Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (Travelers' Tales Guides) [Paperback]

Tim Cahill (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Travelers' Tales Guides | Publication Date: September 15, 2006

If you think you know what's the worst than can happen while traveling, the essayists in Not So Funny When it Happened will set you straight. In over 30 scathingly funny pieces, a diverse array of authors shows just how quickly a pleasant vacation can turn into an embarrassing anecdote. In Vietnam, John Wood invents increasingly elaborate fictions to explain his ex-wife's "accidental death" in order to avoid humiliating himself by admitting he's divorced. Australian traveler Jayce White awakens in Zimbabwe to a baboon at his breakfast table helping himself to leftovers with primal flair. Collected in Not So Funny When it Happened, these stories and more show that when traveling, even the best of plans fall by the wayside.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

J. P. Donleavy, Nicholas Delbanco, and Dave Barry are among the 36 writers represented in this collection of droll travel tales. A baboon joins one travel writer in Zimbabwe for breakfast and refuses to leave. A French language class in Paris redefines the foundation of Christianity with a discussion of the Easter bunny. Another writer, warned not to tell the Vietnamese that he is divorced, invents intricate stories to explain his ex-wife's "accidental death." A fourth writer reflects on the subject of bad haircuts around the world, and another one tells of getting to the airport an hour early and then almost missing the plane. These stories are humorous, indeed. In a few cases the reader may have gone through a similar agonizing experience--one that was not the least bit funny at the time, but comical to look back on. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"...delightful, often laugh-out-loud collection of traumatic travel tales..." -- Times-Picayune

"An amusing diversion, good for your next long flight." -- Kirkus Review

"Incredibly funny travel tales..." -- ForeWord

"Kirkus Review says, ‘An amusing diversion, good for your next long flight.’ I say it’s a fine diversion any time." -- The Mature Traveler

...full of short, funny, glad-it-didn't-happen-to-me stories sure to amuse those who enjoy writing or traveling..." -- Tennessean --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 207 pages
• Publisher: Travelers' Tales (September 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932361448
• ISBN-13: 978-1932361445
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #117,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Travel > Reference & Tips > Guidebooks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunately, it isn't so funny now, either, September 28, 2000

By 

Ivy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (Travelers' Tales Guides) (Paperback)

Not So Funny When It Happened seems like a real winner. Edited by Tim Cahill, who has written a number of good adventure travel books, published by Travelers' Tales, who have the travel anthology down to a fine art, and full of travel humor, which we all know is wonderful. How can this book not be great?

It might have something to do with the limited material available. There isn't, relatively speaking, a lot of travel humor published, and much of it is written by just a few very talented authors. Not So Funny does contain all the big names, but at one story apiece, they don't come close to filling up the book. For the rest of the content, Cahill has to go to less known and unknown authors, or to those who don't usually write misadventure travel essays. Unfortunately, Travelers' Tales has been down this road very recently, with There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled; in other words, the best unknown stuff has already been used. That leaves Not So Funny with a lot of marginal articles, plus a few good ones.

An additional caveat: if you like humor, you've probably read the big names - Bill Bryson, Tim Cahill, David Sedaris, Douglas Adams, Anne Lamott, Dave Barry - in this collection already. And the essays included in Not So Funny aren't among their least-known works by any means.

In short, while I liked the concept behind this book, the reality of it leaves much to be desired. It is, however, worth reading once or twice, especially for the devoted travel writing fan.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not So Funny When You Read It, February 25, 2001

By 

A. Sood (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (Travelers' Tales Guides) (Paperback)

Unfortunately, _Not So Funny_ is really not that humorous. Given the contributing authors (including Dave Barry, Douglas Adams, Anne Lamott, and, of course, Tim Cahill) one would expect this collection to have you rolling in the aisles. But it simply doesn't work. The snippets may have fit very well in their original publications, but the misadventures in _Not So Funny_ are just not surprising or amusing enough as stand-alones.

I read this book while on an extremely long flight to South Africa. As such, it was bearable, but the stories shared by my co-passengers were considerably more appealing. Stick to Cahill's earlier works and avoid this haphazard assortment.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars ok, but not a must-read, even for Cahill fans, January 22, 2001

By 

J. K. Kelley "literary mercenary" (Eastern WA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (Travelers' Tales Guides) (Paperback)

Normally, I devour almost anything Cahill associates himself with, and that's why I bought _Not So Funny_. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really that great a value.

Reviewer Ivy, below, summed up my sentiments pretty well with some really well-penned observations. While most of the big adventure travel names are here, most of the really interesting stories seem to have already shown up someplace else. Most of these are pretty short, so I suppose it'd be good before-bed or throne room reading, but I just didn't find most of them compelling.

If you don't have elevated expectations brought on by reading a lot of Cahill's stuff (as I do), you may enjoy it more than I did.