American Cornball: A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny - Hardcover

"Miller's thick tome, organized encyclopedically, is discursive, illuminating, and erudite."--boingboing.com, best 2014 books for nerds

"A peculiar, enlightening book, an investigation of trivia, a strange history of American life from 1900 through 1966... It's a delight."--Elizabeth McCracken, The Washington Post

"A clever, discursive, meticulously researched guide to explain all that old-fashioned humor of yesteryear...impressive survey of humor...an insightful study of the peculiar and contradictory beast that is the American psyche."--Boston Globe

"Miller writes with the humor that benefits his myriad subjects, and though he says it could have had twice the number of entries (and tells us some in his afterword), consider his book exhaustive. This is the only laffopedia you will ever need."--Columbus Dispatch

"A spectacular compendium...making inspired zigs and zags through ancient bits and gags, from Krapp's Last Tape to Andy Capp's shtick."--Ben Greenman, author of The Slippage and What He's Poised to Do

"Miller's lovingly jaundiced exploration of the way America once laughed crackles with insight; the result is that rare book on humor that is as entertaining as its subject."--Publishers Weekly

"If you yuck and guffaw at the likes of old maids, absent-minded professors and red-nosed topers, then this is just the book for you."--Kirkus Reviews

"American Cornball is a winning testament to broad-minded playfulness and nerdy expertise, and it's the perfect book to dip into over and over again: it's funny and smart and endlessly informative about everything Americans thought to be funny, from Rilke to rolling pins."--Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway

"Christopher Miller recreates a lost world in mind-boggling detail, and explores its implications without losing his aplomb, or his sense of humor."--Geoffrey O'Brien, author of Stolen Glimpses, Captive Shadows and The Phantom Empire

"Christopher Miller...has written an erudite, entertaining and addictive compendium of things that used to make Americans laugh and nowadays don't."--New York Times Book Review

A hilarious study of bygone humor from America's golden age revisits such comic staples as bigamy, boarding houses, chamber pots, hillbillies, drunks and shotgun weddings, while revealing the prejudices, preoccupations and peculiarities of the time. By the author of The Cardboard Universe. 30,000 first printing.