It’s pretty obvious from my name that I’m a Marx Brothers buff. And I’ve mentioned several times that I have an extensive collection of American humor books. I’ve edited a collection of humor pieces that I chose from a database of almost a thousand short parodies that I’ve read.
I’m saying I’ve read a lot of humor. Most than almost anyone. In a way, I’m victim to my love of humor. I don’t laugh any more. I just nod and think: that’s a good line. (Or more frequently: that line is stolen from x.) It’s like being a porn editor. After a while you burn out and think only of camera angles and lighting.
So when I say that I just read a book that made me not merely laugh out loud but forced convulsive laughter through my lips (and sent my wife into a breakdown of giggles), I’m saying that this is one motherfudging funny book.
Some of you won’t be surprised when I tell you the name of the author. James Lileks. The book is his latest, Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery.
Lileks has been doing this stuff for years and years at his website, likeks.com, but I’m a grumpy old print guy and I never found the website as funny as having the book in hand. (I’m so old that in the 1990s I bought his books collected from his column before he ever thought of going on the web.) Whatever. This book is more of what he’s famous for, but the commentary is better and funnier than anything I’ve ever seen him done.
He made me laugh. Out loud. Nothing does that any more.
Go buy this book.