Best of
Funny

1986

Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness


Berkeley Breathed - 1986
    An anthology of cartoons from the syndicated comic strip, "Bloom County" encompasses highlights from the five-year span of the strip.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Treasury


Betty MacDonald - 1986
    Piggle-Wiggle for her upside-down house, her delicious cookies, and her ability to understand how they feel. Here in one volume is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle; Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle; and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic. B&W illus. Ages 8-12

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe


Jane Wagner - 1986
    Jane Wagner's masterpiece--The first play in more than 20 years to become a national bestseller--is now a motion picture!In this satire, a form all too lacking in American theater, Trudy the bag lady, Wagner's central character, tries to explain modern American material society to an alien (i.e., interstellar) committee.

Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters


John Waters - 1986
    This hilarious collection of essays by the offbeat writer and director is a treat for fans of the "Pope of Trash" and the perfect introduction for those who have not yet discovered his eccentric charms.

A Porcupine Named Fluffy


Helen Lester - 1986
    and Mrs. Porcupine name their baby Lance? Needleroozer? Quillian? Perhaps they should, but they don't. Instead they decide on the unlikely name of Fluffy. Fluffy's name is a source of sorrow to the sharp-quilled youngster, until he meets and befriends a rhinoceros named . . . Hippo! Munsinger's bright, cheery pictures are as whimsical as Lester's delightfully silly text. Together, they create nicely absurd images, such as a scene in which Fluffy and Hippo roll on the ground, laughing so hard that they start to cry. Lester and Munsingerwho have collaborated on other picture bookstell a sweet story with joyful exuberance.

Derwood, Inc


Jeri Massi - 1986
    by Jeri Massi When Penny Derwood and her seventh-grade class tour a button factory, she accidentally gets involved in a mystery that she and her brother, Jack, are determined to unravel. In their efforts to solve the mystery, they undergo a series of hilarious adventures and at the same time begin to learn something about teamwork, family unity, and accepting one another. The Peabody Series, named for the imaginary town of Peabody, Wisconsin, centers on a group of Christian young people who attend the same local church. Each book focuses on a new adventure that involves several members of the youth group. The characters in these books do not find quick solutions to their difficulties. Like all Christians, they struggle to grow, sometimes losing ground, but ultimately coming to a deeper knowledge of the Lord. For ages 9 to 12.

Five Hundred Mile Walkies


Mark Wallington - 1986
    His two-legged companion is Mark. This is a heroic study of survival against the odds, as together they take a journey, up hill and down dale, with rucksacks full of kennomeat, along Britain's longest coastal footpath - from Somerset to Devon, from Cornwall to Dorset.

Don't Care High


Gordon Korman - 1986
    Paul's attempts to adjust to New York City life are thwarted at his high school, nicknamed Don't Care High, until his manipulation of a new Student Council president wakes up the apathetic student body.

My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of A Gun


Lewis Grizzard - 1986
    This is a compelling, often hilarious portrait of a loving man who faced failure but always remained an inspiration to his son. "A sad book, a funny book, a very human book".--The Courier-Times.

The Biggest Tongue in Tunisia: And Other Drawings


B. Kliban - 1986
    Drawings

My Darling Villain


Lynne Reid Banks - 1986
    Fifteen-year-old Kate becomes aware of the class consciousness of her middle class family and friends when she falls in love with a boy from a working class family.

Yes, Prime Minister: The Diaries Of The Right Hon. James Hacker: Volume 1


Jonathan Lynn - 1986
    

The Compleat I Hate to Cook Book


Peg Bracken - 1986
    Here's great news for the more than three million people who read and loved Peg Bracken's classic I Hate To Cook Book and its two successors: Peg is back with her very best recipe tips and advice. In a text that is both highly informative and hilarious, she covers everything from shopping to diets to kids to parties to picnics to full meals and more.

Yes Prime Minister: The Diaries Of The Right Hon. James Hacker: Volume II


Jonathan Lynn - 1986
    Many literary classics become television classics, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister are television classics which have the rare distinction of becoming classic English comic literature.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off


Todd Strasser - 1986
    Ferris knows the value of a day off, and just how to make the best of any situation.His plan is fool proof. He'll pretend he's sick (and the whole city will be sure he's at death's door). He'll get his girlfriend out of school (using the famous "dead relative" excuse). And they'll drive in style to every Chicago hot spot (in his best friend's father's Ferrari, of course). It's not an ordinary day off, it's.......Ferris Bueller's DAY OFF.

Sex and Death to the Age 14


Spalding Gray - 1986
    Included are "Sex and Death at the Age of 14," "Booze, Cars, and College Girls," "47 Beds," "Nobody Wanted to Sit Behind a Desk," "Travels through New England," and "Terror of Pleasure: The House." Also includes a preface by the author.

Pigs at Christmas


Arlene Dubanevich - 1986
    As Christmas approaches and panicking pigs prepare for their holiday festivities, one little pig wonders nervously if Santa will really deliver everything as promised.

Nunsense


Dan Goggin - 1986
    The show is a fund raiser put on by the Little Sisters of Hoboken to raise money to bury sisters accidently poisoned by the convent cook, Sister Julia (Child of God). Up dated with new jokes, additional lyrics, two new arrangements and a brand new song, this zany musi

The Illustrated Woody Allen Reader


Woody Allen - 1986
    In this book, selections from his best, wittiest, and most profound work in every area have been gathered together for the first time. The excerpts from the published and never-before-published work range from one-liners to memorable on-screen exchanges to essays, and are drawn from Woody's stand-up routines (which have never appeared in print before), his classic New Yorker pieces, his screenplays, film outtakes, magazine articles, plays, and interviews. Here is vintage Woody Allen on the topics that have dominated his work for more than thirty years: Intellectuals ("They're like the Mafia, they only kill their own"); Analysts ("My poor analyst got so frustrated. The guy finally put in a salad bar"); Love ("Should I marry W.? Not if she won't tell me the other letters in her name"); Work ("Show business is dog eat dog. It's worse than dog eat dog. It's dog doesn't return dog's phone calls"); Death ("I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying"); and much more. Here is marvelous dialogue from twenty-six original screenplays, including Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bananas, Take the Money and Run, Play It Again, Sam, Broadway Danny Rose, Zelig, Radio Days, Manhattan, Husbands and Wives, and all the others. Here are highlights from monologues, including the first one he ever recorded in March, 1964; Woody dicussing his grandfather ("On his deathbed he sold me this pocket watch"); remembering a moth who ate his sports jacket; and telling the now-classic tale of the time he shot a moose. Also included are excerpts from more than sixty essays: "No Kaddish for Weinstein," "Confessions of a Burglar," "The UFO Menace," "The Discovery and Use of the Fake Ink Blot," "A Guide to Some of the Lesser Ballets," and "If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists," in which a distraught Dutch dentist named Vincent writes in anguish t

The Frankenbagel Monster


Daniel Pinkwater - 1986
    When a night-roaming monster is seen in various sections of the city, few people suspect that it is the creation of the local bagel maker, Harold Frankenbagel.

Sam's Wagon


Babro Lindgren - 1986
    In this funny picture book, a toddler named Sam, who knows what he wants, gets a big surprise when he takes Doggie for a wagon ride.