More Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor

Front Cover
Harper Collins, Jan 4, 2011 - Literary Criticism - 592 pages
More seriously funny writing from American's most trusted humor anthology

Witty, wise, and just plain wonderful, the inaugural volume of this biennial, Mirth of a Nation, ensured a place for the best contemporary humor writing in the country. And with this second treasury, Michael J. Rosen has once again assembled a triumphant salute to one of America's greatest assets: its sense of humor. More than five dozen acclaimed authors showcase their hilariously inventive works, including Paul Rudnick, Henry Alford, Susan McCarthy, Media Person Lewis Grossberger, Ian Frazier, Richard Bausch, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Nell Scovell, Andy Borowitz, and Ben Greenman -- just to mention a handful so that the other contributors can justify their feelings that the world slights them.

But there's more! More Mirth of a Nation includes scads of Unnatural Histories from Randy Cohen, Will Durst's "Top Top-100 Lists" (including the top 100 colors, foods, and body parts), and three unabridged (albeit rather short) chapbooks:

David Bader's "How to Meditate Faster" (Enlightenment for those who keep asking, "Are we done yet?")

Matt Neuman's "49 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth" (for instance, "Make your own honey" and "Share your shower.")

Francis Heaney's "Holy Tango of Poetry" (which answers the question, "What if poets wrote poems whose titles were anagrams of their names, i.e., 'Toilets,' by T. S. Eliot?")

And there's still more: "The Periodic Table of Rejected Elements," meaningless fables, Van Gogh's Etch A Sketch drawings, a Zagat's survey of existence, an international baby-naming encyclopedia, Aristotle's long-lost treatise "On Baseball," and an unhealthy selection of letters from Dr. Science's mailbag. And that's just for starters! Just remember, as one reviewer wrote of the first volume, "Don't drink milk while reading."

From inside the book

Contents

RICHARD BAUSCH
11
ANDY BOROWITZ
18
TIM CARVELL
28
CARINA CHOCANO
39
LAWRENCE DOUGLAS AND ALEXANDER GEORGE
49
MICHAEL THOMAS FORD
57
Quentin Tarantino David Copperfield extremely skinny actresses your
63
IAN FRAZIER
68
BOBBIE ANN MASON
261
BRUCE MCCALL
272
SUSAN MCCARTHY
289
J H S McGREGOR
301
TOBY MILLER
309
RICK MORANIS
316
RICK MORANIS AND HOWARD KAMINSKY
327
DAVID OWEN
340

KRIS FRIESWICK
73
FRANK GANNON
82
stand in line for about three of the popular rides in a whole day and they
95
TOM GLIATTO
98
LEWIS GROSSBERGER
109
JUDY GRUEN
122
CHRIS HARRIS
129
TIM HARROD
137
GREGORY HISCHAK
153
CYNTHIA KAPLAN
177
MARTHA KEAVNEY
188
ROBERT KONRATH
199
Apparently the author has a videotape of
208
can do while doing something else such as walking? If we had time to loi
211
LOTT
217
MERRILL MARKOE
234
STEVE MARTIN
242
MICHAEL FRANCIS MARTONE
252
percent of the admission price just to stand around waiting for the fun
254
ALYSIA GRAY PAINTER
353
Three Christmas Candies
359
LOUIS PHILLIPS
368
JUDITH PODELL
388
TOM RUPRECHT
399
JAY RUTTENBERG
403
NELL SCOVELL
425
JEREMY SIMON
449
HOLLY SMITH
453
BILL WASIK
459
NOAM WEINSTEIN
465
Excerpts from Mens Self
475
SUBMISSION GUIDANCE
483
QUESTIONS FOR READING GROUPS
495
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
533
PERMISSIONS
545
Toilets by T S Eliot
547
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2011)

Michael J. Rosen was among those involved in the very first days of Thurber House and he continued to serve as its literary director for twenty years. Michael is the author of some 150 other books—poetry, young-adult novels, anthologies, picture books, cookbooks—for readers of all ages. Most recently, he has published James Thurber's Collected Fables, as well as a hefty monograph, A Mile and a Half of Lines: The Art of James Thurber, that coincides with an exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art that he’s curated in honor of the Year of Thurber (2019). He’s also an editor, ceramic artist, illustrator, and companion animal to a cattle dog named Chant. www.michaeljrosen.com

Bibliographic information