Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker by David Remnick

Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker Reviews

• 
  Jason Koivu

  The sort of stuff that would give Oscar Wilde an erection, Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New York collects some of the best short pieces published in this much revered publication through out its long life. There are short stories, editorials and satire from E.B. White, Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, Groucho Marx, Ogden Nash, James Thurber, Steve Martin, Garrison Keillor, Dorothy Parker, John Lardner, Phyllis McGinley, Jack Handy, and many more.
  
  Filled mostly with clever observations and delightful humor, the cerebral Fierce Pajamas can at times grind its ax a bit and the old rapier wit turns into more of a snarky scimitar. But I don't mind a little poking and prodding now and then, so this was right up my...oh, I better not use the cliche "alley", they'd all scoff!
• 
  John Behle

  Humor writing is a tough market. Funny means very different things to each one of us. So, a good way of doing a humor book is like this-build a reader (remember learning from well worn readers in grade school?) of many varied styles and topics.
  
  This collection is wide ranging, going back to Dorthy Parker articles from the 1920's to Steve Martin from a few years ago. The array of writers gives it a cocktail party feel--breezing from one wry smile to another winking eye.
  
  To be sure, this is grown-up, savvy, whip-smart wit. I liked some more than others.
  
  A nice find from my living room old bookshelf. I read this when it came out in 2001--it was right there where I placed it.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Brenna

  Fierce pajamas, according to E. B. White, refers to those garments worn to bed in this illness-ridden plagued world, a world wholly unlike the vivacious livelihoods within the pages of a 1930s issue of Harper's Bazaar. It is a lifestyle unattainable, writes White, without vast quantities of quinine on top of delirium. Vogue is the good life, to make no mention of those portrayed within The New Yorker.
  
  What was considered early in its life as the quintessential American humour magazine, The New Yorker featured such classic writers as James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash. Later, Woody Allen and Steve Martin saw fit to try their hand at writing for the magazine. Sometimes, Upton Sinclair or John Updike would find his funny bone stricken by the styles or morals of his time, and fire off an unexpected piece of humourous writing.
  
  The New Yorker has become more than a humour magazine over the past several decades, but to have a hardbound collection of some of the greatest pieces to have appeared since its inception is a blessing. Though not a perfect representation of the humourous prose which has appeared within the pages of the penultimate American magazine (longer fictional pieces, for example, have been omitted, as have various snide and/or snarky reviews of film, stage, book, or restaurant), it does present many moments of genuine levity.
  
  The book does, however, tend to rely a bit too heavily on Garrison Keillor-style "dinner humour," a presentation of Minnesotan life as filtered through the New York stereotyped vantage point. Not everything is riotous, but it does entice a certain kind of bemusement from the majority of pieces within. Presenting a zeitgeist of various decades (Updike's lighthearted Kerouac spoof reads entirely unlike Ian Frazier's modern-day advice on romantically dating one's mother, obviously), Fierce Pajamas also serves as an affluent American timeline of the 20th Century. Several of the pieces merit rereading, as well (as opposed to a throw-away jokebook of contemporary devising).
  
  A great book for reading at night, filled with short pieces which can be read independently of the others -- or perhaps even a soft cure for Ainmosni.
• 
  Ana

  good selection
• 
  John Wiswell

  Talk about a mixed bag. Any collection of humor is going to be received differently, but a collection of humor from across decades, some by professional writers, some by actors and some by outright nutjobs is going to have its pieces of genius and its utter flops. Because this is an anthology of humor, the subject matter is all over the place. Communication with the dead, miscommunication in the household, a real-life affair with a literary character, an interview with a man who can only speak in cliches, a conspiracy to annoy an old man, even a one-page poem about a self-absorbed critic. And sometimes you just have to wonder why a writer has three or four stories in here. This is really a book to leave on your coffee table and let visitors flip through, to pick out an appealing story. Very few people will want to read the entire thing, but everyone should get a chuckle from one part or another.
• 
  Billy

  This was a wedding present to me from C, and I read it throughout our honeymoon. I felt like a person of timeless, wood-barreled taste and class, going back and reading pieces by James Thurber and E.B. White. Good stuff from the magazine's more literary days (is it me, or are 77% of their articles now about Chanel?)
• 
  Cody

  This is a good sample of many great humorists, some of whom did their best work in the New Yorker. It runs the gamut from classics like E.B. White, James Thurber, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and S.J. Perelman to recent works from Jack Handey (yes, he is a real person), Garrison Keillor, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, and even Noah Baumbach (who has had a phantom career writing humor for the Shouts and Murmurs column in the New Yorker).
  
  In Fierce Pajamas I have also discovered the key to reading humor anthologies: If an essay, poem, story, etc. does not interest the reader within the first paragraph or two, he or she is allowed to skip to the next piece without guilt. Humor is subjective, after all. As Groucho Marx, who's also in here, once said, "Well, all the jokes can't be good! You've got to expect that once in a while."
• 
  MVV

  Such a delight, such a fiercely enjoyable delight. I suggest that everyone have at least one copy of this at their homes, for laughter and mirth is always in short supply in our moribund lives these days and this volume does one of the best jobs a book has done to liven your mood. There are some outright classics, some you've read elsewhere, some you've seen adapted as a film and other such gems herein.
  
  Go on, help yourself to generous dollops of wit and humour collected from the myriad editions of one of the best magazines that gets published anywhere in the world.
• 
  Rosa

  Most of the pieces are pretty good. Jack Handy has an especially Handy-licious one. A few are too dull to finish.
  
  Don't try to read this book cover to cover, unless you really, really like New Yorker humor. I made it about 2/3 through over the course of a month before giving up.
  
  I think this is best suited for a bathroom book or a breakfast book - when a couple of pieces are read at a time. I checked this out from the library and did not have enough time to take it slowly.
• 
  Jrobertus

  This collection of New Yorker humor pieces is priceless. The essays from the 30's and 40's are still hilarious and represent the work of some terrific writers. Jack Handy has a modern piece that totally cracked me up. Check this out.
• 
  Joyce

  Contains very funny pieces by Steve Martin, James Thurber and Groucho Marx; unfortunately, it also has some dated stuff and I was unable to relate. Worth checking out of the ilbrary, which is where I stumbled upon it.
• 
  zack

  Provides little more than inner "Huh, that's funny" laughs. Some of it gets pretty hilarious, but most of it (in particular, a piece where a man can speak only in clichés) has already been done to death, diluting the humor a bit. Thinking man's funny, I guess.
• 
  Nancy Lewis

  None of these were very engaging, perhaps because my sense of humor was formed in an era long after most of these were written.
• 
  Trilby

  I listened to the CD version of this book while I was driving back from Grand Marais. Some of the pieces in here made me laugh aloud: "Hassidic Tales, with a Guide to their Interpretation" by Woody Allen, "In the New Canada, Living is a Way of Life" by Bruce McColl," and "Writing Is Easy!" by Steve Martin. The one that made me laugh so hard I almost crashed (a liability of listening while driving) was "Glengarry Glen Plaid" by Frank Cammusa and Hart Seely, wherein a phone rep abuses a would-be buyer. Woody Allen's little masterpiece, "The Kugelmass Episode," is included. Some of the older pieces, such as those by Groucho Marx, James Thurber, and E.B.White were OK, but rather too dated to be hilarious.
• 
  Sammy

  The New Yorker collected humorist essays across nearly a century and to me--most of them were boring.
  
  I realized how much of white, middle to upper class written humor rests on allusions. It's very insular. If you're not steeped in the culture, you're really not going to get much out of it. I can't how many I read but these are the essays I liked in the book and would read again. Also, these are the ones I would recommend to anyone instead of reading the whole book stubbornly as I did:
  
  Here's a really great idea by David Owen
  He didn't go to Canda by Garrison Keillor
  Dating your Mom by Ian Frzier
  Thank you for Stopping by Jack Handy
  Woody Allen the Kugelmass Episode
  How to eat an Ice cream cone
  
  and maybe like 3 more
  
  
• 
  Stephen Dorneman

  Reading Fierce Pajamas felt like being out at a bar with Charles Bukowski, Hemingway, and Dorothy Parker -- but everyone is drinking mocktails, sober as the proverbial judge. This is a long collection of short humor pieces from the New Yorker that doesn't happen to be particularly funny. Many of the older pieces are so dated that the modern reader has no idea what people, places, and incidents they refer too, and many others are maddeningly New Yorker-centric. The few classic pieces here, such as "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," are still great, but have been widely anthologized elsewhere. A disappointment.
• 
  Kristina

  This is a long, mixed bag, but there are a few gems that make it worth picking up and plodding along through from time to time. The Rather Difficult Case of Mr. K*A*P*L*A*N; Annoy Kaufman, Inc.; It's Fun to Be Fooled; Are We Losing the Novel Race?; and Insert Flap "A" and Throw Away are a few of the pieces that stood out for me, but I have to admit that A Note on the Type was quite possibly my most favorite part.
  
  I was so charmed by it I read it twice.
• 
  Jim

  I doubt readers will love every selection, but am certain they will find at least a few entries to love in this collection. Some of the stories are dated and others seem aimed at specific audiences, but if you enjoy reading The New Yorker, you'll love it. Many of the authors will be comfortably familiar. A few choices I had read before and remembered, but it was still fun reading them again. I fell in love again with Mitty.
• 
  Amy Barlow

  This anthology includes a story in which Emily Dickinson keys a car. 'Nuf said.
  Also: Steve Martin teaches us how to overcome writer's block. Woody Allen imagines a hassled affair with Emma Bovary. What if Mamet was forced to write blurbs for a catalog of comfortable clothing?
  When I'm blue, this collection can take my sad song and make it better.
• 
  Chloe

  Giving up on this. Those of you who know me know how much I hate doing that, but this was really more of a sample this, read that book than a sit down and devour book. A lot of the humor simply wasn't relatable, being from the 30's and all. However, got a few good chuckles in, and my does one look stylish when one reads the New Yorker in any of its forms. 2 1/2 stars, really.
• 
  Mike Bradecich

  On a range of topics and dating back to the 20's, this has some classics that I've read or heard dozens of times and a ton of things that I've never seen. Some pieces are obviously better than others, but the majority are great and all are at least interesting.
• 
  Catalina

  Perhaps one of the best humor anthologies I have ever experienced. My former husband would read it to me before bed, and it would keep me up laughing. It's been years since I last picked it up and I am still laughing!
• 
  Meredith

  When I was little, I would attempt to read my dad's James Thurber anthology (mostly I liked the illustrations) but the humor was always way over my head. Now I love it! Short stories and quick reads seems to be all I have time for right now, so this is perfect.
• 
  Benjamin

  i was given this by my best friend for christmas one year and thought it was hilarious. good find.
• 
  Al

  Love the S.J. Perleman stuff, and Steve Martin and Woody Allen and Ian Frazier and all the writers. Kaufmann, Benchley, et al.