A lighthearted exploration of pop culture's fascination with gag and practical joke novelty items celebrates the history of the industry, exploring the originality, if tastelessness, of such items as the Whoopee Cushion, the artificial ink spot, and the rubber chicken. 25,000 first printing.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The creator of the Garbage Pail Kids turns his attention to the "once thriving, if marginal, industry devoted to the creation of a modest product of questionable quality, taste, originality and necessity for fleeting high-impact diversion"—in other words, the novelty item—in this suitably quirky and expertly designed catalogue. There’s the "Funny Dribble Glass," designed to leak its contents on unsuspecting drinkers in such a way as to convince them that the mess is their fault; the "Beatnik Beard," aimed at 1960s youngsters hoping to look like a friend of Kerouac (slogan: "Dig That Beard! Crazy Man!"); and the "Trick Smashed Finger," intended, naturally, to trick someone into thinking you’ve been terribly hurt. Classics (the hand buzzer; the fake dog poop) share space with others less familiar (a dishtowel emblazoned with morose slogans, possibly designed as a booby prize; a box labeled "Don’t be an alcoholic" containing a small pair of fake breasts along with the suggestion to "drink milk"). Additional information on the items’ dates, manufacturers, dimensions, directions and intended audience is carefully compiled, making this a delightful tour of the cheap and the weird.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Mark Newgarden, creator of the 1980s Garbage Pail Kids for the Topps Company, is a visual artist whose work has appeared in publications ranging from RAW to The New York Times Op-Ed page. He has conceived, scripted, and designed programming for Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. PictureBox, Inc., a visual content studio and publishing house composed of Peter Buchanan-Smith and Dan Nadel, produces the annual book of pictures and prose The Ganzfeld.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy this book!,
This review is from: Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item (Hardcover)
Everything that the editorial material above says is true: this handsomely photographed and crisply designed book is packed with oddball novelties from the preeceeding century. What the above does not convey is that Cheap Laffs is also laugh (or should I say "laff") out loud funny.
Buy it. Now.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Tour De Force of Novelty History!,
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This review is from: Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item (Hardcover)
The "TARGET:" lines on "The Laffs" pages alone are worth the price of the book!
Oh, wait a minute, this book costs $19.95. The "TARGET:" lines and maybe the nice, firm cover together are worth the price. Maybe.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelity Item,
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This review is from: Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item (Hardcover)
An intertaining books. A short history of novelity items and a pictorial of many items which brought back plesant memories.
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