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Help! I'm a prisoner in a Chinese bakery
America's wacky, angry man of the suburbs strikes back in this uproarious free-for-all! Alan King once again turns his bright, beady eye on suburbia and finds it uproariously funny. The outrageous Mr. King is America's most peerless destroyer of America's sacred cows. Here's another blast from his loaded cigar that levels AT&T, IBM, the AMA, BBD&O, the IRS, the PTA, and Freud, just for openers. It will leave you leveled, too from laughing.
189 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 25, 2024
Middle school can be a bitch, so last year I started reading age-appropriate David Sedaris stories to my daughter over breakfast. Making her laugh seemed the least I could do before shoving her in the car. Well, we ran out of Sedaris, who has kind of a Seinfeld vibe, which reminded me of a tattered humor book I’d had as a kid.
To be clear, Alan King was before my time. I never saw him on TV, and can’t remember how I got hold of his book. His style is observational humor; his persona is a beleaguered, exasperated, Brooklyn-raised, Long Island-dwelling Eisenhower-era middle-class Jewish husband and father.
His chapters are all punchy, of-their-time comic rants about his stay-at-home wife, their two young sons, telephones, airports, branch banks, Little League, and tipping at Christmas. Believe it or not, Marlon Brando and Dr. Spock mentions aside, not a whole lot has changed.
What hasn’t aged well is his “Take my wife; please!” shtick, kvetching about his better half’s spending, hobbies, nagging, and domestic sloth, which my girl found as off-putting as his vows to give his sons “a good rap in the mouth.” Even so, she was laughing. Times change, but great timing is forever.
So much fun is made of poor Jeanette King, I finally had to see what she looked like. Googled Images, and almost immediately found an old society page shot of Mr. and Mrs. King at some eighties NYC event with Donald Trump.
Which really got me thinking.
At the peak of Alan King’s fame, Trump was a teenager. And there’s a pretty direct line from King’s “everything’s going down the tubes these days” to Trump’s riffs on modern-day absurdities like low-flush toilets, EVs, and bird-killing windmills.
You know who picked up on it before I did? My daughter. I told her King was like Seinfeld, but after the first two pages, she exclaimed, “This sounds like Uncle Curt!”
Oh my god. She nailed it. Uncle Curt, our family’s most fervent Trumpster!
Up-by-his-bootstraps Uncle Curt loooves to bitch and moan about how tough he has it as a corporate guy in his prosperous Midwestern suburb, and does it with such winking sarcasm, you’re never sure just how much he’s putting you on. Kind of like his idol, back when Donald Trump was just a loudmouth, overage frat boy.
Forget Project 2025. You want to trace the DNA of the cultural outrage machine, here’s one of their Dead Sea Scrolls. And sixty years later? It’s still freakin’ hilarious.
To be clear, Alan King was before my time. I never saw him on TV, and can’t remember how I got hold of his book. His style is observational humor; his persona is a beleaguered, exasperated, Brooklyn-raised, Long Island-dwelling Eisenhower-era middle-class Jewish husband and father.
His chapters are all punchy, of-their-time comic rants about his stay-at-home wife, their two young sons, telephones, airports, branch banks, Little League, and tipping at Christmas. Believe it or not, Marlon Brando and Dr. Spock mentions aside, not a whole lot has changed.
What hasn’t aged well is his “Take my wife; please!” shtick, kvetching about his better half’s spending, hobbies, nagging, and domestic sloth, which my girl found as off-putting as his vows to give his sons “a good rap in the mouth.” Even so, she was laughing. Times change, but great timing is forever.
So much fun is made of poor Jeanette King, I finally had to see what she looked like. Googled Images, and almost immediately found an old society page shot of Mr. and Mrs. King at some eighties NYC event with Donald Trump.
Which really got me thinking.
At the peak of Alan King’s fame, Trump was a teenager. And there’s a pretty direct line from King’s “everything’s going down the tubes these days” to Trump’s riffs on modern-day absurdities like low-flush toilets, EVs, and bird-killing windmills.
You know who picked up on it before I did? My daughter. I told her King was like Seinfeld, but after the first two pages, she exclaimed, “This sounds like Uncle Curt!”
Oh my god. She nailed it. Uncle Curt, our family’s most fervent Trumpster!
Up-by-his-bootstraps Uncle Curt loooves to bitch and moan about how tough he has it as a corporate guy in his prosperous Midwestern suburb, and does it with such winking sarcasm, you’re never sure just how much he’s putting you on. Kind of like his idol, back when Donald Trump was just a loudmouth, overage frat boy.
Forget Project 2025. You want to trace the DNA of the cultural outrage machine, here’s one of their Dead Sea Scrolls. And sixty years later? It’s still freakin’ hilarious.
March 10, 2011
This humor book was written in 1964, a simpler time than now, apparently, when all a wife had to do was steal money from her husband's wallet, learn to golf, play tennis and do yoga, go to the beauty parlor and talk on the phone. When every suburban housewife had a cleaning lady, a nurse for the kids, and a laundry service. The grocery store, butcher, milk man, and drug store all delivered. Doctors, lawyers, airlines and banks were just starting to get commercialized and people were still complaining about it instead of just accepting things the way they were.
This book was actually just depressing. However, I have to add a disclaimer: I don't generally enjoy Ben Stiller movies. "Humor" that stems from people getting hurt or being embarrassed is not funny to me, so if you like that kind of thing, this may be more to your taste.
This book was actually just depressing. However, I have to add a disclaimer: I don't generally enjoy Ben Stiller movies. "Humor" that stems from people getting hurt or being embarrassed is not funny to me, so if you like that kind of thing, this may be more to your taste.
November 12, 2012
This book really cracked me up when I was a teen, hence the four stars. Now, probably three stars.
June 30, 2015
It's been a long time since I laughed out loud at a book...in public... this book was a little treasure I found lingering in my nana's cellar and so glad I did. I needed that laugh Alan, thanks.
November 2, 2011
For me, this book switched between funny and depressing. He describes his life vividly, and obviously exaggerates parts, and overall its to a good effect. Sometimes though, I couldn't help but pity him, and instead of laughing at his plight as he intends as a comedian, I was wincing inwardly and the situations he illustrates.
October 13, 2019
How the heck did Alan King pack so much hilarity into one book? This is gag after gag after gag after gag. You can hear his delivery throughout. You have to wonder how he had anymore material for stand up routines for the rest of his life. This is something. Something hilarious.
I love humor and tend to read a lot about it. I've read a lot of books of humor. This is certainly one of the funniest I've ever read. It's more than that. This book is logically laid out and very well written. Each part cohesively connected to the next. Quite an accomplishment.
It must have been thought in 1964 this was a sign of things to come: More books of accomplished humor writing. That not only has not happened, but due to the P.C. censors, is likely never to happen from the U.S.
The book is King's view of everyday life. From laundry to restaurants to banks, etc, etc. The core is of himself as a father and husband. I found it very interesting that, though written in 1964, how much of this book seemed like it was written about everyday occurrences in 2019. Little of it seems dated.
With that thought, I have no doubt many current Americans will be horrified of King's content here for one silly reason or another. Forgetting this was a huge best seller and that their fore mammas and papas embraced this very volume. Apparently, according to the backward P.C. censor crowd, all before now was wrong and we must live in a world sans laughter. My suggestion: Track down this volume, read and laugh at King and those who would like to silence his words.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.
I love humor and tend to read a lot about it. I've read a lot of books of humor. This is certainly one of the funniest I've ever read. It's more than that. This book is logically laid out and very well written. Each part cohesively connected to the next. Quite an accomplishment.
It must have been thought in 1964 this was a sign of things to come: More books of accomplished humor writing. That not only has not happened, but due to the P.C. censors, is likely never to happen from the U.S.
The book is King's view of everyday life. From laundry to restaurants to banks, etc, etc. The core is of himself as a father and husband. I found it very interesting that, though written in 1964, how much of this book seemed like it was written about everyday occurrences in 2019. Little of it seems dated.
With that thought, I have no doubt many current Americans will be horrified of King's content here for one silly reason or another. Forgetting this was a huge best seller and that their fore mammas and papas embraced this very volume. Apparently, according to the backward P.C. censor crowd, all before now was wrong and we must live in a world sans laughter. My suggestion: Track down this volume, read and laugh at King and those who would like to silence his words.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.
January 25, 2023
Stumbled into this book at my local thrift store. Alan King was a tv host and well-known comedian in the 60's. This book was written in 1967. If you didn't know that you would think that it was written this year. The same problems and the same humorous that are from the sixties still ring true today.
May 29, 2019
Alan King was one of the only comedians that could make me laugh out loud. I recently started buying his books. They aren’t easy to find because they are out of print, but Amazon has been very helpful. Alan King can make the everyday aspects of life very funny, probably because there is a little (if not more than a little) truth in what he says. This book was published in 1964, but much of what he says about doctors, lawyers, health food, airlines and other subjects could be said about these same subjects today. The more things change, the more they stay the same. If you can, find a copy of this book and enjoy the humor.
July 9, 2020
So tpuAlan King! Funny, ironic, and full of puns and plays on words!
June 29, 2023
I read this book of humor fifty years ago, and only the title and the cover stick with me.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews