Jim Conroy in our class Survey: How about naming one of the funniest, books you’ve ever read? What and by whom, if you can recall.
Jim Conroy comments on the Class Survey:
Way ahead of all others, with 8 votes, is Catch-22 (1961), by Joseph Heller, a WWII metaphor of capitalist-competitive society. Funny, that’s my pick too. I read it three times in high school. Often howled late into the night, bringing consternation to the parents. I characterized it as a capitalist metaphor because, in a shocking turn of events, in my first month at Yale, I found myself sitting cross legged on the floor of the Branford Common room in front of Joseph Heller. And dat’s what he said. He was working on Madison Avenue when he wrote it, and it reminded him intensely of war. So he got his feelings out by writing about the war as humor. That informal seminar was the first time I sensed that this whole Yale thing just might work out for me. Wow.
Not a book, but every Monty Python film and TV show, and several episodes of Seinfeld, particularly the one in which George Costanza relates his experience at the beach saving a whale Kramer had imperiled with a golf ball. “The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man sending back soup in a deli.” Or something along those lines. After our 55th reunion I joined my older son and his partner at the 2nd Avenue Deli and Utopia Bagel, reliving my childhood in NYC. I did not send back any soup, or other food.
I like funny books, but I can’t think of one that really had me going. Two songs on my car radio had me pulling off the road because I was laughing too hard: “Door Number Three” by Jimmy Buffet and Steve Goodman, Goodman’s recording. and a country instrumental by the great Dobro player Mike Auldridge, at the first notes of “Walk, Don’t Run.” When I want to really laugh out loud, I scroll down to the end of this article on how AI made a mess of devising paint colors and names, work by Janelle Shane, https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/an-ai-invented-a-bunch-of-new-paint-colors-that-are-hilariously-wrong/
I’ll repeat Wood, I posted earlier but can’t find. I’m old.
Samuel Pepys’ Diary
But really The Electric Kool Aid Acid
I’ve been sober 38 years. I really thought I would proofread my first posting oops 😂