In the introduction to A Subtreasury of American Humor, published in 1941, E. B. White told of the various disappointments and disillusionments he and his wife had encountered in gathering the pieces that would make up the anthology. They had hoped to include a section of “newspaper humor” and…
In the introduction to A Subtreasury of American Humor, published in 1941, E. B. White told of the various disappointments and disillusionments he and his wife had encountered in gathering the pieces that would make up the anthology. They had hoped to include a section of “newspaper humor” and…
Social change can be tough on humor. A few years ago I read a book of stories and sketches by James Thurber, who I remembered as being very funny, and felt as the comedian Chris Rock remarked about watching the movie The Last Temptation of Christ, "Not many laughs." S. J. Perelman, another writer I…
Social change can be tough on humor. A few years ago I read a book of stories and sketches by James Thurber, who I remembered as being very funny, and felt as the comedian Chris Rock remarked about watching the movie The Last Temptation of Christ, "Not many laughs." S. J. Perelman, another writer I…
On Tuesday's episode of Man, We're Really Going to Spend Time Talking about This, Aren't We, New York representative Eliot Engel announced that he will not position himself along the receiving aisle to shake the president's hand as he enters the House chamber Tuesday night for a speech to Congress.…
Okay, the recount didn't work. The "faithless elector" pleas produced exactly two faithless electors to reduce his Electoral College vote total to 302 from 304. There's always the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. That allows the vice president and the cabinet to remove a sitting president if…
Readers of the Washington Post op-ed page might be forgiven for believing that they're under assault—from adjectives, lots of adjectives. Consider, for example, these opening sentences from the three separate pieces spread across the top of the page this past Monday.
Singles Awareness Day is fast approaching, which will probably be news to those of you who are already dragging the old ball and chain. On February 14—though some authorities cite February 15—single people across the globe will pause to contemplate their sorry, pathetic lives or to celebrate their…
An elementary lesson of life is that systems are often invented by geniuses but usually administrated by less gifted individuals. This explains a lot about zero-tolerance policies in schools, prosecutorial discretion, and other topics of recurring interest. The best-known example, in popular…
Before the days of Schick and Barbasol, a lithograph from the printmaker Currier and Ives depicted President Lincoln's ZZ Top of a cabinet and the chinstrap in chief holding the Emancipation Proclamation. Over his shoulder was graybeard Gideon Welles, secretary of the navy, and to his left were…
In preparation for an interview with Dustin Hoffman that never happened, I went to see Kung Fu Panda 3. This is something I would not have done unless I was preparing to interview the great American actor.
In preparation for an interview with Dustin Hoffman that never happened, I went to see Kung Fu Panda 3. This is something I would not have done unless I was preparing to interview the great American actor.
Los Angeles
Hillary Clinton is planning to be more spontaneous, a New York Times story reports. And finally the American people will get to know the real Hillary Clinton.
It’s possible to be underrated though employed by the New Yorker. Peter de Vries was. Another sufferer from this affliction was the cartoonist, born 100 years ago this year, for whom de Vries wrote more than a few captions: Charles Addams (1912-1988). Both men committed the not-always-extenuated…
I have known Ben Stein for 50 years. We met as rival high school newspaper editors in early-1960s Washington, and then forged a close, lasting friendship a decade later as colleagues in the beleaguered Nixon White House.
Humor plays an extraordinary role in everyday life. The traditional Martian observer might marvel at our craving for the incapacitating, nonproductive seizures known as laughter. Many major philosophers have proposed an account of it—an expression of superiority (Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes), the…
What makes Stephen Fry so (his words) “slappable . . . odious . . . punchable”? Part of it is the smug expression, the striped socks. We may also curse the ubiquity. Here he is on dramatic television (Bones), film (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), hosting documentaries, whipping up novels,…
One of the more preposterous institutions in Washington—in a city with an abundance of them—is the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded since 1998 by the same people who invented the Kennedy Center Honors. I have no idea who or what committee of the board at the John F. Kennedy Center for…