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Humor Me: An Anthology Of Funny Contemporary Writing (Plus Some Great Old Stuff Too) (2010)

by Ian Frazier(Favorite Author)

2.43 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0061728942 (ISBN13: 9780061728945)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Ecco

review 1: This anthology had very few selections that had me in stitches. The editor's introduction, in which he can barely stop laughing long enough to write down his thoughts, might have been the first clue that the book wouldn't live up to expectations. If it's that good, why are you trying to sell me so hard? I mean, I guess at gunpoint you'd classify most of the collected pieces as humor, but I kept wondering if some of the offerings were merely articles or short stories not intended to be that funny. I would have slapped a one-star rating on this book if it hadn't been for Mark Twain's story (which doesn't even fall under the titular category of contemporary writing!) about discovering who farted in the queen's court. His Queen Elizabeth excludes several from suspicion thusly:... more "O' God's name, who hath favored us? Hath it come to pass yta fart shall fart itself? Not such a one as this, I trow. Young Master Beaumont—but no; 'twould have wafted him to heaven like down of a goose's boddy. 'Twas not ye little Lady Helen—nay, ne'er blush, my child; thoul't tickle thy tender maidenhedde with many a mousie-squeak before thou learnest to blow a harricane like this." That story was worth slogging through the rest of the terrible ones, but if you can find it in a different book, you are probably better off.
review 2: In the forward to the book, Ian Frazier wrote of laughing like crazy while reading these stories I'm assuming he chose and edited for this anthology. I'm afraid nary a snort nor guffaw escaped from me while reading this disappointing collection, especially the contemporary stories, some of which were downright sad and depressing. It did pick up a bit with the humorists of old, like Mark Twain's story, written in old English, about Queen Elizabeth I demanding to know (among other unmentionable things)from her "peeps" gathered around her who let loose an especially explosive, fragrant fart. I'm sorry but farting is funny! Wonder how that went over in 1880 when he wrote it? Overall, disheartened by the lack of current talent in humorous writing chosen for this book. The better, shorter collection of "vintage" humor is at the end, unfortunately. less

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