Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor by Michael J. Rosen

Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor Reviews

• 
  David

  Obviously, no anthology of this nature can be uniformly funny. But this collection comes pretty darned close. You will laugh your a** off - that's a promise.
  
  To my knowledge, there are at least three volumes in this series by now. This one, the first, is the best of the three that I've read. The other two are worth considering as well, but definitely start with this one.
• 
  Alger Smythe-Hopkins

  Yes it has funny parts. The problem is that it is the kind of funny that you get in the Shouts and Murmurs page of the New Yorker. Never laugh out loud or very thoughtful, instead the volume lives up to the Thurber House imprint and aims for a solid amuse setting. There it succeeds.
  
  What I wasn't expecting is how sadly dated the jokes are. Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of vintage humor; Mencken and Twain are the twin compasses of my soul. But this volume has the very unfortunate fate of being published in that awkward period after Clinton's presidency and before 9/11, so the political pieces in particular look particularly innocent in the face of what's coming. To get the flavor of what I mean, imagine it's 1943 and WWII is raging across Europe, civilization appears to be on the brink of ruin, the US is emerging from depression only to find itself in an even bigger mess with a popular but controversial president. Imagine all that and you pick up a book of comedy from 1929 which is all full of jokes about the Model T and radio, how easy it was to make thousands in the stock market, the ribald joys of prohibition, and witty observations about Calvin Coolidge's taciturnity.
  
  Similarly, the cultural references in Mirth of a Nation tilt heavily towards Monica Lewinsky Oval Office blow-job jokes, Milli Vanilli, and Dot.Com stock millionaires. There is a strong thread of the characteristic late-90s frustration/fascination with new technology, but it's all pre-Google and cell phones (there are jokes about pagers for goodness sakes). This was an era before Harry Pottermania or Twilight, Paris Hilton, al Qida, John Stewart* or Stephen Colbert, Barack Obama, Nickleback, or China being a world power.
  For me, Mirth of a Nation lost its amusing edge in a tidal wave of nostalgia for a time I don't really miss.
  
  *I know he is a contributor, but he wasn't a cultural presence in 2000
  
• 
  Nathan Rose

  As it should be, this was a mixed bag. Anthologies take me a really long time to read.
• 
  Katrina

  Spotty witticism
• 
  Tracey

  I started reading Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor in early May as a vacation read, from there it became the current bathroom book. It was a pass-along from my mom, along with the sequel [book:More Mirth of a Nation}.
  
  It's a very mixed bag, with a good deal of the material being dated - but I still found quite a few chuckles here and there. I enjoyed the pieces by Sedaris, Updike and Barry - the more political items didn't do a whole lot for me.
  
  Having taken so long to read it makes it a bit difficult to recall everything, so I may not be giving this book its due; but I consider it a decent read - recommended as a library book or a loaner.
• 
  Richard Schwindt

  Whatever your taste in humor you will find something to please you in this wonderful book. I never have it far away for those difficult moments in life. Surely Ferret Face by Daniel Radosh is the funniest piece ever committed to print. And lets not forget Jon Stewart's account of the Last Supper. This book is the best antidepressant (and I am speaking as a therapist) and from me anyway highly recommended.
• 
  Virginia

  I picked this up because I've been doing some really heavy reading lately. It's a nice break from books on genocide, war, and global warming. And since it's a compilation of essays I can read one or two before falling asleep each night. The material is getting a little dated, though, and I'm not sure I would have picked it out had I known that. The David Sadaris pieces are always good, though.
• 
  Michael Huang

  Short shelf life.
  
  Not that there is anything inherently wrong with short-shelf lives. 20 years ago, these stories might be pretty funny for the day. Most of them will have no resonance with people's laugh nerve today (2016). For example, once upon a time, the nation is gripped with "OJ fever". Today, it's such a passing footnote.
• 
  ba

  The premise (a compilation of humorous pieces by various authors) sounded old-fashioned and destined to not be funny. But after reading some positive reviews, I picked this up and really liked it. If you enjoy websites with good writing by satirists and humorists, you'll enjoy this book,
• 
  Jennifer

  Bleh!!! One of the worst books ever, not funny at all, with the exception of Dave Barry's story of being in Paris, France, which I'd already read in one of his own books. Don't bother, terrible book.
• 
  Melissa Hurwitz

  Not so funny
• 
  Maggie

  uneven. funny in parts. dull in others. but worth the time anyway just 'cause we need to search for laughs everywhere we can. recommended. second reading.
• 
  Belinda

  I don't know, maybe I don't have a very good sense of humor. I've laughed harder at lunch with my co-workers. I had a couple of chuckles but not one true belly laugh. I feel like I wasted my time.
• 
  Mahria

  While there were some humorous pieces in this collection (Sedaris, Jon Stewart), the majority left me bored. And I read this on an airplane.
• 
  Linda Appelbaum

  Well if you want something funny, don't look here. Only a couple of "essays" made me laugh. Most I could't even finish. Total waste of time.
• 
  Krista Crow

  Not bad to listen to as an audio book, but I will admit I skipped more than a few of the stories.
• 
  D.

  I read about 20 percent of this before giving up. Disappointing. Pieces ranged from mildly amusing to not funny at all.
• 
  Susan Lee

  Laugh out loud. Great mood lifter.
• 
  Megan

  Started out really strong, but fizzled out really quick. Very boring by the half way point.
• 
  Paul Sand

  [Imported automatically from
  my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]

  A bit of a departure for me, I picked up this book of short humor pieces awhile back, and finally got around to reading it. I guess I needed some cheering up?

  And… well, I was slightly disappointed. It's not that there's not some funny stuff here. Dave Barry has a couple of articles. P. J. O'Rourke has one. And a few other authors made me chuckle as well. The editor,
  Michael J. Rosen, seems to be a pleasant enough guy; he wrote this in association with the
  Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio. Which actually has a
  unicorn in its garden. Although if you acknowledge its existence, they take you to the booby hatch.

  But way too many of the articles were clever without being funny. Or inventively bizarre, while being too sophisticated to actually be caught telling a joke. Perhaps there were some ingenious parodies. But if so, they were unfortunately of works I'd never heard of.

  But, hey, you might like it. The low price at Amazon, as I type, is $0.01, plus shipping. And 99 cents for a Kindle version. I think I get a cut of that if you order from the link!