From memoirs by beloved performers to exhaustive looks at towering comic phenomena.
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Theres a particular joy in picking comedy apart to see how and why it works when it works.
We also got new works of boundary-pushing, self-conscious funny fiction from provocative new authors and comedy gods alike.
10.A Guide to Midwestern Conversation, by Taylor Kay Phillips
10.
Dr. Tara Switcher lives in 2040 in a hellish, post-climate-change world with a robot cat.
Its funny but poignant, ridiculous but bittersweet.
Both Bamfords are forever self-analyzing, trying to find a reason for their shared perceived weirdness.
And here is the record of that journey.
The Ultimate Guide to Mourning,by Jason Roeder
6.
Its relatively easy to make fun of death.
It takes true nuance and comic skills to skewer the deeply unpleasant and universally human experience of grief.
Roeder, whos previously written for The Onionand McSweeneys,is up to the task withGriefstrike!
a memoir in the form of a third-personfauxmanual.
Here, the reader laughswiththe dead and grief-stricken, never at them.
5.Misfit: Growing Up Awkward in the 80s, by Gary Gulman
5.
Gary Gulmans memoir is a two-for-one deal.
4.Escape From Hawaii: A Tropical Sequel, by Jack Handey
4.
He pretty much invented the Twitter joke.
The rhythms, spontaneity, and wide-eyed curiosity of Wattss singular musical-comedy act work monumentally well as a book.
The experimental bandleader fromComedy Bang!
2.Hi Honey, Im Homo!
: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture, by Matt Baume
2.
Saul Austerlitz was the perfect author for the job; hes a comedy history professor and wroteGeneration FriendsaboutFriends.
So it seems untoward to rank it.
But if you love comedy and you do because youre reading this this is one to grab.
This one is among Swartzwelders best and most joke-heavy.
was an attempt to make talk shows less vapid.
They can and should question and summarily mock everything.
But theres a third, and until now, largely unheralded player, and thats Boom Chicago.
Thats all here in this book written by two of Reductress top voices.
Comedy Bang!
Bang!As that show deconstructs and sends up podcast conventions (and the formerComedy Bang!
It opens with endless introductory and preamble material that pokes fun at its own pomposity.
But then, when the book starts in earnest, its like a sketch-comedy show in literary form.
It can be life-affirming and empathetic.
(Its supposed to get to the core of humanity and what connects us, right?)
America the Beautiful?
They dont even like what little theyve heard of BCA, but they simplymustown the elusive recordingLive in Hungaria.
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