Comedy! Funny! Disturbing?
Come to See the Clowns
Tensen
1963
Submitter: I am submitting this sad clown book – more for its condition than anything else. – Come To See The Clowns – Leave with nightmares….
Holly: Kinda cute, actually, as clown books go, but yeah – it’s seen better days!
Mary: I need to reiterate that clowns are evil. That said, this might be the least obnoxious of our clown book inventory.
Ma, can I be a feminist and still like men?: Lyrics From Life
Hollander
1980
Submitter: I work in a small academic library and I can’t figure out how this supports coursework at all. We regularly review the collection and have undergone a couple of major weeds in the last few years and yet this one is still around?
From another staff member: I think it’s safe to say it didn’t age well. While it’s trying to point out ironies of gender roles, it really does revert to sweeping ideas that “All men are one way” and “All women are trying to conform.” Plus, the idea that exposure to Sandra Dee and taking up motherhood is synonymous with throwing your life away.
In short, this book does not fit the mission of our library or the current century, so it must go!
Holly: It also looks a little old and stickered up…and don’t even get me started on barcodes that cover titles!
Hello, Mr. Chips!
Bishop
1982
Submitter: I think this was probably a fantastic middle school book in 1982. What makes it awful now is that my students have never even heard of the terms that make up the punchlines. Also, the illustrations of computers with massive CPUs and pin-feed printers are unrecognizable to our students. My favorite joke requires knowledge of both old pop culture and obsolete technology: “What’s a computer’s favorite Ella Fitzgerald number? A-Diskette, A-Daskette.” I just read it to a group of 8th grade boys and received only blank stares.
From the Better Half: Quotations from Tamara Fraser and Her Friends Nelson, Ed. 1977 Submitter: Who? I had to look up who Tamara Fraser was, and even after that was left wondering why our academic library would need a collection
Oh Well! You Know How Women Are! and Isn’t That Just Like a Man! Cobb 1920 Submitter: I came across this gem on our discards cart. It comes from an undisclosed university library in the Pacific Northwest. This book was
The Power of Positive Pessimism Proverbs For Our Times Kandel 1973 This is one of those little gift books they sell at the card store as a kind of gift. It’s supposed to be clever and funny, but it doesn’t
Separated at Birth? by the Editors of SPY 1988 Submitter: This looks like it’s supposed to be a humorous book, but it’s lost on me. The entire book is basically pictures of celebrities/public figures placed next to other celebrities/public figures
How to Hang a Spoon Martin 1985 Evidently hanging a spoon off your face is an actual “thing,” or at least it was back in the 1980s. Obviously, this is straight out of the humor section. Funny is in the
