Humor that holds up

Dave Barry released this book (which I bought for a quarter at a book fair) in 1988, and it basically contains all of his newspaper articles for the previous several years. Despite the dated politics (it contains a lot of Nixon & Reagan jokes), it holds up surprisingly well, considering it’s 27 years old (oh my god that means my little sister is also 27 years old…). A lot of it remains very relevant, overshadowing that which does not (such as a whole chapter on the perils of home telephones).

“2. The instant the doors open, you want to push forward as hard as possible, in an effort to get onto the train without letting anybody off. This is very important. If anybody does get off, it is legal to tackle him and drag him back on.”

Dave Barry explains the rules for subway travel in NYC (rule #2 listed above), the issues with being a homeowner, tells little stories about his wife and son (the “taking the son fishing” story cracked me up), and gently makes fun of his readers. No real swearing, very little sexual references (unlike his novels, which tend to be rather filthy — and still hilarious). You could read 99% of this book aloud to your grandmother. But nevertheless — it’s funny! The chapters about dogs in particular had me literally laughing out loud. I will always laugh out loud at dumb dog stories. And apparently, I will always laugh out loud at Dave Barry.