An Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor

by Bennett Cerf

This collection of stories, poems, scenes from hit plays, parodies, and feuds, lovingly compiled by a recognized authority in the field, happily intermingles the best humor of recent years with a few rib-ticklers from the past.

Major wits and raconteurs too numerous to mention here enliven these pages.

The pleasure is all yours.

Genres: Humor, Collections, Fiction

688 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American writer, owner of The Modern Library publishing house, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House.

Cerf was also known for his compilations of jokes and stories, and for his regular appearances on the panel game show What's My Line?

Reviews

[East Bay J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many moons ago, I worked for a furniture store in Spokane, Washington. They often used books as part of the displays and had amassed a massive amount. When the store manager announced most of the books were to be thrown out, I felt something akin to panic. Over a thousand books going into a landfill? It was sheer blasphemy. I leaped into action, going through the piles in search of anything I wanted to read or just wanted, concentrating on older books. Found some pretty good ones, including this 1954 collection edited by Bennett Cerf. Years later, I actually got around to reading the darned thing!

Overall, my interest/enjoyment/satisfaction with the many stories, poems and excerpts in this Encyclopedia was about 50%. I confess I skipped over more than a few when they either failed to pique my interest or wallowed in the kind of self congratulatory humor displayed by those who are convinced they’re funny and won’t hear otherwise. To be fair, something may have been lost in the years between these stories’ creation and the time this child of the 70’s and 80’s made the foray. There were, however, some standouts and some real standouts.

I enjoyed the stories by Twain as I always do, with “Journalism In Tennessee” more to my liking than “A Night Of Terror.” Bret Harte’s “An Ingenue Of The Sierras” was in a similar vein and even more to my liking. Frank Sullivan’s “Quigley 873” is about a couple of folklore students and a particular lover’s leap tale that had me laughing out loud.

“From Host To Guest In One Generation” is J. P. McEvoy’s lament to playing too good a host, something many of us can sympathize with but few of us have gone to such lengths to accomplish. The other side of that subject matter is Ring Lardner’s “Liberty Hall,” in which a songwriter’s carefully planned exit strategy is nearly thwarted by an overenthusiastic host.

The use of dialect is a difficult thing for most authors. I had not heard of the “Nize Baby” stories of Milt Gross, but his grasp of the speaking a certain old time New York residents’ dialect is pretty stunning. The excerpt from Ol’ Man Adam An’ His Chillun by Roark Bradford shows equal skill.

The opposite, I suppose, is “The Whiskey Rebellion” by Donald Ogden Stewart. In this tale of Appalachian residents murdering pesky Revenue Officers in cold blood, the dialogue is in a kind of children’s story style, which, for all intents and purposes, makes it at least twice as funny as it would have been otherwise.

This book contains Joel Chandler Harris’ “The Wonderful Tar Baby” from Uncle Remus, His Songs And His Sayings. Harris was accused of racism and his writing has become quite frowned upon in some circles, but I can’t help think his work shows a great fondness for Uncle Remus. Regardless, I enjoy his stories immensely.

I was unaware that, when not writing fantastic children’s books, E. B. White wrote some bang up stories aimed at an older demographic. His “A Weekend With The Angels” was particularly enjoyable. His writing is a real treat.

I had never heard of Thomas Heggen or his “famous WWII novel,” Mr. Roberts. However, having read “The Birthmark,” I feel it would be in my best interest to seek out said novel for further perusal.

The real standouts for me included two stories from James Thurber. “The Night The Bed Fell” and “The Night The Ghost Got In” take the style of humorous memoirs, which I particularly like.

Another was “Mammon And The Archer” by O. Henry. This tale of a father helping his son to win his lady love is funny but also incredibly touching and heartwarming.

One of the most interesting stories was “Memories Of Miss Mandelbaum” by Al Capp. Capp is best known as the artist behind L’il Abner. I was completely unaware he’d done any writing. This tale is excellent fun. Reading a little about Capp’s life made the whole affair doubly interesting.

Many of my favorites were found in the chapter entitled Growing Pains. John Mason Brown’s “Happy Birthday” is a glimpse into the world of parents of young boys come birthday time and is delightful because it is so accurate. Margaret Miller’s excerpts from It’s All In The Family were similar in style to Thurber’s work and a lot of fun. Also of a piece is the excerpt from My Sister Eileen by Ruth McKenney, also a lot of fun. This one would be right at home on today’s silver screen, perhaps directed by Wes Anderson. I’d love to track down both Miller’s and McKenney’s books.

It took me a while and I had to wade through a fair amount of what I consider “filler,” but this was an enjoyable read full of new discoveries. You can’t ask for much more!

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do love anthologies of this type, even though this one is particularly less consistent than some. But it's a great way of getting a sense of the way things were, of the varieties of comedic writing in the first half of the 20th Century (with a grandfatherly guest appearance by Mark Twain). As I've watched Bennett Cerf on hundreds of What's My Line appearances, I was prepared for his love of puns and wordplay to make their way into these essays, stories, poems, and segments of plays. I wasn't prepared for the appalling racism of most of the stories from the South - that's what you get in a 1954 compilation of regional humor. There are a lot of stories and incidents in which the main character or narrator are beset by a panoply of events over which they have no control. But I think I laughed harder when there was some degree of ability for the characters to make things happen.

[tokolosi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1954, it’s a compilation of humorous writings from the late 1890s to early 1950s. I was fascinated by how “humor” has changed, and also how writing styles have change as well. It’s also fun for its historical perspective. Many stories concerned then-current events, complete with “hip” colloquialisms and now-obscure allusions that I’m sure were totally obvious at the time. The blatant racism and sexism used as a literary tool for humor in some stories would make any PC snob cringe now, but I thought it was usually still kinda funny in context. And, I found that sometimes the humor wasn’t even in the racism/sexism, but in the irony of historical perspective.

[Aris Catsambas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty entertaining collection. Several of the short stories had me laugh out loud, whereas others were interesting due to their use of regional dialects, idioms &c.

[Lewis Alderton · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't that humorous