Humor Me is a literary cavalcade of contemporary American funnymen—and funnywomen—of the page. Selected by the renowned humor-ist Ian Frazier and featuring more than fifty pieces of the greatest comic writing of our time, the book includes such masters of the form as Roy Blount, Jr., Bruce Jay Friedman, Veronica Geng, Jack Handey, Garrison Keillor, Steve Martin, and Calvin Trillin, as well as work by newer comic stars like Andy Borowitz, Larry Doyle, Simon Rich, George Saunders, and David Sedaris.

The pieces were published in the past thirty years in such popular magazines as The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Atlantic, National Lampoon, and Outside. But the book also includes a handful of older comic masterpieces that nobody in need of a laugh should ever be without, among them classics by Bret Harte, Elizabeth Bishop, Donald Barthelme, and Mark Twain.

Humor Me: An Anthology of Funny Contemporary Writing (Plus Some Great Old Stuff, Too)

This anthology of over fifty humorous stories was published to benefit the 826 program, which provides after-school tutoring to children. For more information on them see their website.

With over fifty stories this book has something for everyone. If one story doesn’t get you laughing, then you just move on to the next one. I also like anthologies because they are a good way to find authors you haven’t read before. This book has a mix of big name authors and others that I had never heard of before.

Since humor is so subject to personal taste, it’s good that there are so many different styles and stories to choose from. I’ve picked out a few of my favorites as there are way too many to mention them all.

Larry Doyle’s “Life Without Leann” This was a laugh-out-loud funny parody of a newsletter detailing the latest doings of a support group for former boyfriends of a woman named Leann. With sections entitled “Leann Watcher of the Week”, “Leann Alert” and “This Week’s Leann Challenge” among others it is a really great spoof of a support group newsletter. There are lots of laughs in these five pages.

Another one that I really enjoyed was the piece by the editor of this collection, Ian Frazier. Titled “Lamentations of the Father,” it has a father’s rules for his children written in a biblical style. It contains things like the guidelines for where in the house they are not allowed to eat or drink and how much dinner they have to consume before they may have dessert and how they should avoid him when he is paying bills. I don’t recall reading anything by Frazier before, but this was so good I’ll probably look up some of his other works.

One more selection that really stood out for me was Michael O’Donoghue’s “How To Write Good.” It has ten lessons on improving your writing. This is from Part II of the book which has the older (but still funny) material. He covers all aspects of writing, from grabbing the reader’s attention to the ending, in a way that will keep you amused to the end.

It’s hard to rate an anthology, especially one with so many different pieces included. There were selections that I enjoyed and others that I didn’t really get.

I give this book 3 bookies!

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