Tag Archives: humor

Rotten Reviews: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Posted on June 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

“The most insipid, ridiculous play that I ever saw in my life.”

 Samuel Pepys, Diary

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998. 

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Ben Hecht on History, Chronology, and Journalism

Posted on June 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.”

Ben Hecht

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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The Algonquin Wits: Robert Benchley Requests a Taxi

Posted on April 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Coming out of a midtown restaurant, Benchley spotted a uniformed man at the door. ‘Would you get us a taxi, please,’ he asked the man. ‘I’m sorry,’ the man said coldly, ‘I happen to be a rear admiral in the United States Navy.’ ‘All right then,’ said Benchley, ‘get us a battleship.'”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Adage

Posted on April 21, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Adage, n. [1.] Boned wisdom for weak teeth. [2.] A hoary-headed platitude that is kicked along the centuries until nothing is left of it but its clothes. A ‘saw’ which has worn out its teeth on the human understanding.”

Ambrose Bierce

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

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An Affectionate View of the Feline Race

Posted on April 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Cat: One Hell of a nice animal, frequently mistaken for a meatloaf.”

B. Kliban, U.S. Cartoonist, (1935-1990)

Cat

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Amateur

Posted on April 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Amateur, n. A public nuisance who mistakes taste for skill, and confounds his ambition with his ability.” 

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000.

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Tom Stoppard on Honesty

Posted on April 4, 2019 | Leave a comment

“It’s better to be quotable than to be honest.”

Tom Stoppard

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Autocrat

Posted on April 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Autocrat, n. A dictatorial gentleman with no other restraint upon him than the hand of the assassin. The founder of that great political institution, the dynamite bomb-shell system.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

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The Algonquin Wits: Robert Benchley on the Secret of Writing

Posted on April 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

“You have no idea how many problems an author has to face during those feverish days when he is building a novel, and you have no idea how he solves them. Neither has he.”

Robert Benchley

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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Rotten Reviews: Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill

Posted on April 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

[This Rotten Review refers to a performance of Eugene O’Neill’s play in London in 1961.]

“Mourning Becomes Electra is hollow.”

Bernard Levin, Daily Express

Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

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