In the past month, I’ve accumulated a short stack of funny and entertaining works that I’ve been meaning to talk about, but haven’t had the time. So this Stack Overflow will take a quick peek at a collection of (mostly) upcoming books. It’s a pretty fun list — they’re all great and worth a serious look. I’ll be brief, but I’m sure everyone can find something to like in this list.
Kids Are Weird (and other observations from Parenthood) by Jeffrey Brown
From the author of Darth Vader and Son comes this collection of silly and endearing parent/kid scenarios. It’s reminiscent of Bill Cosby’s Kids Say the Darndest Things and is illustrated beautifully. To be honest, some of the panels feel like they are probably more meaningful to Brown and his wife, but plenty of them are still pretty funny and sure to spark a memory about your own kids being weird. Check out a few sample pages or pick it up at Amazon. (This book will be available on March 18th.)
The Muppets Character Encyclopedia
Even if you think you know a thing or two about the Muppets, you will most certainly learn something in this encyclopedia that details more than 150 characters from TV and film. From Animal to Zoot, you’ll get the lowdown on a Muppet’s likes, dislikes, debut, special talents, and a full bio. In true Muppets fashion, the book is packed with humor and the author, Craig Shemin from the Jim Henson Legacy, tucks in tons of trivia and fun facts, sure to tickle even the furriest of funny bones. Wocka Wocka! (This book is available now.)
Shakespeare Insult Generator
Let’s face it. If you spend enough time on the Internet, someone’s going to purposely insult you, probably in boring old four-letter fashion. If you’re a big enough person, you can close the browser, chat, or email window and turn the other cheek. Or you can break out the spiral bound Shakespeare Insult Generator and mix and match the bard’s words to your nefarious purposes. Each page is broken into three flippable cards for over 150,000 combinations of high-brow contempt. On the back of each card is a translation, so you can know exactly what taunt you’ve tossed. What are you waiting for, you beslubbering, leptus-leering costermonger? (This book will be available on March 4th.)
Marvel Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Marvel and each week since its inception, there seems to be a new character making him or herself known. The Marvel Encyclopedia has been published over the years to help comic readers make sense of stories, remember characters, or other pertinent facts. This fully updated edition, the first in more than five years, profiles over 1,200 Marvel characters and includes entries on the many teams, superheroes, and storylines. The book includes an intro by Stan Lee and a foreword by Ralph Macchio. Hey, why not? It’s also worth mentioning that one of the book’s contributors is GeekDad’s own Matt Forbeck. Nice job, Matt! (This book will be available on March 17th.)
F this Test
The fourth book in this New York Times series of bestselling books, F this Test looks at the very best of very wrong test answers. Across a full day’s worth of classes, from English to the performing arts, Richard Benson has collected real answers from tests where students, faced with total blanks, took the lower road and went for the funny. Perhaps that’s what the F stands for — funny? Because there are plenty of good laughs to be found in this short collection. (This book will be available on March 18th.)
Disclosure: GeekDad was sent review samples of these books.
