Humor Books

It is difficult to say anything about this book that has not been said already. Be sure to check out the 1st book in the series too: The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living

1) It is irreverent... but FULL OF LOVE for the Church and Her history.

2) It is funny and campy, but proclaims the truth.

3) It has great drinking songs that gently poke fun at protestants...

4) And best of all, great drink recipes and party ideas.

All in all... AWESOME BOOK.

After describing the German Kaiser's reconquest of Alsace-Loraine from France in the Franco-Prussian War and his persecution of the region's Catholics, which occurred while the forces of the Kingdom of Italy kept the Pope a prisoner in the Vatican, and which was followed by the Paris Commune's murder of dozens of French clergy and religious, author John Zmirnak writes, "All in all, the 1870s may have been even worse for the Church than the 1970s ... hard as that might be to believe." (From the entry "Gewurztraminer: The Alsacians Need Better Neighbors.") If the idea of combining libations, cuisine, history, orthodoxy, humor, and political incorrectness appeals to you, then this is your book. Highly recommended.

My perfect book finally sees print. This has it all: booze making monks, good food, good music, excellent history, harmless fun, politically incorrect ideologue smashing humour, and (mostly) orthodox Catholicism.

One of the most underrated books of all time, and the exact gift to give to joyless Puritans or the frozen-chosen.

And presents the best case ever I've seen for FEAST DAYS being FEAST DAYS!

Deserves to be AMAZON's No. 1 Best Seller.

Having marinated in a WASP stew for a few hundred years, too many English-speaking Catholics, especially Catholics who really believe in their wild and wonderful Church, have adopted many of the Puritan excesses and general love-of-drudgery that manna-lovers since at least Webber have credited with economic efficiency and well-being.

To that, these authors provide a well-deserved razzberry, accompanied by two-handed ear-wagging. A celebration of culture, history, and faith, all delivered with good humor and all of which involve spirited feasting, drinking, and dancing - some of which (as the Baptists often warn) could lead to slow dancing!!

John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak's "The Bad Catholic's Guide to Wine, Whiskey & Song" is a hoot. If you look up "snarky" in the Catholic dictionary, you'll find a picture of this book. You'll find the answers to questions like:

* Why do Kentucky whiskeys bear the name of the famous French royal house of Bourbon?

* How did pisco become the national drink of Peru? (See answer below)

* Is vodka Russian or Polish in origin?

It's a random walk through the history of Christendom, viewed from an epicure/enophile perspective. Thoroughly Catholic in its attitude and orthodoxy, chock full of recipes (Matychowiak is a chef), The Bad Catholic's Guide to Wine, Whiskey & Song takes the givenness and goodness of creation and physicality seriously. They explain historical events like the Quietist heresy in France using references to things like Bobby McFerrin's hit, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." It's a funny celebration and will leave you chuckling and gabbing with friends. Highly recommended.

Oh, and about that pisco:
"[Catholic clergy] march[ed] through the country on foot[,] learning a dozen languages to preach the Gospel without the benefit of gunpowder. . . . When the priests saw the conquistadors robbing the country of everything not nailed down, and enslaving the natives to work in silver mines, they started defending the Indians' rights and organizing them on farms. Jesuits taught the Indians to grow grapes and ferment them. . . . Enraged Iberian vintners -- don't cross these people, trust us -- rioted for their right to soak the colonials, and in 1614, the ever-meddling Spanish Crown outlawed the sale of Peruvian wine.

The ever-crafty Jesuits applied their scientific training to invent a new drink which fit neatly through a loophole in the law -- a brandy that was soon named for the earthenware containers which held it, piskos. . . . '[P]isco' soon caught on throughout New Spain, and gave the long-suffering Indians an industry they could count on . . . ."

This book is hilarious! I have been out of the dating scene for years but each and every page brings back a memory that leaves me laughing out loud. My husband and I bring it out every time we have friends over and pass it around. Everyone has his/her own Barcode story.

This book had me laughing out loud. I plan to give a copy to friends because everybody needs to reminiscence and laugh about the dating and single days. So cleverly written.

If you ask me, Bar Code has come 20 years too late. If I'd only known back in my single days to watch out for my Tammy tendencies, I surely would have done better at Red Rover. Instead, I spent too much time running Memory Laps, Pair-a-Scoping, and naively falling for those guys with Altered Egos, who were only interested in the Pammys anyway. Fortunately, I was completely on-target about my husband's Premarital Specs, so now I'm sleeping in Fuddy Duds, no longer worried about Down Thighzing. Still, this hilarious little guide has helped me bring closure to all those haunting memories of my dating past, and I bet it will do the same for all those 40-and 50-somethings who still CAN'T BELIEVE we wore that, said that, or did that way back when. This year I'll be putting Bar Code in the Christmas stockings of all my still- or newly-single friends. It's my duty to save them from all those Federlines out there ... and from themselves.

PENS ENVY [penz en-vee]. n. The green-eyed fury that you haven't either the wit or the perception of the authors of this hilarious definitions book.

I've been out of the scene for a while and trust me, this book is still great fun! Everyone can relate to these hilarious terms if they've ever dated in college and beyond. And amazingly, it's already catching on! I heard the term "updating" used in the Barcode context just a few weeks ago and the ultra-trendy user admitted to sneaking lingo from the book. I'm giving a copy to all my friends for Christmas to help them remember half the things they wish they could forget!

This book reminds me of the beavis and butthead movie and the TV show, not that I miss them because I have all the episodes on DVD, and the movie, thats besides the point. This book really is entertaining to read and doesn't take very long to finish. It has pictures of various artists from their videos and they talk about them, make fun of them, whatever. Since I only paid like $1, it was well worth it for this book.

This book is about as funny as watching the show! The way beavis and butt-head are so stupid sometimes in the book crack me up. They even have a list of funny words like Tungsten, cocky, sextet, and so on. If you are a diehard fan of Beavis and Butt-head such as moo-ah you MUST buy this book!

This book sucks is so great. For any Beavis and Butthead fan it is the must have collectors item. It has many detailed photos of, their town, the house, old B&B and many more pieces of impotant(huh-huh) background. My personal favorite which still makes me laugh is the list of words.

This is one book that does not live up to its name This is a very funny book- If you think Beavis and Butthead are funny-- If you don't like Beavis & Butthead you probably won't like this book

Many die-hard fans from my generation would remember the summer of 1993 when Beavis and Butt-Head first graced MTV. With the premiere episodes FROG BASEBALL and PEACE, LOVE, AND UNDERSTANDING in 1992, followed by the first season episodes, Mike Judge's ongoing series of two braindead cartoon nitwits was born.

Just reading through this, the first of many feature books, brings to mind flashbacks of the first season episodes in particular. Like many other cartoon shows, the animation is cruder and the characters look and sound slightly different, and the music videos added the real class to it. The book is loaded with pages of fun activities from house painting (coloring) to word matches to songs to progress report incidents from Highland High School.

All of it together makes this book a tour through time in the evolution of the show itself. For any of you fans who really loved the early episodes, this book is definitely for you. You will be laughing long and hard. Huh huh huh huh. I said "long and hard". That was cool!

I YEARN TO SEE WHEN EVERY SINGLE EPISODE WILL BE RELEASED - UNCUT AND UNCENSORED - ON DVD!

The only problem with any of the 'Least I could Do' compilations is that they end. The wit is sharp and the humor unstoppable. The main character (Rayne Summers) is head strong and cocksure and gets away with most of his outrageous shenanigans. His friends range from a gas station attendant to a grade school teacher who has Darth Vader as a conscience. Every character in these books have their own special charm and wit about them.
If you like to laugh until you cry, pick up all three books in this series (chronology does matter, the stories progress.) And remember Frog King makes everything better.

A marvelous 3rd book brought to you by an amazingly witty writer and an astoundingly creative artist, Because I Can sets the comic standards another notch higher. Filled with raw sexual humor and cocky testosterone packed punchlines, it is a wonderful read for people of all ages and backgrounds. Warning: readers suffering from thin skins, faint hearts, feeble minds, weak bladders...oh hell, if you're just a big pussy then you may want to consult a doctor before purchase. Enjoy!

-Kate

Humor, as most other things, can be dangerous to your health if consumed in overdosis. Usually, the daily comic strip which is the basis for this book will just bring you close to spontaneous combustion, but still gives you room for recreation. This one is different, packed and way over the security level. Dedicated. Leaves you shattered after a couple of hours. And still I usually read these books in more or less one go. Yes, I am addicted.

Seriously, the books collect a refreshingly different approach to entertainment which is well worth not only the small investment, but the time to read every single little word inside as well. Well, the end of the book will still be there way too soon. What makes this book more than just a simple collection is the enhancements made by the creative team behind. They have been able to include a fair portion of their own life blood into this project and it shows. The book is littered with comments, explanations, background info, sketches and annotations which really inject life into the characters.

I do own all three books of the series and the website is among the first ones I need to read in the morning (I don't drink coffee, cause I think that starting my day with a laugh or two is superior to caffeine). Will I buy the next one? Sure. Do I recommend these books? Well, obviously I do, yes?

Kind regards,
Hickup

This 3rd volume in the set, A year in the Life of Rayne summers and his friends, the introduction of new family. The Antagonizing view of the world, and no matter how unrealistic an action may seem there is humor and truth in it all and that the confines of the real world plain suck, Ryan Sohmer has gone to great lengths to give us the joy from Least i could do. and i beleieve the title of book to describe more of Ryan than Rayne, why does he do it all. Because he can.

The quality of the book is great, the authors are great, and the content is almost guarenteed to cure any diseases of any sort, forever. It's just that great. As a daily reader of LICD, I love this book.

One of the common diseases of the 21st century is computer-induced stress. We've all suffered from it, but now there is medicine for this malady in the form of "The Best of The Joy of Tech," a book collection of comic strips from the intelligent and very funny online comic strip, "The Joy of Tech".

The comics in this book touch on all aspects of life with computers, and range from laugh out loud funny to thoughtful, and the situations flow from absurd to so spot-on real that you might think that the authors were secretly watching you.

Buy this book if you'd like to keep a dose of laughter at hand.

Snaggy and Nitrozac show their teeth in this wonderful display of Geek Comedy. Whether you're a geek, or not, you can't help but laugh at the comic misfortunes of Windows users, Linux users and Mac users alike as they try to live in a world full of people who have normal sleep patterns, and have no idea what it's like to have a 3:00 AM call from your boss screaming at you begging to know why the third line of the second paragraph on page 5 of the online catalog isn't bold, or why the server is returning an error. Prepare to stretch your laughing muscles when you buy this book. A must have for all geeks. Makes a great gift, and will never let you down when you need a pick me up. Buy two, because surely you'll want to give on to someone you love.

Nitrozac and Snaggy have been delighting me on the web for awhile now. So I couldn't wait to get the book. They know just how to poke fun at our operating system obsessions and loathings. The foibles of geekdom exposed.

Keep an eye on your copy though. Mine has almost walked away with friends several times. Since not all the friends were geeks, even technophobes should give it a this book a try.

The dead-tree debut of the popular online comic "The Joy of Tech," by Canadian artists Nitrozac and Snaggy, is a terrific introduction to the comic for the uninitiated and a must-have for Superfans and just plain ordinary fans. Featuring a foreword by Steve "The Woz" Wozniak and an introduction by David "Missing Manual" Pogue, this collection of cartoons features geeks, aliens, cats, Macintosh, Apple, Steve Jobs, Tux the Linux Penguin, Klingons, cartoon babes that'll leave geeks everywhere saying, "I'd hit it!", and much more! I also appreciated the reproduction of the original JoyPolls at the back of the book, together with the "liner notes" for the featured comics. An all-around winner!

I must be crazy; I was flamed so badly after my last review of a cartoon book (published on a much less friendly site) that I had to replace my asbestos review suit. 'The Best of Joy of Tech' may be worth the risk.

Of course it's easy to enjoy a cartoon book by a pair of cartoonists that share your prejudices. It is obvious from the cartoons that Nitrozac and Snaggy are Macintosh loving, Linux leaning, Microsoft loathing geeks. Hmmm, sounds like me.

Not that Nitrozac and Snaggy are totally one-eyed. They still have a dig at Apple and Macintosh owners along the way. Unlike quite a lot of cartoons about tech these two also see the more human side, just as likely to make a joke about your cat's relationship to you and the computer as poke fun at LARTing end-users or pointy-headed bosses. Their cartoons are more about living with technology than working with it.

The book reproduces a couple of hundred of 'The Joy of Tech' cartoons from their website, in improved color and resolution. The website features a new cartoon every couple of days. There are also a small number that are original for the book and some funny marginalia in a couple of spots. It also has the matching JoyPoll and a short comment about the cartoon in a 'JoyWorld' section at the back of the book.

I find a fairly large number of the cartoons repeatedly funny and most of the rest worth a chuckle. These two have a good eye for the whimsical, ironic and downright funny side to a wired in, geek life. They even manage to get in a sly reference to geek site Slashdot with a fake O'Reilly book, "Trolling In a Nutshell" with a troll wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "FIRST POST" on the cover and an Introduction by 'Anonymous Coward'.

Oh, that reminds me. The book has a very Wozniak foreword by Steve himself and an introduction by David Pogue that is nowhere near as good as the book (I'm sorry David, but any self-respecting geek [male or female] would rather do almost anything than edit the Windows registry, starting with install a decent operating system and working all the way through to changing jobs, heck, I'd rather sleep with Jobs.)

The book is broken up into various sections, each with a theme. It starts with "Boot-Up" and continues with "4nim4l cr4ck3rs" (most about cats), the whimsical "Geek Love", "Hacks and Cracks" (I loved the couple who want to get housing within 50 meters of a war-chalked wall), "Techie-daze", "How about them *nix" (featuring the luscious 'Linux Lass'), "The Joy of Mac", "Who do you want to poke fun at today?" (You'll enjoy the 'Stress Relief Dartboard'), "Sci-Fi The Comic Frontier" and "Do You think I'm Xexy" before finishing with "The World According to Geek" (with 'The Lord of The Root - One Geek To Rule Them All', the two good looking woman who don't shy away from maths and the Barbie 'DotCom Rescue' CD-ROM game)

If you go to Joy Of Tech you can grab a copy from the authors that has been signed (you even get a chance to ask for a custom inscription) and for an extra fee Nitrozac will even bless your book and attach a lucky sticker. You could go to the O'Reilly page, but since they don't have example cartoons and I don't imagine a cartoon book will ever have errata there isn't much point.

It's not easy to review a cartoon book. Suffice to say that I found the 'toons in this book to be a good variety from amusing through to funny with some that are just a little too true to make me do more than groan. If you've never come across this pair then check out the site and if you like the last few examples then the book will not disappoint(...)

What can I say? Cagle is unquestionably the best. I read his website every day religiously. So what's not to like about his year-in-review books? They're spectacular.

Br. Randall Horton

I grew up in the sixties with in an interesting family. My father was a typical sixties Republican and my mother a typical sixties Democrat. I think I was reading political cartoons before I was even reading the comics in the paper, and that developed into a life long love affair with political/editorial cartoons.

I found this collection to be good, but there were a few that could have been left out. Also, the author did tend to put a lot of his cartoons into the book. It is, however, a collection that will make you laugh, cry and most importantly, think.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to think with a broad mind and who can see humor, however dark, in most situations.

Well organized with clear discussions and each group of political cartoons were very interesting and entertaining. They were well chosen and described a variety of world incidents with great insights and a variety of opinions. The book did have a definite point of view.

This book is published once a year and gives the best editorial cartoons. There is only one negative point.. the lay-out is a bit unpleasant because sometimes there are to many cartoons on one page.. also some are published too small for no reason. Another thing .. mr Daryl Cagle puts his cartoons up front too much.. His are not always the best mind you.. But it is a very nice contribution to my editorial cartoons collection for sure..

The best book to stay up-to-date with the world's madness. Since we can't avoid it, better to learn about it: and laugh at it!

One year flows too quickly: this collection of cartoons stills the time and make events understandable by giving us a chance to slow our breath for a while. Also, the short explanation about each news event displayed in the book is very useful to recollect what it was all about.

This is an invaluable tool for all those who leave outside the U.S. but love America, deal with America and/or simply want to stay attuned: what happened in D.C. last year is most likely to come on show in Bern the year next. So, it's a magic ball.

I bought this book as a gift for a friend who is a "sports nut". He loved it. He said it took him back to his youth when he first became aware of how common cliches were. He sat down with his wife and had fun explaining what many of the cliches meant and his recollections about where they came from. I will remember this book and purchase it again for other sports fans I know.

Let's face it, this book is not great literature, it's a list. Of sports cliches. And, if you're amused by all things sports, as I am, you'll like this book. It arranges them by sport and other topics (business, money, parts of the body) and I got a chuckle out of it. I admit I'd never heard some of them before, but most of them feel "like home." My young son enjoyed it as he wasn't familiar with a lot of the cliches and we spent an afternoon going thru the book together.

Just as the sports cliche "they came in well prepared" goes, I'm gonna be ready for any lull in the game. My friends and me can use the book to see how many basketball cliches have been used already in the game.

"Heading into next week's showdown" I just bought copies for prizes for my superbowl party - I know it will be a "slam dunk."

My husband and I really enjoyed reading through this book. As hockey fans, we especially enjoyed that section. We've been missing the NHL season and it was great to get back in the game again. I would highly recommend this book for any other NHL fans out there experiencing withdrawl symtoms!

i just HAD to make a review on this!
i got this in the mail today and after a couple cartoons i was on the floor laughing like crazy. this book is for everyone- even people who don't like to laugh! they will think it's witty

This is hilarious stuff! I wish my wife understood this kind of humor.

As good as any of the other books in the far side, this book shows an intelligent witty humor! I regret having not read the Far Side comics earlier than I did, because they are honestly funny! A highly recommended read!

With the classic bear not wanting to be shot pointing at his friend seen through a rifle's telescopic lens cartoon on the front cover you know that you're in for a treat.

Beyond the Far Side contains some of the all time classics such as Superman checking for change in the coin slot of a phone booth while getting changed, "Say what's a mountain goat doing way up here in a cloud bank?" seen through the cockpit window of a plane and the classic smoking dinosaurs picture with the caption "the real reason dinosaurs became extinct."

Once you have one Far Side cartoon you have to own them all. The only way you can do that is to buy every single one of these Far Side books. This isn't a bad one to start off with.

Tip it may be cheaper to buy The Far Side Galleries which are three of these books put together so compare prices.

Most cartoons may come across as a bit dumb, but not the Far Side. If you like to think and laugh at the same time and are sick of the same old silly antics, don't miss this little book. The drawings are great and the subtle, implied humor even better. This is my favorite cartoon book to date.

Highly recommended.

This book is a wonderfully whimsical bit of erotica... I got it as a birthday present for my boyfriend and it's always a bit topic of conversation when company comes over. it's now almost completely colored in!

I think this was one of the best gifts I've ever given. If you like seeing your friends and family turn red, this will surly do the trick. This book was great fun. : )

This book is FUN! Everyone I show it to loves it! Guys, girls, the whole party is standing over each others shoulders commenting, pointing, and laughing at themselves for enjoying this book so thoroughly. Even some of my kinda straight edge friends love it!

This book entered my life at a time when I was feeling more or less 'eh' about my vagina. Like, I'd wake up in the morning, first thought: 'I've got a vagina.' Next thought: 'Yeah, so?'

Not anymore. In my mind, at least, my private parts have progressed from the drab Middle Ages to a Technicolor Age of Aquarius. Let the sunshine in.

Who said crayons are for kids?!! This wonderful book will bring out the artist in everyone. Great adult entertainment. You are guaranteed to be the star of any occasion with this unique gift. Highly recommended!

It is very hard not to a like a cute talking penguin, and Breathed presumably realised this when coming up with Opus. The human characters that surround the odd animal are supposed to come off somewhat loopier. This is a fun look at the period and the politics, and highly entertaining. Aack!

This is the first collection of Bloom County cartoons and a great place to start enjoying the fun. Bloom County is a fictional place populated with as eclectic a group of characters as you will find anywhere. Eccentric humans, a talking penguin, and Bill the Cat take on the societal follies of the early eighties with a humorous point of view.
See the Rolling Stones perform for an elementary school dance. Go back to a time when Three Mile Island was in the news and Princess Diana was expecting her first child. Even if the events are distant memories, the humor is timeless.

Breathed is down right the best! these strips are funny, cynical, and timeless! They follow a chronological order so you can follow the story which gets funnier at every page. I cried for weeks when I heard that Bloom County was to be no more. The comic pages are a wasteland now, except for maybe Dilbert, that Breathed is gone.

Bloom County had something special, more than just the jokes. As you read the strip, you cannot help but get involved with the characters.

Bloom County fans don't just laugh at the jokes, they care about Opus and the rest. Even Steve Dallas, the ruthless but inept lawyer, wins sympathy.

The humour tends to the wit and satire end of the cartoon spectrum with only occasional bursts of slapstick. The satire is aimed mainly at lifestyles and steroetypes rather than current events which makes it still sharp as it ages.

It is a very male-centric book. Female characters are introduced in order to give the main players a romantic interlude or to prop up some situation.

Bloom County was one of the best cartoons of its time and Loose Tails is a real gem.

Here you will find the beginning of one of the most inspired comic strips ever put to paper. No other strip made me laugh as hard, or as often, as "Bloom County". In fact, pretty much nothing else in the whole wide world made me laugh as hard as this divine creation of Mr. Berke Breathed. Here we are introduced to the Milo Bloom, Steve Dallas, Cutter John and by far the best-known comic Penguin ever - Opus.

Here we can see that Bloom County was just crackling with creativity and a real desire to "cut loose" from the beginning. Some of the strips covered "current events" and were topical, meaning circa 1980, but if you were around for any of that time it's a nostalgic trip back to the days of Boy George and when Ozzy Osbourne was best known as a singer. But the vast majority of the strips ring very true today as they deal with the absurdities of the human animal.

A word about the format: Bloom County in it's original form included both the standard "3 panel" strips that appear in your every day newspaper in black and white, plus a larger full page color version for the Sunday paper. The other Bloom County volumes (as well as Bloom's sequel "Outland") were in a larger physical book form. (Similar to what you may have seen if you're a collector of, say, Calvin and Hobbes, or Dilbert). This first volume is a smaller book (similar in format to the endless volumes of Garfield which became available). But this is where it all began, and it includes much of the "best stuff".

If you want to know what America was laughing at in 1980, this is it. But you know what? I reread these strips every so often, and they STILL make me laugh that loud, roll on the floor, tears streaming down my face, people coming into the room to see WHAT are you laughing at kind of laugh. We don't get that kind of laugh often enough. Thank you, Mr. Breathed.