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Chips Off the Old Benchley
Chips Off the Old Benchley by Robert Benchley in Hardcover.
- GenresHumorEssaysNonfiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1949
171 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
About the author
Robert Benchley
135 books77 followersWorks, including
How to Sleep
, the film of 1935, and
My Ten Years in a Quandary
, the book of 1936, of Robert Charles Benchley, humorist, critic, and actor, often pitted an average American against the complexities of modern life.
People best knew Robert Charles Benchley as a newspaper columnist. He began at the Lampoon and meanwhile attended Harvard University and wrote many essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
From New York City and his peers at the Algonquin Round Table, short style brought acclaim, respect, and success to Benchley to contemporaries in the burgeoning industry.
Benchley contributed best remembered influential topical or absurdist essays to The New Yorker. He also made a name in Hollywood, when his popular success won best short subject at the academy awards of 1935, and his many memorable appearances in such as Foreign Correspondent of Alfred Joseph Hitchcock and a dramatic turn in Nice Girl? . He wrote his legacy in numerous short appearances.
People best knew Robert Charles Benchley as a newspaper columnist. He began at the Lampoon and meanwhile attended Harvard University and wrote many essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
From New York City and his peers at the Algonquin Round Table, short style brought acclaim, respect, and success to Benchley to contemporaries in the burgeoning industry.
Benchley contributed best remembered influential topical or absurdist essays to The New Yorker. He also made a name in Hollywood, when his popular success won best short subject at the academy awards of 1935, and his many memorable appearances in such as Foreign Correspondent of Alfred Joseph Hitchcock and a dramatic turn in Nice Girl? . He wrote his legacy in numerous short appearances.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 21, 2023
Robert Benchley is a writer who inspires me greatly. One, he's very funny, but the truth is I don't read his works for that type of enjoyment. I'm more interested in how he writes on so many subject matters, but one thing that is consistent, is how he plays himself in that narrative. If you go to the library there are numerous editions of his collection of humorous essays - and I think more likely they are all great. Like P.G. Wodehouse, this is a writer who never fails - he's not human I don't think, more like a writing machine that is always consistent and always on time. For the past 12 months (2014) I have been writing a daily journal/essays/narrative - and I don't think I could have done it all, without the inspiration of Robert Benchley's writing. Every subject here, from how to pick up loose change to the fact that no one collects his books - is all equally great. Also the fact, that in the late 30s he also made humorous short films, that are perfect pals to his written work - amazing!
October 8, 2014
This posthumous collection rounds up pieces Benchley published but which had never made the cut for his books, and I can see why: inspiration seems to have failed him in many cases. I'm happy to read anything by him, but if I were you I'd put this last on your list.
October 1, 2025
Benchley is the American Wodehouse.
May 3, 2014
Benchley's humor is of another era: droll, understated, sometimes whimsical, always self-deprecating. His vocabulary is as broad as his choice of subject matter. He can find amusement (for the reader as well as himself) in such topics as getting change back at a ticket booth, the menace of buttered toast, dictating a letter, daylight savings time, business meetings, and a hotel menu from the year 1885. The illustrations by Gluyas Williams, in a style that makes me think of THE NEW YORKER, are entertaining as well.
The essays are short and can be dipped into at any time, making it possible to read the book at one sitting or, as I did, over a longer period, taking advantage of the lack of a storyline.
The essays are short and can be dipped into at any time, making it possible to read the book at one sitting or, as I did, over a longer period, taking advantage of the lack of a storyline.
December 7, 2011
This is a great little book for times when you only have a few minutes and you need a little something to tickle your funny bone or cheer you up. The humor is reminiscent of the Marx Brothers and Wodehouse.
November 1, 2013
It is Robert Benchley. There is nothing more to say. A collection of his New Yorker (and other publications) columns is always a delight to read. I have it in my own library; I read this regularly as my need for pure, clever, gentle humour demands.
Currently reading
September 19, 2008So funny, so far.
June 10, 2016
Nothing else like it anywhere and so hilarious.
November 12, 2021
I've been reading Robert Benchley's books since high school and his essays still make me laugh.
March 18, 2025
xx
250212: 100 - 40 = 60 / 16 = 3.75
250212: 100 - 40 = 60 / 16 = 3.75
October 1, 2025
__________________________
“There seems to be no lengths to which humorless people will not go to analyze humor. It seems to worry them.” —Robert Benchley
“Review of Humor by the Humorless.”
The key reason anyone attempts what is laughingly called humor is that their mother neglected them as a child and they do not have enough money to hire a good psychotherapist. Karl Jung said that—probably—and it is possible he also said, “What passes for humor these days is a real joke.” (Well, someone must have said it—maybe it was me.) Kierkegaard, the funniest philosopher of all time, once wisely said something about humor, and I would quote it here if I had ever read Kierkegaard.
That being said Robert Benchley’s rather gentle humor amuses the hell out of me. I am so ashamed.
Robert Benchley (1889–1945) was an American writer and actor best known for his funny essays and short films that satirized everyday life; he is famous for his dry, self-deprecating style and absurdist observations.
Even though Benchley’s essays that appear in this book were mainly written in the 1920s and early 30s, most of them still hit home. For example, one of the near 100 essays—On or Before March 15—deals with his problems trying to fill out his 1040 U.S. tax form for 1929. Yes, the 1040 tax form did exist 100 years ago, and it was just as inscrutable and unfathomable as it is today.
Here are a few of Benchley’s comments on filling out the 1040 tax form.
> “The income tax form is like a laundry list—except you lose your shirt.” —Robert Benchley
>“The instructions are simple. You just follow them until you come to a word you don’t understand, then you go back and start over.”
>“There is a line on the form which says: ‘Give the name of the state in which you live.’ I always put down ‘Confusion.’”
>“The Government is very nice about it. It lets you choose whether you want to go to jail or not.”
🌟🌟🌟 Stars. If you found yourself smirking or giggling or chuckling at anything in this review, call 911 immediately or head directly to the ER. You will need to have your funny bone removed. If you broke out hee-hawing, guffawing, or chortling or if you split your sides, you may need to have a complete hysterical-ectomy. We will see who’s laughing then.
Note: Here is something Kierkegaard actually said about humor.
“Humor is the last stage of existential inwardness before faith.”
— From Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard
“There seems to be no lengths to which humorless people will not go to analyze humor. It seems to worry them.” —Robert Benchley
“Review of Humor by the Humorless.”
The key reason anyone attempts what is laughingly called humor is that their mother neglected them as a child and they do not have enough money to hire a good psychotherapist. Karl Jung said that—probably—and it is possible he also said, “What passes for humor these days is a real joke.” (Well, someone must have said it—maybe it was me.) Kierkegaard, the funniest philosopher of all time, once wisely said something about humor, and I would quote it here if I had ever read Kierkegaard.
That being said Robert Benchley’s rather gentle humor amuses the hell out of me. I am so ashamed.
Robert Benchley (1889–1945) was an American writer and actor best known for his funny essays and short films that satirized everyday life; he is famous for his dry, self-deprecating style and absurdist observations.
Even though Benchley’s essays that appear in this book were mainly written in the 1920s and early 30s, most of them still hit home. For example, one of the near 100 essays—On or Before March 15—deals with his problems trying to fill out his 1040 U.S. tax form for 1929. Yes, the 1040 tax form did exist 100 years ago, and it was just as inscrutable and unfathomable as it is today.
Here are a few of Benchley’s comments on filling out the 1040 tax form.
> “The income tax form is like a laundry list—except you lose your shirt.” —Robert Benchley
>“The instructions are simple. You just follow them until you come to a word you don’t understand, then you go back and start over.”
>“There is a line on the form which says: ‘Give the name of the state in which you live.’ I always put down ‘Confusion.’”
>“The Government is very nice about it. It lets you choose whether you want to go to jail or not.”
🌟🌟🌟 Stars. If you found yourself smirking or giggling or chuckling at anything in this review, call 911 immediately or head directly to the ER. You will need to have your funny bone removed. If you broke out hee-hawing, guffawing, or chortling or if you split your sides, you may need to have a complete hysterical-ectomy. We will see who’s laughing then.
Note: Here is something Kierkegaard actually said about humor.
“Humor is the last stage of existential inwardness before faith.”
— From Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard
August 22, 2021
Disappointing. I know Benchley was Dorothy Parker's best friend, but none of her wit appears here. And nothing nearly as insightful as her "Big Blonde." I will try to keep an open mind, as this collection was published posthumously from columns saved by Mrs Gertrude Benchley, the author's widow. Time to look up something the man published during his lifetime, something he was proud to have his name on.
January 17, 2021
Flat and laboured
Benchley's humour no longer works for me. Strange, because a lot of his contemporaries - Thurber, for one - do.
Benchley's humour no longer works for me. Strange, because a lot of his contemporaries - Thurber, for one - do.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews