[I can’t keep reprinting Dave Barry’s stuff and counting it as Silverback Digest. This review of The Odyssey, however, is not to be missed:
Meanwhile, back to Silverback Digest …
[As part of my college class’s 55th Reunion, we sent a survey asking what they found funny. Here’s an uncurated list, randomly juxtaposed with visual images and videos that prove only that I think I can get away with anything on a Saturday morning. SB SM]
1 Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut 5/1/2025 7:17 AM
2 Babies and Other Hazards of Sex, by Dave Barry 4/24/2025 5:38 PM
3 Mere humor wouldn’t be the standard. It would be sum-total humanity with humor as a
balanced portion thereof. Analogy: Walt always told his animators and story developers to
make Mickey and Donald and their gang be folks you’d like to hang out with, having emotional
dimensions and depth – not just gags like the Warner characters. 4/23/2025 5:31 PM
4 The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss. Boomsday by Christopher Buckley. 4/22/2025 11:17 PM
5 David Lodge, Changing Places any Vonnegut 4/22/2025 12:46 PM
6 Don Camillo and his Flock (really the entire series) 4/21/2025 8:26 PM
7 #4, above, does not accept multiple lines rated the same. Catch 22, Joseph Heller 4/21/2025 4:36 PM
8 Missing Christmas, by John Grisham 4/21/2025 3:20 PM
9 None come to mind! 4/21/2025 11:39 AM
10 The Sot Weed Factor by John Barth 4/20/2025 12:09 PM
11 “The Crock of Gold” by James Stephens 4/19/2025 10:33 PM
12 confederacy of dunces 4/18/2025 5:37 PM
13 [Anything] by David Sedaris 4/18/2025 3:26 PM
14 Don’t generally read humor books. Plenty of humor in everyday life. 4/18/2025 11:30 AM
15 Don Quixote – Miguel Cervantes 4/17/2025 7:57 PM
16 Harry the Rat with Women by Jules Feiffer 4/17/2025 5:00 PM
17 Not really, as I do not particularly enjoy reading “funny” books. Now, movies – that’s a different
story.
4/17/2025 3:42 PM
18 3 men in a Boat 4/17/2025 11:35 AM
19 Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth 4/17/2025 10:48 AM
20 The Sotweed Factor. Many books by Thomas Berger. 4/17/2025 10:45 AM
21 Any book of Calvin and Hobbs cartoons. 4/17/2025 10:40 AM
22 Hitchhikers Guide… Douglas Adams 4/17/2025 10:03 AM
23 Catch-22 4/17/2025 9:56 AM
24 no idea. BTW for 4, there should have been an N/A choice. That would have been mine. 4/17/2025 8:35 AM
25 some by christopher buckley 4/17/2025 8:25 AM
26 A Walk in the Woods 4/17/2025 8:20 AM
27 Walking Across Egypt, Clyde Edgerton 4/14/2025 10:45 AM
28 The Screwtape Letters 4/13/2025 8:25 PM
29 Travels with my Aunt–Graham Greene 4/11/2025 1:58 PM
30 Any book by Bill Bryson 4/9/2025 5:46 PM
31 tollbooth 4/9/2025 1:03 PM
32 O’Toole’s “Confederacy of Dunces” and (read long, long before) Jerome’s “Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog)”4/5/2025 5:31 PM
33 “Digging up Mother” by Doug Stanhope, read to me by my son while I was receiving chemo for rectal cancer.
4/5/2025 3:14 PM
34 any by David Sedaris 4/4/2025 9:07 PM
35 How To Survive in Your Native Land, by James Herndon (1971) 4/4/2025 7:34 PM
36 Freddy the Detective 4/3/2025 8:11 PM
37 Catch-22 4/2/2025 3:08 PM
38 I guess I don’t choose to read books that are funny. 4/2/2025 10:10 AM
39 P.G. Wodehouse – entire body 4/1/2025 9:02 PM
40 Catch-22, by Joseph Heller 4/1/2025 6:38 PM
41 Damon Runyan short stories, H.L. Mencken essays, Archie & Mehitabel stories. 4/1/2025 6:09 PM
42 Water Music by T.C. Boyle 4/1/2025 4:58 PM
43 Black No More by George S. Schuyler 4/1/2025 1:08 PM
44 A Gentleman in Moscow 3/31/2025 8:10 PM
45 Andy Borowitz, Profiles in Ignorance 3/31/2025 1:38 PM
46 Carl Hiaasen, Squeeze Me, about Florida’s gold coast 3/31/2025 1:28 PM
47 Pogo (comic books) along with Doonesbury and Scrooge McDuck (when sharing the spotlight
with Huey, Dewey, and Lewey). More literary books are amusing, but not so “ha-ha” laugh out
loud.
3/31/2025 12:11 PM
44 Carol Burnett 4/5/2025 5:31 PM
45 Steve Martin 4/5/2025 4:58 PM
46 Robin Williams 4/5/2025 3:14 PM
47 George Carlin 4/4/2025 9:07 PM
48 Gary Trudeau 4/4/2025 7:34 PM
49 Jim Gaffigan 4/4/2025 11:27 AM
50 Richard Pryor 4/3/2025 8:11 PM
51 Richard Pryor 4/3/2025 2:19 PM
52 Ryan Hamilton, but I don’t tune in to comedians that much. 4/2/2025 10:10 AM
53 Robin Williams 4/1/2025 6:38 PM
54 George Carlin 4/1/2025 6:09 PM
55 Mitch Hedberg 4/1/2025 4:58 PM
56 Richard Pryor 4/1/2025 1:08 PM
57 Bob Hope, Jerry Seinfeld 3/31/2025 8:10 PM
58 Woody Allen, George Carlin, Jonathan Winter, Richard Pryor, David Letterman, Robin Williams 3/31/2025 1:38 PM
59 There are so many, but right now I find a daily dose of Stephen Colbert a real tonic, plus the entire crew of Saturday Night Live.
3/31/2025 1:28 PM
60 Rodney Dangerfield (stand-up), Chevy Chase (fall down). 3/31/2025 12:11 PM
61 Jon Stewart 3/31/2025 11:30 AM
62 Can’t rank ’em: Bob Newhart (recordings of his stand up, not later TV), Jonathan Winters,Robin Williams, George Carlin, and Steve Martin.
3/30/2025 8:47 PM
63 Jon Stewart 3/30/2025 6:36 PM
64 Bob Newhart 3/30/2025 1:29 PM
65 Mike Birbiglia 3/30/2025 11:11 AM
66 Louis Black 3/29/2025 11:08 PM
67 Me. 3/29/2025 6:20 PM
68 Monty Python – hard to choose one 3/29/2025 5:40 PM
69 Too many to name. 3/29/2025 2:57 PM
70 George Carlin 3/29/2025 8:58 AM
71 Mel Brooks 3/29/2025 8:41 AM
72 Johnny Carson 3/29/2025 7:43 AM
73 Robin Williams 3/29/2025 2:33 AM
74 Robin Williams, Richard Pryor 3/28/2025 6:13 PM
75 Monty Python; the Marx Brothers 3/28/2025 5:17 PM
76 Albert Brooks 3/28/2025 3:22 PM
77 Robin Williams 3/28/2025 2:53 PM
78 Jim Gaffigan 3/28/2025 1:26 PM
79 Ricky Gervais 3/27/2025 6:35 PM
80 Will Ferrell 3/27/2025 11:07 AM
81 Steve Martin – Mel Brooks – tied 3/26/2025 5:53 PM
82 Nate Bargatze’s George Washington skits on SNL 3/26/2025 2:36 PM
83 Richard Pryor 3/26/2025 1:21 PM
84 George Carlin 3/26/2025 12:47 PM
85 Billy Crystal 3/26/2025 12:36 PM
86 Eddie Murphy 3/26/2025 12:28 PM
87 Bob and Ray 3/26/2025 11:47 AM
88 Steve Martin 3/26/2025 11:21 AM
89 George Carlin 3/26/2025 11:16 AM
90 Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert 3/26/2025 11:01 AM
91 Geroge Carlin, Jim Gaffigan, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy 3/26/2025 8:56 AM
92 George Carlin 3/26/2025 7:28 AM
93 Kenan Thompson. 3/26/2025 1:28 AM
94 I enjoy the current crop of female comedians 3/25/2025 11:51 PM
95 Robin Williams 3/25/2025 11:19 PM
96 Robin Williams 3/25/2025 10:55 PM
97 George Carlin 3/25/2025 10:26 PM
98 George Carlin 3/25/2025 10:23 PM
99 Robin Williams 3/25/2025 9:45 PM
100 Johnny Cardon 3/25/2025 9:17 PM
101 Billy Crystal 3/25/2025 9:06 PM
102 Robin Williams 3/25/2025 8:56 PM
103 Bob Newhart 3/25/2025 8:51 PM
104 Adam Sandler 3/25/2025 8:48 PM
105 Still the Firesign Theater 3/25/2025 8:47 PM
106 Steve Martin. Also, good banjo player 3/25/2025 8:36 PM
107 Bob Newhart 3/25/2025 8:19 PM
108 Woody Allen 3/25/2025 8:02 PM
109 Tom Lehrer 3/25/2025 7:54 PM
110 Robin Williams 3/25/2025 7:36 PM
111 Robin Williams 3/25/2025 7:33 PM
112 Bill Cosby 3/25/2025 7:33 PM
113 Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Andy Kaufman, Gilda Radnor 3/25/2025 6:44 PM
114 Jonathan WInters 3/24/2025 8:24 PM
115 Charlie Chaplin 3/24/2025 9:59 AM
116 Jim Gaffigan 3/23/2025 6:00 PM
117 Robin Williams, Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien