May Contain Nuts: A Very Loose Canon of American Humor (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The dead, as we are reminded every time we see Keith Richards or Carol Channing, can exhibit a power from beyond the grave..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Nutritiousness aside, May Contain Nuts provides 100% of the daily recommended amount of that essential life-enhancer, laughter. With more than 70 contributors and 150 shots from the loose canon of American humor, it's a stellar edition with plenty of real stars from stage and screen(writing):

Seinfeld's Peter Mehlman, Hairspray's Mark O'Donnell, Ed's Michael Ian Black and the world's most famous drive-in movie critic, Joe Bob Briggs

Plus, there's Roy Blount Jr. on how to travel "Southern" outside the South; summer recipes from our man in the kitchen, Henry Alford; Firesign Theatre's Phil Austin's yuletide "Tale of the Old Detective"; P. J. O'Rourke's not-so-intimate "Diary of a Country Gentleman"; Daniel Radosh's "PowerPoint Anthology of Literature"; and Tom Gliatto's helpful overview of today's thriving cabaret scene. With umpteen illustrations, many perplexing charts, and our first centerfold ever, this volume is party-sized for your reading pleasure.

New in This Issue

• a comprehensive teacher's guide
• a food section (including a transcript from Van Gogh's early cooking show)
• up-to-the-minute newscrawl
• a preview of the new all Law & Order Network
• "Blues for Advanced Beginners"
• Ingenious and iffy tributes to Orson Welles, Dale Earnhardt, Beck, John Edwards, and Celine Dion

About the Author

The editor of More Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor, Michael J. Rosen has been called the unofficial organizer of the National Humor Writer's Union, a pretty good idea for an organization that could offer all kinds of benefits to its struggling members (currently numbering more than 300 who have never been published in The New Yorker or aired on NPR). He has been called other things as well, like in third grade, and then in seventh grade especially, by certain older kids known as "hoods," who made his life miserable, specifically during gym class, lunch period and after school. Later, much later, the Washington Post called him a "fidosopher" because of his extensive publications on dogs, dog training, and dog-besotted people. The New York Times called him an example of creative philanthropy in their special "Giving" section for persuading "writers, artists, photographers and illustrators to contribute their time and talents to books" that benefit Share Our Strength's anti-hunger efforts and animal-welfare causes. As an author of a couple dozen books for children, he's been called...okay, enough with the calling business.

For nearly twenty years, he served as literary director at the Thurber House, a cultural center in the restored home of James Thurber. Garrison Keillor, bless his heart, called it (sorry) "the capital of American humor." While there, Rosen helped to create The Thurber Prize for American Humor, a national book award for humor writing, and edited four anthologies of Thurber's previously unpublished and uncollected work, most recently The Dog Department: James Thurber on Hounds, Scotties and Talking Poodles, happily published by HarperCollins as well.

In his capacity as editor for this biennial, Rosen reads manuscripts year round, beseeching and beleaguering the nation's most renowned and well-published authors, and fending off the rants and screeds from folks who've discovered the ease of self-publishing on the web. Last summer, Rosen edited a lovely book, 101 Damnations: The Humorists' Tour of Personal Hells; while some critics (all right, one rather outspoken friend) considered this a book of complaints, Rosen has argued that humor, like voting and picketing and returning an appliance that "worked" all of four months before requiring a repair that costs twice the purchase price, humor is about the desire for change. It's responding to the way things are compared to the way you'd like things to be. And it's a much more convivial response than pouting or cornering unsuspecting guests at dinner parties.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (September 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060516267
• ISBN-13: 978-0060516260
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #341,403 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very funny, December 27, 2005

By	B. McEwan "yellokat" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Since three of the five reviews that Amazon currently features about this humor collection are written by its contributors, one might wonder if this compendium is a clunker, but that is most definitely not the case. In fact, this is a laugh-out-loud collection of great pieces, including illustrated gags as well as first-rate essays, commentary and satire.

I picked this up as part of a "book binge" following the recent Christmas holiday, which was unremarkable (thank God) but tiring, what with all of the food preparation, obligatory family gigs and tiresome office parties. It was definitely time for some laughs to lighten my mood and get me prepped for the "back to business" days ahead. May Contain Nuts did just the trick. It had me laughing on the subway, right along with the motley crew of screaming kids, ranting preachers, bad musicians and other lunatics that haunt the place. And, unlike other pastimes we could all name, this book offers a clean and relatively safe way to blow off some steam, the only danger being the potential to die laughing.

I highly recommend this collection and the other entries in the Mirth of a Nation series.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Buy It!!!, March 23, 2005

By	L. L. Nawrocki "Bibliophile" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I flipped though it and bought it on a whim. It is the best thing I have ever done for myself. This book is amazing!!! It's not just wonderful because it is a great pick-me-up... but it's also brilliant in the writing. Many of the things could be performance pieces or hit a wide audiance. Just read it you won't go wrong! Highly recommended

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Bathroom Reading Ever!, April 28, 2005

By	david martin (ottawa, canada) - See all my reviews

I was thrilled to be a contributor to this great humor collection. But I was even more excited to read the whole darn book. With a wide range of topics and styles, "May Contain Nuts" is the perfect addition to anyone's bathroom reading shelf. And it even has some light satire directed at George W. Bush including my piece "And What's with That Round Ball?" If you enjoy that one, check out my new book "My Friend W" for more of the same.