Parody Books

If you do not already know who Bob and Ray were, I would be hard-put to sum them up briefly. They were a brilliant comedy team who came of age in the golden age of radio and whose sketches endlessly satirized radio braodcasting itself. They created a large cast of comic characters, stretching their pliable voices a million different ways. Their humor was subtle and refined - they were two of the greatest deadpan comics of all time.

Bob and Ray's main medium was radio - they were shy men who did not generally work well on stage or TV. But they did do two stage shows - the first was a Broadway show in the 1970's called "The Two and Only", and the second was in the 1980's and was called "A Night of Two Stars". I recommend this recording only to those who already know and love Bob and Ray. It is not a good introduction to Bob and Ray's work as a whole. Some of the sketches are not very well chosen, in my opinion. But Carnegie Hall is here packed with Bob and Ray fans - people who grew up on this wonderful duo - and the atmosphere is infectious. Bob and Ray bring out some of their classic characters, and the audience cheers them on as if they were old friends. What a wonderful way to end their remarkably long career (Bob and Ray did comedy together from 1946 to Ray's death in 1990). What a wonderful farewell to these remarkable gentlemen of comedy. Also be sure to get CLASSIC BOB AND RAY, BOB AND RAY: THE LOST EPISODES, (both of which show B & R in their prime) and the award-winning BEST OF BOB AND RAY (from their public radio show in the 1980's)

If you do not already know who Bob and Ray were, I would be hard-put to sum them up briefly. They were a brilliant comedy team who came of age in the golden age of radio and whose sketches endlessly satirized radio braodcasting itself. They created a large cast of comic characters, stretching their pliable voices a million different ways. Their humor was subtle and refined - they were two of the greatest deadpan comics of all time.

Bob and Ray's main medium was radio - they were shy men who did not generally work well on stage or TV. But they did do two stage shows, one of which was "A Night of Two Stars" from the 1980's (the twilight of their career). I recommend this recording only to those who already know and love Bob and Ray. It is not a good introduction to Bob and Ray's work as a whole; some of the sketches are not very well chosen, in my opinion. But die-hard Bob and Ray devotees will love this. Carnegie Hall is packed with Bob and Ray fans - people who grew up on this wonderful duo - and the atmosphere is infectious. Bob and Ray bring out some of their classic characters, and the audience cheers them on as if they were old friends. What a wonderful way to end their remarkably long career (Bob and Ray did comedy together from 1946 untill Ray's death in 1990). What a wonderful farewell to these remarkable gentlemen of comedy. And best of all, we get the wonderful Al Hirschfeld caricature on the cover! Also be sure to get CLASSIC BOB AND RAY, BOB AND RAY: THE LOST EPISODES, (both of which show B & R in their prime) and the award-winning BEST OF BOB AND RAY (from their public radio show in the 1980's).

Any reader who ever observed an institution become ridiculous, be it university, church, political party or office committee, will laugh out loud at Paul Levitt's humorous story about Bogus U. As a mafia gang member accidentally becomes president of a university and changes the policies for the better, we laugh (knowingly?) at the subterfuge involving a champion football team (if only...) and a question of tenure for an incompetent but potentially influential professor. We enjoy the intigue among administators--for power and sexual conquests. We laugh at parallels between University politics and the mafia. This book offers a bawdy, funny read about all of us who are compromised, all of us who ever served on a faculty or even a committee. It is a funny and scathing look at hypocrisies, rationalizations and absurdities. You are invited to read it--and smile.

To University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Peter Michelson's characterization of this work as 'a delightful romp through the sins of everyone's alma mater,' I wish to add that only insofar as the main institutional target of this trenchant satire is representative can it be thus generalized. The cover art, settings, and scathing indictments of the faculty and administration compel the conclusion that this work is a trenchant and effective satire on the university where its author has taught and serially chaired the English and Writing departments for the past 45 years or so, not counting sabbaticals -- namely, the Univerity of Colorado. During those years, the makeup of the student body has changed from two-thirds out-of-staters to at least 80% Colorado residents, but the nature of the school seems little changed from 1968, when it was featured as a playboy institution by the magazine of that name, which cited the Drama department's production of Shakespeare's Macbeth that featured totally nude witches. Graduating students invited to faculty parties are known to have commented on the lack of intellectual conversation. Anyone jogging at six in the morning is likely to see the adulterers returning home. Its passion but lightly disguised, this novel is a damning but highly readable and enjoyable indictment of American higher education as embodied in one thoroughly portrayed institution.

This collection of poetic parody, written by dozens of authors and edited by William Zaranka, is one of my most treasured books. I return to it time and again for inspiration and amusement, often chuckling out loud at the brilliant writing Zaranka has assembled. I deeply regret not purchasing a dozen copies or more to share with friends before it went out of print.

This is a masterpiece, from the Foreplay tot the Prosodomy. A voluminous work, it includes everybody from Chaucer to Russell Edson. Aldous Huxley observed that parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms. Among those that try their own gifted hands at their famous predecessors' work are John Keats (Edmund Spenser), Lewis Carroll (Wordsworth, Longfellow and Tennyson), Cyril Connolly (Aldous Huxley) and John Updike (Jack Kerouac). A few of my favorites are "Anne Sexton's" From The Brothers Grimm to Sister Sexton to Mother Goose: One Transmogrification, by David Cummings, in which a spider comes to warn Miss Muffet against her un-American health food breakfast; "Sylvia Plath's" Ragout, by William Zaranka himself, and "Allen Ginsberg's" Squeal, by Louis Simpson:
"... They came here to L.A.,
Flexing their members, growing hair,
Planning immense unlimited poems,
More novels, more poems, more autobiographies."
But that's merely scratching the surface. This unique anthology is best digested over a couple of weeks or months, and never fails to yield more gems. Brand X Poetry is a treasure trove of humor, a book that one returns to again and again. The index of first lines, titles and authors comes in handy of course.

You must read this book if you have read "The Rules" and have a sense of humor. The authors are hilarious; I laughed out loud while reading in public even. My favorite quote from the book pretty much sums it up: "PMS is a gift given to women, biological permission, if you will, to torture, maim and paralyze men."

M's Banks and M's Barber show us how life can be more fun f we would only "break the rules" of dating. You remember that book, right? Let him make the first move, wait for him to call _you_, don't act too eager to see him - you know, all that stuff your mom or girlfriends told you to do that seemed so stupid at the time.
The lovely ladies suggest that "if he has a pulse, you have a date" and instructs the available females on how and where to meet these men. It's a funny book but has a lot of truth in it, especially one of my favorite passages: "...stop waiting for some nonexistent guy to come along and save you. Get over it. This is it. Get a job and buy your own stuff."
If you find yourself laughing at that quote or at the least agreeing with it, you will really enjoy this book. However, if you're still waiting for Prince Charming to show up, you probably won't like this book - you definitely need it, but you won't like it. I recommend this book highly for all those who can laugh at the dating game.

Absolutely loved this book. The only thing wrong with it is that it came to an end. Would love to see these characters expounded on in other books!

This parody of The Bridges of Madison County is way better than the original, which was really, really bad. This book is intentionally funny!

50-something Billie, veteran of some 15 lovers, and who has vowed to be celibate for 3 years, stops at an Iowa farm house to ask directions to Bull Dyke Ranch, and meets Patsy, straight farm wife, whose husband is off at the organic carrot growers convention. When she tells Patsy that she is a writer, Patsy exclaims, "That explains the mystical, god-like qualities I've been sensing!"

Thrill to Patsy's first phone call as a lesbian, her first bath as a lesbian, her first clothing choices as a lesbian! Listen in as Billie's inner child throws a tantrum, and Patsy's "dormant homosexual genes" activate her "collective lesbian consciousness", causing her to talk like a sociologist.

Will Patsy flee Iowa farm country for the wilds of Michigan and Provincetown? Or will she return to thinking of carrots only as a vegetable? You'll have to read this to find out.

This book is a delight! Familiar old hymn tunes were taken and cat-appropriate words were written. Then they are beautifully performed. And they are a HOOT! If you have ever loved a kitty, you will love this book. But DON'T BUY IT WITHOUT THE CD!! The whole effect is lost without the CD. Put it in your car and I guarantee traffic won't bother you quite as much as usual.

A full range of hymn performance styles - Gospel quartets, bluesgrass, blues, country ... is here performed by cats of distinction (actually it sounds as if the cats ordered their human musically inclined servants to sing as proxies).

A short list of a few of the delights:

I Will Sing of My Purina which sounds suspiciously like I Will Sing the Wondrous Story

Oh, They Tell Me of a Home which sounds suspiciously like Oh They Tell Me of a Home

Lord, I'm Coming Home the lyrics of which are only slightly odd

Tussle and Play which sounds suspiciously like Trust and Obey.

You also get the complete lyrics to sing along. An even the end pages are useful, introducing you to the cream of religious cats such as Reverend A. Jax: "To poor little kitties / Who've gone astray / He preaches salvation ... / He shows the way."

I saw the author reading chapter three of this novel at Word Fest at the Forum Theatre, and I tried to find the novel, but found instead the audiobook. It's a wonderful performance of a very funny and sarcastic book. Arte Johnson, the reader, attacks the piece like an actor, and he invests each character not only with a distinct voice but with a distinct attitude. Perhaps his best characterization is a Sydney Greenstreet impersonation (from THE MALTESE FALCON) that he manages to hilariously sustain for about ten minutes. Definitely for "adults only" but a terrifically funny piece of work.

If you're sick of walking through the mystery section of your local bookstore and being inundated by the sheer number of Cat Who... mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun (there were almost 30 at last count), then Robert Kaplow's The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun just may be the book for you. Combining satire with clever plotting, Kaplow has made more than a simple parody -- he's made a laugh-out-loud reading riot.

Best known for his other, more serious novels for young adults like Me and Orson Welles, Robert Kaplow is also the man behind "Moe Moskowitz and the Punsters" from NPR's Morning Edition. In The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun, he gives the wit and imagination he has brought to many a bored commuter's morning drivetime to the mystery novel, sure to be a hit with those same commuters in the form of the audiobook read by Arte Johnson (who gets to refer to himself within the text, yet another brilliant idea).

"America's most beloved author," Lilian Jackson Braun's headless body has been found in a public restroom (so much for being beloved). Her friend, children's book author James Qafka, and his two preternaturally intelligent cats, Yong-Ting and Poon-Tang, get involved in the solution of her murder. This leads him and his assistant Sally into an underworld the opposite of the one Braun depicted in novels like The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern. The jokes fly fast and furious in the spirit of Airplane!, with loads of quirky characters and even an entire chapter written around a single pun.

I've read a couple of these books myself over the years, but you don't have to in order to enjoy Kaplow's take. He really lets his imagination run free, and The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun is liable to bring a flush to the cheeks of Braun's regular readers. The book is full of sex, whether it is being done or just talked about (he even refers to it himself when he speaks of catching up readers who are skipping around for the dirty bits). But sex and parody of Braun's world would wear thin eventually, so Kaplow offers up a side mystery for those of us who actually enjoy a little story with our parody (something fellow mystery parody ...Go to Helena Handbasket sorely missed). It involves Harry Houdini, Dashiell Hammett, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Huston, and the sexually explicit diaries of Mary Astor, connecting them all in a plot reminiscent of The Maltese Falcon: the search for a raccoon with connections to The Honeymooners.

There is also a scathingly funny portrait of author Philip Roth, who manages to find anti-Semitism in the pages of Braun and then goes on to insult practically every other living author in addition to proclaiming how every one of his own novels should have won the Pulitzer Prize. Kaplow leaves practically no stone uninsulted in The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun, making it a sure-fire humor bet for those who don't mind a big dollop of tastelessness with their parody (one character's gaseous emissions "wailed like an artillery shell"). Arte Johnson's reading of the audiobook only makes the blend sweeter, levying a snide George Guidall impersonation (the reader of all the Lilian Jackson Braun audiobooks) along with his insightful reading (and a chance to do some of his old Laugh-In voices again).

New lyrics (about or by cats) are given for 20 common Christmas carols. They are funny and all VERY feline. I love it. Old familiar Christmas tunes will never be the same.

This collection of familiar Christmas carols reworked to a feline perspective is priceless. Laurie Loughlin writes with a deft touch and a wry understanding of the feline nature, as only a cat-lover can. The illustrations are hilarious and sweet.

I think my favorite is: "Oh Come All Ye Furful" -- it's not only very funny but perfectly captures cat-ness in lyrics such as:

Oh come all ye furful
Hungry and well-rested
Oh come ye, oh come ye
To the master bedroom

and

Meow, choirs of felines
Meow in expectation
Meow 'til you get your mom
And dad out of bed

My mom was always reading cosmopolitan back in the 80's plus she always loved cats; so naturally when "Catmopolitan" came out she had to have it. She bought it for me actually and it was one of the cutest and funniest things I've ever seen. I wound up losing that book years ago but came across it at a local library bookstore for $1.00. It still makes me think of her. If you get a copy of "Catmopolitan", I can promise you that you wont be dissapointed. It has a very 80's feel to it so it might seem a little outdated but cats dressed up like models and advertising for nail polish and hair dye is pretty hilarious. There's even an advice column with name variations like "Irma Purrs" etc. Definately adorable.

This book has some of the most interesting qualities I have ever seen!!! You should read this parody because of the realism. Ilene Hochberg has such wit and talent to think of these ideas, that I have been inspired! I love her way of putting cats into the purrspective of life. P.S. Take a look at the very back page/cover to see what my friends and I call the "Macarena Cat". Remember- Cats Rule, Dogs Drool!

This isn't a "male-bashing" book, honest! It just very sweetly glorifies cats. After all, a cat isn't better than Mr. Right, but a cat is sure better than Mr. Wrong! Enjoy! .....

I loved this book and even bought several as gifts for friends. They loved the book, too. It's so funny and the drawings are great.