its references to Hitler especially absurd and funny. The Limericks and word play
358957
OMG! This book had my in tears of laughter... I purchased it for my sons...and they also keeled over with laughter so many times... its references to Hitler especially absurd and funny. The Limericks and word play...Its a classic of high fart high art fart smarts. James is obviously a quick witted and well read author but.. he understands how to tell a wacky story and impart knowledge in the most fun and luagh at yourself way... you just get lost in the flow of this book and before you know it.. you are bloody well regaling your friends with fart truths and THEY are buying the book.
That's great writing!.. Thanks James.... THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU DUDE!
3085021
I really like this book. What happens if the Devil gets kicked out of Hell with no clothes and some money on the streets of Earth?  Well, it's a hoot. And he almost transforms into a good person. Lol sort of. He has to learn what money is and how to cook and live in an apartment etc,  He even makes some friends . And uncovers a plot between Heaven and Hell to boot. Silly and entertaining . If you have a dark sense of humor
1725766
The most ironic thing about this satirical bible is that it has so many valid points. I find it interesting that those that gave it a low ranking were mostly for unoriginal content. The only truth to that is on a superficial level--it's the ideas that's able to be applied to new and developing situations in today is what makes Maddox still funny as hell.
Regardless, this is the first book that I have ever read that wasn't for school--I laughed so hard at some parts I peed my pants.
3257259
If you are a wordsmith, this book will help your craft but also have you in stitches. Perusing the more comical entries, such as the colorful editions of the Bible and their nicknames made, me laugh out loud. This was obviously not an expected response, as my children's queries from the back of the car attested.
1731541
This is a translation of the Philogelos of Hierocles and Philagrius, a Greek collection of jokes from around AD 300-400. This happens to be the oldest existing joke book in any language. Some of the jokes are not funny now (either because there were different conventions of humour or because of translation), and for these the fun is figuring out what the point of the joke is. In fact, it was surprising to me that most of the jokes make sense and are at least clever in English translation.

A representative example of a joke from this book: "Someone tells an idiot that he ate a wonderful piece of cured ham recently, so the next day the idiot goes to his butcher and asks him to slaughter a cured pig."

There is an earlier translation by Barry Baldwin,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Philogelos-or-Laughter-Lover-London-Studies-in-Classical-Philology-Series-10/dp/9070265451/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Philogelos or Laughter-Lover (London Studies in Classical Philology Series, 10)</a>. There is also an online translation of a selection of jokes from the Philogelos: John T. Quinn, 45 Jokes from The Laughter Lover, 2001.
10712
Like&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Is-Shakespeare-Dead-From-my-autobiography/dp/B004TS09OG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Is Shakespeare Dead? From my autobiography</a>, The Awful German Language is a brilliantly funny essay. A total rip. It's from Appendix D of his book&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Mark-Twain-A-Tramp-Abroad-Following-the-Equator-Other-Travels-Library-of-America-No-200/dp/1598530666/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Mark Twain: A Tramp Abroad, Following the Equator, Other Travels (Library of America No. 200)</a>. If you ever have studied languages you should enjoy this ~7,000-word essay (available online) on the German tongue.

"There are some exceedingly useful words in this language. Schlag, for example; and Zug. There are three-quarters of a column of Schlags in the dictionary, and a column and a half of Zugs. The word Schlag means Blow, Stroke, Dash, Hit, Shock, Clap, Slap, Time, Bar, Coin, Stamp, Kind, Sort, Manner, Way, Apoplexy, Wood-cutting, Enclosure, Field, Forest-clearing. This is its simple and *exact* meaning - that is to say, its restricted, its fettered meaning; but there are ways by which you can set it free, so that it can soar away, as on the wings of the morning, and never be at rest. You can hang any word you please to its tail, and make it mean anything you want to. You can begin with Schlag-ader, which means artery, and you can hang on the whole dictionary, word by word, clear through the alphabet to Schlag-wasser, which means bilge-water - and including Schlag-mutter, which means mother-in-law.

"Just the same with Zug. Strictly speaking, Zug means Pull, Tug, Draught, Procession, March, Progress, Flight, Direction, Expedition, Train, Caravan, Passage, Stroke, Touch, Line, Flourish, Trait of Character, Feature, Lineament, Chess-move, Organ-stop, Team, Whiff, Bias, Drawer, Propensity, Inhalation, Disposition: but that thing which it does not mean, when all its legitimate pennants have been hung on, has not been discovered yet.

"One cannot overestimate the usefulness of Schlag and Zug. Armed just with these two, and the word 'also', what cannot the foreigner on German soil accomplish? The German word 'also' is the equivalent of the English phrase 'You know', and does not mean anything at all - in talk, though it sometimes does in print. Every time a German opens his mouth an 'also' falls out; and every time he shuts it he bites one in two that was trying to get out.

"Now, the foreigner, equipped with these three noble words, is master of the situation. Let him talk right along, fearlessly; let him pour his indifferent German forth, and when he lacks for a word, let him heave a Schlag into the vacuum; all the chances are that it fits it like a plug, but if it doesn't let him promptly heave a Zug after it; the two together can hardly fail to bung the hole; but if, by a miracle, they should fail, let him simply say 'also'! and this will give him a moment's chance to think of the needful word. In Germany, when you load your conversational gun it is always best to throw in a Schlag or two and a Zug or two, because it doesn't make any difference how much the rest of the charge may scatter, you are bound to bag something with them. Then you blandly say 'also', and load up again. Nothing gives such an air of grace and elegance and unconstraint to a German or an English conversation as to scatter it full of 'Also's' or 'You knows'."
3288168
Haven't read Hiassen in a long time.  I seldom laugh out loud while reading, but I've been chuckling since chapter one.  His satire is as biting as his wit which are good covers for his deadly serious condemnations of certain practices.  If you know Hiassen, you know what I mean.  If you don't, pick up a few and get started.
4783872
This series strikes me as hilarious in the way the Coen brothers, Carl Hiassen or Vonnegut are serious while laughing at the ironic endeavors and mishaps of their woe begotten protagonists.
2530974
Few books will be as eccentric among new novels this year as this one and few will be as much fun.

The plot ricochets back and forth between 1935-6, when upper crust Hitler-symps temporarily rode high in Merry Old England, and the world of today. The characters range from hyper to bizarre. "Fishy" Broom is a couch potato who suffers from a rare disease that leaves him smelling like rotten fish all the time. He works at home on his computer in order to avoid contact with others and on the side he dabbles in Hitler memorabilia. "Sinner" Roach is a homosexual Jewish boxer with a passion for destroying things; Erskine, an English entomologist with a lech for the boxer -Erskine breeds beetles to prove his crackpot theories about eugenics. There is a cadre of boorish upper class blackshirt wannabees and a young woman who composes music she thinks is atonal but is really plain ugly and -oh, yes! - there's a Welsh assassin who does what assassins do, he kills people.  A beetle, from a previously undiscovered breed, plays a prominent role as well.
Beauman captures to a tee the ugliness of English upper-class anti-Semitism in the thirties. Erskine's posh compatriots are monsters of boorishness. If they weren't so well off, they'd starve from sheer stupidity; they depend on others to do everything for them, yet think themselves the superior race.

It's difficult to describe this unusual offering without making it seem harsher than it is. The picture it paints is harsh but the novel itself is just fun. The plot is cunning; it rips along, taking no prisoners en route. Boxer Beetle could be a comic book thriller if it weren't for the quality of the writing in it. As an example, crack the book to page 105 and read the entomologist Erskine's meditations on "Sinner": as Erskine's craving for "Sinner" rises, his thoughts veer off into a wild phantasmagoria of sex and debasement. This is good writing and not easy to pull off. (In England, it was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award of 2010.) It's hard to put down this novel because you always want to know what happens next in it.

Did I like this book? You bet!
1795417
Some of it was laugh out loud funny. Some was thought provoking. And it gave a glimpse of his times.
2082051
I enjoy the humor and the literary references of this cartoon along with the wacky characters. Get it, you'll like it.
1167699
I consider that people should read this book because it's funny and interesting. Some people should be laughing at this book unless you don't think anything is funny.
4633936
This has some crazy raunchy words in it, but it is funny as all. It made for a very fun gift.
2856858
I had known John Hulme's other work, but was not aware of Morder Guss Reims. I found it hilarious and wonderful to share with unsuspecting friends. My German is limited, but enough to delve into the arcane meanings of the poems. The footnotes are as good as the poems themselves. Get this book and share it with friends. I find that I return to it again and again. John Hulme is a very clever man.
4004076
I enjoyed this book for the satire of the literary world and the evocation of Catalonia. The way it savages the pretentiousness of academia and publishing is deeply amusing.  If you know anything about the conflict/rivalry/discord between Spain and Catalonia you will appreciate the subtly mocking tone the author uses to acknowledge it.  And the mild-mannered writer and high school teacher who ends up in prison and not only is mistaken for a cannibal but also kills his one friend there,a psychopathic murderer, with his poetry - priceless!
1881023
Book Description The novel Catch-22 shows a unique view of World War II. The Story is told in third person and focuses on a colorful character named Yossarian.  It takes place in Italy during WWII.  The men in the squadron attempt to do their missions and survive.  However they keep getting caught in absurd rules that present a no-win situation.  The story unfold turning from hilarious comedy to a serious plot.  The book is very entertaining as the men try to beat the bureaucratic military system.
Review Catch-22 provides extreme entertainment and with a wonderful plot and hilarious comedy.  It is a classic satire.  It provides a new point of view for war, showing the craziness and absurdities of war.  The book starts off being kind of hard to follow with Heller's unique use of paradoxes and oxymoron's.  That plus the fact that the story is not told in chronological order makes it a little rough at first.  However once into the book it is one of the best books ever written.
Catch-22 is a set of rules that the men in the airforce have to follow.  At first some of them are confusing and contradicting, but once the reader has a feeling for the style it becomes funny.  Everything contradicting everything else the characters soon go crazy.  If one wishes to find out what a catch-22 really is then should read this awesome book by Joseph Heller.
4751338
Perfect for someone with an absurdist/dark sense of humor. I bought this for my friend but read through the whole thing and found it pretty amusing.