he was lost in space with a computer built by the lowest bidder. And, he was not about to let his life slip away that easily.

Herman: The Fourth Treasury


Jim Unger - 1984
    Herman is Everyman--he's a doctor, a waiter, a loan applicant, a duck, a Hun, even a she! He's that invariably hapless goof who wears a bow tie on his head and removable feet on his legs.Join the millions who already read Herman and become a new fan with Herman: The Fourth Treasury.

A Play of Giants


Wole Soyinka - 1984
    

Here She Is, Ms Teeny-Wonderful


Martyn Godfrey - 1984
    Teeny-Wonderful Contest. Her mother is not so excited when Carol decides her talent is to jump six garbage cans on her bike.

The Bill James Baseball Abstract 1984


Bill James - 1984
    

Omnibooth : The Best of George Booth


George Booth - 1984
    Missouri, where Booth grew up on a vegetable farm. Booth attended, but did not graduate from, the Corcoran College of Art and Design, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, the School of Visual Arts, and Adelphi College.Over time, his cartoons have become an iconic feature of the magazine. In a doodler's style, they feature every man beset by modern complexity, goofballs perplexing their spouses, cats, and very often a fat dog. One signature element is a ceiling light bulb on a cord pulled out of vertical by another cord attached to an electrical appliance such as a toaster. Most of the household features in his cartoons are taken from his own home, such as the rugs, chairs, ferns, and cats. One of his own cats, adopted later in his career, was described as being "more like my drawing than the drawings...when he lies down, his back feet go out in back-straight out."[1]The National Cartoonists Society recognized his work with the Gag Cartoon Award in 1993 and the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.

Elvis is Dead And I Don't Feel So Good Myself


Lewis Grizzard - 1984
    For Lewis Grizzard, gallivanting meant hanging out at the store eating Zagnut bars -- the worst thing a kid ever did was slick back his hair in a ducktail and try gyrating like Elvis. But the '60s exploded with assassinations, terrorism, free love, Vietnam and drugs. In place of Elvis, the Pied Piper of his generation, scuzzy Liverpudlians performed half-naked or in costumes straight from Zasu Pitts. ELVIS IS DEAD AND I DON'T FEEL SO GOOD MYSELF is Grizzard's account of coping with a changing world. We may not feel so good ourselves, but Grizzard's commentary and humor help make us feel better." (Publishers Source)

Would You Rather...


John Burningham - 1984
    Here is a surefire giggle-getter for storytime, perfect for sharing with any child who's ever wanted to do something completely out of the ordinary.

The Butch Manual


Clark Henley - 1984
    

The Best of Beetle Bailey


Mort Walker - 1984
    Few strips have the popularity of staying power of "Beetle Bailey," able to entertain readers for over five decades. As creator or co-creator of eight other popular comic strips, including "Hi & Lois" and "Boner's Ark," Mort Walker is the most widely published cartoonist in comics history. It's a testament to Walker's genius and Beetles' Universal appeal. Walker created Beetle Bailey just before the Korean War, and the strip has evolved into a comics page staple where the fun, but ineffectual, denizens of Camp Swampy exist in a place long forgotten by the Pentagon. At the bottom of the heap is Beetle Bailey, the eternal private who sees his duty as sleeping whenever possible, needling Sarge, and avoiding work at all costs. But Sergeant Orville P. Snorkel has different ideas--he may beat up on "his boys," but he then takes them out for a beer. General Halftrack is more concerned with ogling Miss Buxley than running the camp. And with inept officers like Major Greenbrass, Lieutenant Fuzz, and Lieutenant Flap, nothing ever gets done. But that doesn't keep the troops from complaining, or getting into one hilarious mess after another.Beetle Bailey, the character, may never get a promotion, but "Beetle Bailey," the comic strip, has made it to the top.

Best of the Realist: The 60s' Most Outrageously Irreverent Magazine


Paul Krassner - 1984