Best of
Funny

2001

Big Nate: Pray for a Fire Drill


Lincoln Peirce - 2001
    As a popular middle-grade book character, Nate is 11 years old, four-and-a-half feet tall, and the all-time record holder for detentions in school history. He's a self-described genius and sixth grade Renaissance Man. Nate, who lives with his dad and older sister, enjoys pestering his family and teachers with his sarcasm.

Big Nate: Dibs on This Chair


Lincoln Peirce - 2001
    

David Sedaris - 14 CD Boxed Set


David Sedaris - 2001
    Now, for the first time on CD and in a convenient box set, he gives voice to his biting sensibility.Barrel Fever and others Stories is Sedaris' first collection of comic stories and essays. Performed by David and Amy Sedaris, this program is described by the New York Post as "a nuclear barrage of humor you could never replicate by reading this material on your own."In Holidays on Ice, Sedaris skewers the absurd conventions and contrivances of the holiday season, with hilarious effect.Naked, a riotous compilation of stories performed by David and Amy Sedaris, was praised by Publishers Weekly as "highly likeable and spirited throughout."Traveling from his childhood in North Carolina to a second linguistic childhood as a non-French-speaking citizen of Paris, Me Talk Pretty One Day is both poignant and full of humor.

Making Money: The Play


Stephen Briggs - 2001
    Then Mrs Lavish, the bank manager, dies, leaving her dog Mr Fusspot, who happens to be the majority shareholder, to Moist.

Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of the Onion


Robert D. Siegel - 2001
    But will those Nobel bastards honor them, too? Only God, our merciless and just God, knows."-Dave Eggers"The funniest publication in the United States."-The New Yorker"This publication is tasteless and destructive to our shared values. Read it for yourself and you'll see what I mean. Seriously, what else could make me laugh-much less laugh uproariously-while being offended week after week after week?"-Al Gore"The Onion is the funniest thing in news since Dan Rather's spooky stare."-Matt Groening"Brutal satire that rushes into the far reaches of race, class, sexuality, and culture where many publications-and critics-fear to tread."-Chicago Tribune"The Onion, unlike any other entity in our media culture, offers a refreshingly honest look at our complicated life."-Ken Burns

Captain Underpants: The Complete Collection


Dav Pilkey - 2001
    Books 1-8

Are You Dave Gorman?


Dave Gorman - 2001
    They visit Scotland, Israel, America, France and Ireland. They even hold a party in London where 50 Dave Gormans attend, including two women who have kindly changed their name via deed-poll. Silly, but engrossing, fascinating and addictive - and a touching, funny story of two friends who grow to share a mutual obsession.

Butt-Naked Baby Blues: A Baby Blues Treasury


Rick Kirkman - 2001
    As usual, Darryl and Wanda have their hands full chasing, refereeing, and pleading with their adorable and hilariously true-to-life kids. Featuring the best of Lift and Separate, I Shouldn't Have to Scream More Than Once!, and Motherhood Is Not for Wimps, it also includes original gems and insight from the creators themselves.

Albert Einstein and His Inflatable Universe


Mike Goldsmith - 2001
    He is possibly the brainiest scientist in history—and the battiest! But did you know that Al's life was almost as wild as his hair? Not only was an unruly young Al expelled from school, but he was spied on by the Nazis and the FBI. And after he died, he had his brain removed.

Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs


Alan Katz - 2001
     "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad"? Well, forget 'em! Songwriter and comedy writer extraordinaire Alan Katz has turned those and other old favorites on their ears and created new nonsense songs kids will love. With zany, spirited pictures by illustrator and cartoonist David Catrow, this kooky collection guarantees laughs and plenty of silly dillyness for kids everywhere!

The Gallery of Regrettable Food: Highlights from Classic American Recipe Books


James Lileks - 2001
    You'll find no tongue-tempting treats within -- unless, of course, you consider Boiled Cow Elbow with Plaid Sauce to be your idea of a tasty meal. No, The Gallery of Regrettable Food is a public service. Learn to identify these dishes. Learn to regard shivering liver molds with suspicion. Learn why curries are a Communist plot to undermine decent, honest American spices. Learn to heed the advice of stern, fictional nutritionists. If you see any of these dishes, please alert the authorities.Now, the good news: laboratory tests prove that The Gallery of Regrettable Food AMUSES as well as informs. Four out of five doctors recommend this book for its GENEROUS PORTIONS OF HILARITY and ghastly pictures from RETRO COOKBOOKS. You too will look at these products of post-war cuisine and ask: "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" It's an affectionate look at the days when starch ruled, pepper was a dangerous spice, and Stuffed Meat with Meat Sauce was considered health food.Bon appetit!The Gallery of Regrettable Food is a simple introduction to poorly photographed foodstuffs and horrid recipes from the Golden Age of Salt and Starch. It's a wonder anyone in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s gained any weight. It isn't that the food was inedible; it was merely dull. Everything was geared toward a timid palate fearful of spice. It wasn't nonnutritious -- no, between the limp boiled vegetables, fat-choked meat cylinders, and pink whipped Jell-O desserts, you were bound to find a few calories that would drag you into the next day. It's just that the pictures are so hideously unappealing.Author James Lileks has made it his life's work to unearth the worst recipes and food photography from that bygone era and assemble them with hilarious, acerbic commentary: "This is not meat. This is something they scraped out of the air filter from the engines of the Exxon Valdez." It all started when he went home to Fargo and found an ancient recipe book in his mom's cupboard: Specialties of the House, from the North Dakota State Wheat Commission. He never looked back. Now, they're not really recipe books. They're ads for food companies, with every recipe using the company's products, often in unexpected and horrifying ways. There's not a single appetizing dish in the entire collection.The pictures in the book are ghastly -- the Italian dishes look like a surgeon had a sneezing fit during an operation, and the queasy casseroles look like something on which the janitor dumps sawdust. But you have to enjoy the spirit behind the books -- cheerful postwar perfect housewifery, and folks with the guts to undertake such culinary experiments as stuffing cabbage with hamburger, creating the perfect tongue mousse when you have the fellas over for a pregame nosh, or, best of all, baking peppers with a creamy marshmallow sauce. Alas, too many of these dishes bring back scary childhood memories.

Napalm & Silly Putty


George Carlin - 2001
    I THINK.In Napalm & Silly Putty, George Carlin, the thinking person's comic, offers a hilarious new collection of razor-sharp observations on God, language, death, pets, driving, food, sports, airplanes, advertising, news, businessmen, and much, much more!* Just when I discovered the meaning of life, they changed it.* If people climb Mt. Everest because it's hard to do, why do they go up on the easy side?* With a little effort, oxen can be trained to genuflect and whistle softly in the moonlight.* How can it be a spy satellite if they announce on TV that its a spy satellite?* If people stand in a circle long enough, they will eventually begin to dance.* Guys don't seem to be called "Lefty" anymore.* No one quite knows what's next, but everybody does it.* I think it would be great if you could make a guy's head explode just by staring at him.* Am I the only one who's noticed that the Lone Ranger and Tonto never got their laundry done?You'll learn what Carlin thinks of saving the planet, his suggestion for revamping the prison system, and why he prays to Joe Pesci. Add to the mix "The Ten Most Embarrassing Songs of All Time," "The 20th Century Hostility Scoreboard," and "People I Can Do Without," and you have an irresistible assortment of quips, probes, thrusts, and verbal ordeals that are as smart as they are infectiously funny.

Blink-182: Tales from Beneath Your Mom


Mark Hoppus - 2001
    They're sexually active. And they play their own instruments.In a time when overproduced boy bands and teen sensations are saturating the music market, the boys of blink-182 are a breath of fresh air -- proving that sugarcoated acts aren't the only thing that can get nominated for MTV's "Video of the Year.""Blink-182 Tales from Beneath Your Mom" is chock full of the outrageous band's behind-the-scenes antics, juvenile sense of humor, and never-before-published photos. Bandmates Mark Hoppus, Tom Delonge, and Travis Barker join Mark's sister, Anne, in this exciting tell-all book about life on the road and backstage.From their early days jamming in Tom's garage, to dominating MTV's "TRL," to going multiplatinum with their album "Enema of the State" and being voted "The Sexiest Rock Band" by "Teen People," fans can at last get an inside look at the video-streaking, toilet-joke-living, self-styled punk/pop band that has all the kids asking, "What's My Age Again?"

TV Go Home


Charlie Brooker - 2001
    Its humour attracts over 150,000 readers a month - an audience that is constantly growing. This book is that website - multiplied by eight and presented in a handy, portable paper-and-inkward edition. Based on the website, "TV Go Home" is a spoof listings magazine that does for the Radio Times what The Onion did for newspapers. Savage, satirical, surreal, and frequently incredibly stupid, this book should make you laugh out loud.

Nodame Cantabile Vol 1 - 23


Tomoko Ninomiya - 2001
    As an extremely talented pianist who wants to be a preschool teacher, she prefers playing by ear rather than reading the music score. She is messy and disorganized, takes baths several days apart and loves to eat, sometimes stealing her friend's lunchbox when it is filled with delicacies.Shinichi Chiaki is Momogaoka's top student. Born into a musical family, he is talented in piano and violin and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. As an arrogant multi-lingual perfectionist who once lived abroad in the music capitals of the world as a young boy (namely Prague), he is trapped in Japan because of his childhood phobia of airplanes and the ocean.They meet by accident. Nodame quickly falls in love, but it takes much longer for Chiaki to even begin to appreciate Nodame's unusual qualities. Their relationship causes them both to develop and grow. Along the way, they meet some crazy people (like Masumi, Mine, and Stresemann) and make lasting friendships. Because of Nodame, Chiaki gets the opportunity to lead a student orchestra and begins to have a broader appreciation of people's musical abilities. Because of Chiaki, Nodame faces her fears and enters a piano competition. Opportunities open up as both begin taking risks, stretching themselves far more than they ever thought possible.After graduation, Nodame succeeds in curing Chiaki from his phobia and they both move to Paris where Nodame continues her piano studies at the Conservatoire de Paris while Chiaki starts a professional career as a conductor. In Europe, they encounter new friends and rivals, as well as keep in touch with their friends from Japan.-Wikipedia

The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Life


Jill Conner Browne - 2001
    Two wonderfully funny books in one edition.

Your Disgusting Head


Doris Haggis-on-Whey - 2001
     Well, we offer you YOUR DISGUSTING HEAD by Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey. A world-renowned and much feared expert on everything, Dr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey has seventeen degrees from eighteen institutions of higher learning. With her husband, Benny, she has traveled the world many times over, has learned about all aspects of life, including outer space and food, first hand. The human body is beautiful and mysterious. The mysterious part reeks of cheese. But no part of your body is as scary and horrifying as your head! In YOUR DISGUSTING HEAD: The Darkest, Most Offensive--and Moist--Secrets of Your Mouth, Nose and Ears, Dr. & Mr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey reveal -- through newly discovered discoveries -- all the ways in which your head disappoints you. With such amazing information as: • The ear was invented and designed by Feranando de la Mancini Goldfarb, in 1911, which was also a good year for yeast. • Good Reasons for teeth removal: dentist did it; peer pressure; not sharp enough; found better teeth, like, on the ground; suspected of enjoying flossing; decay and mouth politics. • The real reason your ears can't hear your pets talking. The answer is simple: your pet is a mumbler." With the wit and irreverent sense of humor for which Dave Eggers and McSweeney's is known, comes the second volume in the revolutionary Haggis-On-Whey World of Unbelievable Brilliance books. More than just entertaining and informative, YOUR DISGUSTING HEAD will help you appear smarter, more in touch with your sensitive side and whiten your teeth. And much, much more that will likely sicken you.

The Uglified Ducky


Willy Claflin - 2001
    In the capable hands of his alter ego Maynard Moose, storyteller Willy Claflin takes us on a wacky journey where this Uglified Ducky, a hapless young moose, "blunders away" from his home, is mistaken for a baby duck, and endured endless humiliation as he tries to learn to waddle, quack, swim, and fly. Eventually he finds his true "fambly," who help him discover his own beauty.In his fractured English, translated in the glossary at front, Maynard relays a surprisingly tender story that echoes the original tale's theme of the struggle to belong. The Uglified Ducky's quest is playfully but sympathetically interpreted in James Stimson's luminous, droll gouache illustrations.

Microscopic Monsters


Nick Arnold - 2001
    Read the diary of a dust mite, get up close and personal with bacteria and find out what it takes to be a micro surgeon. This book is full of fantastic fact files, quizzes and cartoons.

Four Guys and Trouble


Marcus Major - 2001
     "Style, insight, fun and a twist...entertaining, hip, and charming." (Publishers Weekly)

The Wit and Wisdom of Lewis Grizzard: Life Is Like a Dogsled Team... If You're Not the Lead Dog, the Scenery Never Changes


Lewis Grizzard - 2001
    A collection of Lewis' best one-liners, quick-takes, and short tales â�� the clasic Grizzard lines that delighted millions of fans.

8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter: And other tips from a beleaguered father [not that any of them work]


W. Bruce Cameron - 2001
    The reason is simple: he expresses something very true in a very funny way, examining just what happens when Daddy's little girl becomes a teenager. Beginning with the warning signs (#5: Your car insurance suddenly costs more than the car), the book covers dating (Rule #2: Keep your hands and eyes off my daughter's body or I will remove them), the telephone (seemingly wired to her nervous system), braces (the costliest metal on earth), the first job, and more. "Cameron's take on the angst felt by every father of a teenage daughter is witty, wise, and excruciatingly on the money" (Charles Shyer, writer and director, Father of the Bride I and II).

Elizabeth I and Her Conquests


Margaret Simpson - 2001
    But have you heard that she was a right raver on the dance floor, locked up ladies for getting married, and fell in love with a frog? Get the inside story in another issue of "Dead Famous".

Immodest Proposals: The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn, Volume 1


William Tenn - 2001
    It includes such classic stories as "Child's Play," "Time in Advance," "Down Among the Dead Men," and "On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi."The next volume on the series, Here Comes Civilization, will contain the remainder of his short science fiction, the novel Of Men and Monsters, and the short novel A Lamp for Medusa.Tenn has long been considered one of the major satirists in the field. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia calls him "one of the genre's very few genuinely comic, genuinely incisive writers of short fiction." Theodore Sturgeon had the following to say:"It would be too wide a generalization to say that every SF satire, every SF comedy and every attempt at witty and biting criticism found in the field is a poor and usually cheap imitation of what this man has been doing since the '40s. [But] his incredibly involved and complex mind can at times produce constructive comment so pointed and astute that the fortunate recipient is permanently improved by it."

Why We Must Run With Scissors: Voice Lesson in Persuasive Writing


Barry Lane - 2001
    Offers eighty-two lessons to help students improve persuasive writing skills and includes examples of student writing froms grades three to twelve.Title: Why We Must Run With ScissorsAuthor: Lane, Barry/ Bernabei, GretchenPublisher: Discover Writing PrPublication Date: 2001/08/01Number of Pages: Binding Type: PAPERBACKLibrary of Congress: bl2011008601

Cowboy Sam and Those Confounded Secrets


Kitty Griffin - 2001
    Just about everyone in the town of Dry Gulch wants to tell Sam a secret. But when his hat gets plum full of secrets and won’t stay put on his head, Sam is bumfuzzled and bewildered. How can he keep all those secrets under wraps—and keep the townfolk from going crazy?Perfectly matched by Mike Wohnoutka’s comic illustrations, this funny and unexpectedly touching tale will appeal to readers young and old alike.

Open Season


Linda Howard - 2001
     On her thirty-fourth birthday, Daisy Minor decides to make over her entire life. The small-town librarian has had it with her boring clothes, her ordinary looks, and nearly a decade without so much as a date. It's time to get a life—and a sex life. The perennial good girl, Daisy transforms herself into a party girl extraordinaire—dancing the night away at clubs, laughing and flirting with abandon—and she's declared open season for manhunting. But her free-spirited fun turns to shattering danger when she witnesses something she shouldn't—and becomes the target of a killer. Now, before she can meet the one man who can share her life, first she may need him to save it. Seamlessly blending heart-pounding romance and breathless intrigue, Linda Howard delivers a stylish and provocative novel that absolutely defies readers to put it down.

The Mother's Guide to the Meaning of Life: What I've Learned in My Never-Ending Quest to Become a Dalai Mama


Amy Krouse Rosenthal - 2001
    Here author Amy Krouse Rosenthal explores the joys and pitfalls of parenting in a way that mothers everywhere will recognize and appreciate. Rosenthal, who has written for The New York Times and Redbook, offers a series of essays, anecdotes, vignettes and asides, and she explores the universal themes of motherhood, from guilt and inadequacy to joy and magic to the astonishing sense of self-discovery that comes with being a mother. With wit, understanding, and hilarity, Rosenthal covers everything from "What I've Learned About Humility" to a mother's occasional, secret fantasy to run away from it all. Her fresh, Seinfeld-esque humor taps into the minutiae of everyday life with "that-is-so-true" insight and sets itself apart with its smart, witty, and delightfully quirky nature.

The Moskowitz Code


Joel Bresler - 2001
    With that single dodgy digital diagnosis, a chain reaction is set in motion leading Mike to lose his job, accidentally get all trace of himself wiped off of every computer in the known universe, and seriously contemplate buying a Harley. And Mike isn't exactly what you'd call a motorcycle kind of Moskowitz. Somehow Mike must find a way to get back on the grid and get his old job back, all without his wife finding out about any of it. Joel Bresler’s writing style can be referred to as literary silliness—the experience of reading the prose is more fun than anything the prose might be leading up to. Stories are all well and good, Bresler believes, but they've all been done already anyway, so why let something as trivial as a plot interfere with a good read? After all, nobody ever bought a P.G. Wodehouse novel just to see if Bertie Wooster gets away with it this time.

Fat Lawrence


Dick King-Smith - 2001
    None of them know why he is so fat on just one meal a day! Lawrence is happy until he finds the walking from house to house tiring and begins to get indigestion. His friends tell him to lose weight if he wants a girl friend so he begins to spend one day in four with all his owners. He gets thinner but the cat he fancies down the road tells him she doesn't like slim boys - she's lost her heart to an enormously fat black cat she used to see up the road! Triumphantly Lawrence returns to his four meals a day, spurred on by the thought of meeting Bella when he's back to his normal size.

The Last Bus to Albuquerque: A Commemorative Edition Celebrating Lewis Grizzard


Lewis Grizzard - 2001
    20 b&w photos.

Office Kama Sutra: Being a Guide to Delectation & Delight in the Workplace


Julianne Balmain - 2001
    Hailed by scholars as a trove of ancient wisdom, this erotic guide to love in the office, available in English at last, will thrill lay practitioners of the carnal arts. Believed by some to have been composed centuries ago, Office Kama Sutra proves that the office fling is far from a new phenomenon. And no wonder. With the average career spanning more than four decades, it is only a matter of time before lusty hearts pair up at work, or wish they could. These pages offer vital tips and advice on such topics as selecting, courting, and especially pleasuring a partner (or partners), as well as what to do in the event of discord, impotence, or other libidinous mishaps. Thought-provoking illustrations detail "The Forty Ways" and other special techniques, while a reversible jacket (see above) allows readers to uncover the secrets of Office Kama Sutra with complete discretion. If congress is to happen at work, and we know it will, then no employee is safe without a copy of Office Kama Sutra, the skill-enhancement guide to workplace love.

Black Market Surgery : The On-Line Manifestos


Matthew Good - 2001
    A selection of manifestos originally published on MGB's old official website during 1998 - 2000.

The Well Ain't Dry Yet


Belinda Anderson - 2001
    She opens The Well Ain't Dry Yet, Then steps aside to allow her customers to come forward and tell their own stories. They sneak in and out of each other's tales, bound by the quilter and a mysterious old man in a Jaguar.

The Great Show-and-Tell Disaster


Mike Reiss - 2001
    The result is "Ned's Mix-Up Ray," a device that scrambles the letters in a word, changing the object into something else entirely. It's bad enough that he changes his AUNT into a TUNA and the PEAS and GRAPES at the local grocer's into APES with PAGERS. But when he uses the device on his classmates (BRIAN becomes a disembodied BRAIN and poor KRISTEN turns into a STINKER), he pushes things too far. Following a BUS ride, (well, a SUB ride, actually) and a disastrous field trip to an art museum, Ned realizes that he hasn't been kind. So putting his inventive mind to work, he comes up with an ingenious solution to fix all the trouble he's caused. From the off-kilter mind of Mike Reiss, author of the best-selling How Murray Saved Christmas and former writer for The Simpsons, comes this hilarious tale of a show-and-tell project gone waaaay out of control. Mike Reiss' other TV writing credits include The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, It's Garry Shandling's Show, Alf, and The Critic, starring Jon Lovitz, which he co-created. His first book, How Murray Saved Christmas, received unanimous rave reviews.

The Wild Thornberrys Joke Book


David Lewman - 2001
    Nickelodeon Joke Book featuring the Wild Thornberrys