A while back I’d posted a list of current comic strips that I enjoy and got a very nice response!
In addition to the comments listed with the entry, I received a number of lovely emails from creators and fans alike.
So, in that vein, I thought it might be fun to list some stuff that makes me laugh outside of the cartooning world. If nothing else it’ll give you an idea of where my sense of humor lies and a peek into my head.
OK here goes…
Funny CD –
Bob Newhart’s’ Something Like This… The Bob Newhart Anthology
I grew up hoarding and listening to my family’s comedy albums. Bill Cosby, George Carlin and the like.
Bob Newhart always seemed to me to be like a great comedy team in one person. At once hysterically funny and the perfect straight man.
This CD is brilliant stuff. Check it out!
Funny DVD –
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 6
Play MSTie for me indeed! I love MST3K and this collection is currently sitting on top of my DVD player.
It includes probably one of the funniest movie shorts in MST3K history, “Mr. B Natural,” in which a tights-clad magical woman (yep, the “Mr.” is played by a female) appears to a young boy to show him how playing a Conn brand trumpet will make him cool. (Conform… Conform…)
I have every MST3K DVD made (much to my wife and my budget’s chagrin) and I don’t anticipate stopping. Buy it, won’t you?
Funny TV –
It took me a while to tune into Scrubs. I’m a busy guy and what little time I have to watch TV I usually reserve for Simpsons reruns and the occasional Everybody Loves Raymond. But I tell ya, Scrubs now not only joins the list, but heads it.
Sublimely smart, sweet and slapstick, Scrubs is the new NewsRadio as far as I’m concerned.
Funny Book –
Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond
This book had my stomach simultaneously hungry and hurting from laughing. Almond’s tour of candy factories and his own obsession with bygone sweets is the only book I’ve laughed out loud at in about two years.
(BTW, Almond is right on about the Kit Kat Dark too! To paraphrase Comic Book Guy – “Best Candy Bar Ever!”)
Funny Kids Book –
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
I’m a stay-ay-home-dad as well as a cartoonist, so I spend an awful lot of time reading to my 16-month old, and this one is always a treat.
Drawn and lettered in crayon, Willems’ pigeon tries all manner of persuasion in his quest to drive the forbidden bus including trickery, pleading and just plain freaking out.
Even if you don’t have kids, check this one out the next time you’re at the library or the bookstore.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this and check out some of the stuff I think is funny. And even if you didn’t I’m sure my psychiatrist will find it enormously helpful later on.
