THE ADS THAT TICKLED THE WASTELAND

Madison Avenue had statistics and selling points but one Mad Man dared to think different.

GOOSING THE GRIM REAPER

Death may be final but mocking the Grim Reaper is an old American tradition

WITSThe AtticAugust 13, 2021Epitaphs, Funny epitaphs, Gravestones, Funny gravestones Comments

IS SEX NECESSARY?

At the end of the Freud-filled 1920s, James Thurber and E.B. White launched their careers with a silly question and a spoof.

Humor, WITSThe AtticMay 10, 2021James Thurber, E.B. White, Humor, Sex Comments

FOOTBALL'S MADCAP "MAD DUCK"

You may think football a grim sport, but meet Alex Karras, "a clown with a fine sense of timing." And, BTW, Hitler's husband.

WITSThe AtticApril 12, 2021Alex Karras, NFL, Detroit Lions, Paper Lion Comment

OGDEN NASH -- MASTER OF PACE AND RHYME

No verse was too light, no rhyme was too impossible for Ogden Nash.

WITS, BOOK-ISHThe AtticApril 9, 2021Ogden Nash, Poetry, Verse, Light verse Comments

"NETWORK" -- STILL MAD AS HELL

“Network" did not predict populist anger -- it foresaw a network using anger to boost ratings. Sound familiar?

WITS, ATTIC AT THE MOVIESThe AtticApril 2, 2021Humor, Movies, Satire, TV Comments

BILL LEE -- FROM FENWAY TO OUTER SPACE

Strikeouts? Politics? Drugs? Transcendental Meditation? Ask the "Spaceman," still pitching in his late 60s. All for the love of the game.

WITSThe AtticFebruary 4, 2021Bill Lee, Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Boston Red SoxComment

NICHOLS AND MAY -- COMEDY'S PERFECT PAIR

Comedic couples come and go but there has never been a more perfect union of wit and mind than Nichols and May.

WITSThe AtticFebruary 1, 2021humor, women, arts, Nichols and May, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Comedy Comments

H.L. MENCKEN, BANE OF THE BOOBOISIE

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” — H.L. Mencken

WITSThe AtticNovember 26, 2020H.L. Mencken, 1920s, American humor, Scopes Trial, Baltimore Comments

THAT MAD, MAD MAGAZINE

For a full generation, as the world teetered on the brink, the lone voice mocking in the wilderness was truly MAD.

WITSThe AtticNovember 19, 2020MAD Magazine, Satire, Humor, 1960s, Mort Drucker, Alfred E. Newman Comments

THE ONE, THE ONLY -- HARPO!

Shy second grade dropout. Struggled onstage with one-liners. Without a further word, he became a clown for the ages.

WITSThe AtticNovember 13, 2020Harpo Marx, The Marx Brothers, Comedies, Groucho Marx, Mime Comments

GOOD WILL ROGERS

“There’s no secret to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.”

Humor, WITSThe AtticSeptember 10, 2020Will Rogers, American humor, Wit, 1920s Comments

SCIENCE FARCES ON

A Wasabi Alarm? Astrology Charts for Bacteria? Scheduled Earthquakes? The Ig-Nobels are science for wise guys.

THE WIT OF JFK

Presidents are rarely known for their humor, at least not their intentional humor. JFK was.

Humor, WITSThe AtticMay 29, 2020JFK, JFK wit, JFK humor, Presidential humor Comments

THE BOOK THAT BEFOULED BASEBALL

Our National Pastime thrived on legend until Jim Bouton toppled the pedestals. Was that Mickey Mantle pinch hitting with a hangover?

WITS, BOOK-ISHThe AtticMay 8, 2020Jim Bouton, Ball Four, 1960s Comments

THE LITTLE TRAMP AND HIS MASTERPIECE

Silent film was dead. Scandal tainted his career. His mother died. The Depression began. And Charlie Chaplin made “City Lights.”