Miller writes with the humor that benefits his myriad subjects, and though he says it could have had twice the number of entries (and tells us some in his afterword), consider his book exhaustive. This is the only laffopedia you will ever need.
A peculiar, enlightening book, an investigation of trivia, a strange history of American life from 1900 through 1966… It’s a delight.
Christopher Miller recreates a lost world in mind-boggling detail, and explores its implications without losing his aplomb, or his sense of humor.
There is no way anyone interested in humor won’t find this book essential reading.
…an erudite, entertaining and addictive compendium of things that used to make Americans laugh and nowadays don't…[Miller's] a lively and perceptive critic.
The New York Times Book Review - Bruce Handy
12/23/2013
“A peculiar, enlightening book, an investigation of trivia, a strange history of American life from 1900 through 1966… It’s a delight.” — Elizabeth McCracken, The Washington Post
“Reading through the book is akin to spending a long afternoon in the dusty back corner of a thrift store: You emerge a tad overwhelmed, a smidge scandalized, and quite a bit wiser about things you never knew existed.” — Joel Warner, Salon
“A clever, discursive, meticulously researched guide to explain all that old-fashioned humor of yesteryear…impressive survey of humor...an insightful study of the peculiar and contradictory beast that is the American psyche.” — Boston Globe
“Miller writes with the humor that benefits his myriad subjects, and though he says it could have had twice the number of entries (and tells us some in his afterword), consider his book exhaustive. This is the only laffopedia you will ever need.” — Columbus Dispatch
“A spectacular compendium...making inspired zigs and zags through ancient bits and gags, from Krapp’s Last Tape to Andy Capp’s shtick.” — Ben Greenman, author of The Slippage and What He's Poised to Do
“Miller’s lovingly jaundiced exploration of the way America once laughed crackles with insight; the result is that rare book on humor that is as entertaining as its subject.” — Publishers Weekly
“If you yuck and guffaw at the likes of old maids, absent-minded professors and red-nosed topers, then this is just the book for you.” — Kirkus Reviews
“American Cornball is a winning testament to broad-minded playfulness and nerdy expertise, and it’s the perfect book to dip into over and over again: it’s funny and smart and endlessly informative about everything Americans thought to be funny, from Rilke to rolling pins.” — Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway
“Christopher Miller recreates a lost world in mind-boggling detail, and explores its implications without losing his aplomb, or his sense of humor.” — Geoffrey O'Brien, author of Stolen Glimpses , Captive Shadows and The Phantom Empire
“Miller’s thick tome, organized encyclopedically, is discursive, illuminating, and erudite.” — boingboing.com, best 2014 books for nerds
“Christopher Miller…has written an erudite, entertaining and addictive compendium of things that used to make Americans laugh and nowadays don’t.” — New York Times Book Review
“An uncommonly brilliant idea…extremely clever…Miller’s utterly brilliant encyclopedia of things that were ‘formerly funny’ in America…” — Buffalo News
“There is no way anyone interested in humor won’t find this book essential reading.” — Inkspill
Reading through the book is akin to spending a long afternoon in the dusty back corner of a thrift store: You emerge a tad overwhelmed, a smidge scandalized, and quite a bit wiser about things you never knew existed.
American Cornball is a winning testament to broad-minded playfulness and nerdy expertise, and it’s the perfect book to dip into over and over again: it’s funny and smart and endlessly informative about everything Americans thought to be funny, from Rilke to rolling pins.
A clever, discursive, meticulously researched guide to explain all that old-fashioned humor of yesteryear…impressive survey of humor...an insightful study of the peculiar and contradictory beast that is the American psyche.
A spectacular compendium...making inspired zigs and zags through ancient bits and gags, from Krapp’s Last Tape to Andy Capp’s shtick.
Christopher Miller…has written an erudite, entertaining and addictive compendium of things that used to make Americans laugh and nowadays don’t.
New York Times Book Review
An uncommonly brilliant idea…extremely clever…Miller’s utterly brilliant encyclopedia of things that were ‘formerly funny’ in America…
2014-01-05The Cardboard Universe , 2009, etc.) notes, these were the things that were widely considered to be funny—and perhaps nothing so much as the specter of the henpecked husband. Other things have come along since in a humor culture that may have become less kind and gentle (courtesy of, say, Sam Kinison and his like), leaving these old-fashioned sources of japery in the realm of "cornball." Miller describes the comedic grammar: Lucille Ball resists the intoxicating powers of Vitameatavegamin, since, by Miller's light, she was "a fully realized character with twenty-nine episodes of backstory behind her" when that one aired, whereas Red Skelton, as a one-off kabibbler, was free to yield to the sauce. Or, on another matter, since most absent-minded professors teach science, it's not always easy to distinguish them from their mad-scientist peers—just ask Buddy Love. Miller's encyclopedia of comic types is wide-ranging, complete and lively; you have to appreciate a sentence such as this: "A fat work-shy self-righteous long-winded blustering grandiose feckless confabulating braggart, Hoople is forever boasting of shooting elephants, overpowering octopi, advising heads of state, and so on." The only shortcoming is the too-easy glossing on the psychology of humor: There's more to making fun of so-called easy girls than the mere fact that for men, "it's something they like to think about. A lot." Freud would tell you otherwise—but then he was one of those pointy-headed absent-minded prof types, wasn't he? A good-natured, entertaining read. It doesn't make Family Circus any funnier, but it explains good bits of Blondie and Snuffy Smith .
