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The Playboy Book of Humor and Satire
This generous selection of Playboy humor is easily the most consistently funny book you can find anywhere today. Between these covers you'll find the hilarious work of the most gifted contemporary comedic talents: Dan Greenburg, Woody Allen, Art Buchwald, Richard Armour, Allan Sherman, Jean Shepherd, Roger Price, Shepherd Mead, P. G. Wodehouse, Ray Russell, Harvey Kurtzman and many more.
The subject matter ranges from Chinese Communists to British fox hunting, from French guidebooks to American sex manuals, from boys' books to campy film musicals to Lady Chatterly's Lover. In this bracing book, the comic spirit takes the shape of astringent stories, pungent playlets, acerbic articles; and the form of lampoon, parody, pasquinade, burlesque--all the forms, in fact, of humor and satire, and all at their most risible best.
Playboy prizes its humorists so highly that it annually bestows a $1,000 Best Humor Award upon the author of the year's most outstanding drollery in this field. To date, three such awards have been presented, and all three winning contributions are in this book, including How to Be a Jewish Mother by Dan Greenburg, which was presented by Playboy prior to its becoming a sensational best seller.
Although "the goal of Satire is reform," as W. H. Auden says, and the writers in this book have not shirked their responsibility as social satirists, they have wisely and artfully camouflaged their underlying reformist goals with the best protective coloration of all--sheer entertainment, an essential too often ignored by the crusader brand of satirist.
Laughter has always been a vital ingredient of Playboy magazine, in cartoons, jokes and special pictorial satires, but possibly the most pertinent Playboy humor and ultimately the most satisfying laughter is that provoked by the written word--words of wise and wicked wit, such as those in the brimming, bubbling volume you now hold in your hands.
So what are you waiting for? Open it up and join the fun!
The subject matter ranges from Chinese Communists to British fox hunting, from French guidebooks to American sex manuals, from boys' books to campy film musicals to Lady Chatterly's Lover. In this bracing book, the comic spirit takes the shape of astringent stories, pungent playlets, acerbic articles; and the form of lampoon, parody, pasquinade, burlesque--all the forms, in fact, of humor and satire, and all at their most risible best.
Playboy prizes its humorists so highly that it annually bestows a $1,000 Best Humor Award upon the author of the year's most outstanding drollery in this field. To date, three such awards have been presented, and all three winning contributions are in this book, including How to Be a Jewish Mother by Dan Greenburg, which was presented by Playboy prior to its becoming a sensational best seller.
Although "the goal of Satire is reform," as W. H. Auden says, and the writers in this book have not shirked their responsibility as social satirists, they have wisely and artfully camouflaged their underlying reformist goals with the best protective coloration of all--sheer entertainment, an essential too often ignored by the crusader brand of satirist.
Laughter has always been a vital ingredient of Playboy magazine, in cartoons, jokes and special pictorial satires, but possibly the most pertinent Playboy humor and ultimately the most satisfying laughter is that provoked by the written word--words of wise and wicked wit, such as those in the brimming, bubbling volume you now hold in your hands.
So what are you waiting for? Open it up and join the fun!
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 20, 2020
Playboy apparently used to pay top dollar for writing, and they got the best.
I grew up in a home stuffed with books, so spending a summer with distant relatives who had no books -- zero, zilch, none -- threw me for a loop. I was reduced to reading labels on cereal boxes and tags on furniture when my grandfather brought this home from the ready room at his office. Any book would have been like rainwater on wilted lettuce, but this book was a *gem*.
Writers I already enjoyed took on new luster. Writers I had never heard of were suddenly old friends. After returning home, I had the pleasure of scouring every bookstore for Jean Shepherd, H Allen Smith, PG Wodehouse, Roger Price, Ray Russell, and more. (I knew Meredith Willson wrote "The Music Man"; didn't know he wrote short pieces, too.)
NB: there are risque' situations, and ring-a-ding bachelor vibes; there are also tender moments and nostalgia -- all framed to make you laugh, and laugh you will.
This collection of humorous short pieces is one I buy on sight, not only to foist on others, but because I re-read my own copy until it falls apart.
I grew up in a home stuffed with books, so spending a summer with distant relatives who had no books -- zero, zilch, none -- threw me for a loop. I was reduced to reading labels on cereal boxes and tags on furniture when my grandfather brought this home from the ready room at his office. Any book would have been like rainwater on wilted lettuce, but this book was a *gem*.
Writers I already enjoyed took on new luster. Writers I had never heard of were suddenly old friends. After returning home, I had the pleasure of scouring every bookstore for Jean Shepherd, H Allen Smith, PG Wodehouse, Roger Price, Ray Russell, and more. (I knew Meredith Willson wrote "The Music Man"; didn't know he wrote short pieces, too.)
NB: there are risque' situations, and ring-a-ding bachelor vibes; there are also tender moments and nostalgia -- all framed to make you laugh, and laugh you will.
This collection of humorous short pieces is one I buy on sight, not only to foist on others, but because I re-read my own copy until it falls apart.
dnf
January 7, 2014I checked this out because it includes a story by Marion Hargrove (who is partially responsible for me collecting all this WWII humor). I only read one other (The Christmas Carol Caper - it was seasonal), which was also mildly amusing. It's sort of like The New Yorker lite for the man in smoking jacket and loafers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews