Will CuppyRecensioni

An almanac with hopefully humourous factoids one per calendar day.½

Ancient humor.

Indeholder afsnittene "Are Wombats People?", "Mammals for Beginners", " The Mouse", " The Squirrel", " The Rabbit", " The Armadillo", " The Porcupine", "Advanced Mammals", " The Tapir", " The Llama", " The Great Anteater", " The Yak", " The Wart Hog", "Problem Mammals", " The Opossum", " The Kangaroo", " The Koala", " The Tasmanian Wolf", " The Bandicoot", " The Wombat", "The Poet and the Nautilus", "Pleasures of Pond Life", " The Frog", " The Toad", " The Salamander", " The Newt", "Octopuses and Those Things", " The Oyster", " The Clam", " The Snail", " The Octopus", " The Squid", " The Sea Serpent", "How to swat a fly", "Insects for everybody", " The Ant", " The Bee", " The Cricket", " The Mosquito", " The Gnat", " The Butterfly", "Optional insects", " The Beetle", " The Firefly", " The Ladybug", " The Flea", " The Fly", "Swan-upping indeed!", "Birds who can't fly", " The Ostrich", " The Emu", " The Kiwi", " The Moa", "Birds who can't sing and know it", " The Pelican", " The Duck", " The Goose", " The Swan", "More about Wombats", "Appendix", " The Scorpion", " The Earthworm".

Will Cuppy (1884 - 1949) fik denne bog publiceret i 1949, hvilket jo er et stykke tid siden. Den her bog er sat med en digitaliseret udgave af Caledonia, en skrifttype, der er fra 1941. Men jeg synes både skrifttypen og humoren er lidt spinkel i støbningen. Forfatteren har taget en række dyr og skrevet lidt om dem på en humoristisk måde. Men det er der jo både før og siden andre, der har gjort. Fx "Never buy dice from a wombat".

Translating humour is difficult. This book is supposed to be funny. The German translation does not seem to be funny at all. Either I have lost my sense of humour or Lutz-Werner Wolff has not succeeded in translating the humour of this book. I won't give a rating because the English may well be funny.

A collection of humorous bios of famous people from history. It's from the 1940s, so it does seem a bit dated, with a slightly musty feel about some of the humor, giant blind spots about things like white people doing anything remotely unpleasant in colonizing the New World, and a few misogynistic jokes that honestly leave me entirely unsure whether Cuppy is satirizing sexist attitudes or embracing them. The style is also rather disjointed, with lots and lots of footnotes, some of which are relevant and some of which aren't. I found the humor a bit variable. There are some moments of real satiric brilliance, some that raise an amused chuckle, and some where it all starts to wear rather thin. I suspect it is one of those books that works to best effect when dipped in and out of, rather than read straight through until you get tired of it.

It's also hard to know how seriously to take any of it. I mean, in general it's clearly not meant to be taken terribly seriously at all, but apparently Cuppy actually did to a lot of very real research on his subjects. So I imagine a lot of what he includes is more or less historically accurate, but you never do quite know what's established fact, what's mere rumor, and what's just been thrown in because it's funny.

This volume also features some droll cartoon illustration and two additional pieces about various royal personages: one involving humor and pranks, which I didn't find all that entertaining, and one about their eating habits and food preferences, which I kind of did.

Rating: It's honestly quite hard to rate this. There's a fun, oddball charm to it that makes me want to be kind to it, but I really did find the humor value variable. I guess I'm going to resist the urge to be extra generous and call it 3.5/5.½

A very interesting and entertaining look at general history. There are many laugh-out-loud comments on the foibles of famous people from Pharaoh to Miles Standish, and various kings, tsars and queens eating habits. This seems to have influenced a number of writers: Sellar & Yateman's '1066 and All That,' as well as 'The Education of Hyman Kaplan.' I think Harry Shearer must have admired this author when he was in middle school (did Harry Shearer go to middle school?) Anyway, I highly recommend it.

I'd never heard of Will Cuppy until I found this book and while his coverage of the decline and fall of most people is often smile invoking I found the most interesting part of "The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody" the foreword in my edition that gives a potted biography of Cuppy. Beyond the fact that "The Decline and Fall ..." was a posthumous release, Cuppy was somewhat of an eccentric chap who lived as a hermit for years and responded to work offers by saying he wasn't a good writer.

After the foreword, much of what Cuppy writes is anti-climatic but there are certainly some interesting sections about various historical features that were both amusing and educational.½

I am very fond of Cuppy's style, and the prose is of a warm quality. Sadly, a very large number of wild-life films have robbed the book of much shock value. If you want to read the text for what could have been a killer wild-life oddity documentary, or a short TV series, here it is.
The book was originally published in 1935.

This book is hilarious and also historically accurate and very carefully researched. It was published posthumously and one can only imagine the wonderful updates that would have occurred to subsequent additions if he had lived.

The footnotes are witty and sharp and in no way detract from the rest of the work. This is the way history should be written and taught. The historical characters are brought back to earth and are written as real humans with all of their foibles exposed for laughs.

For those that love history, this is a must read. For those who love humour, you will get plenty of laughs while also getting educated. Don't forget to read the afterword. It discusses Will Cuppy in depth. I can only imagine that my place will look like his by the time I am dead. He was a misanthrope after my own heart.

While not as wildy funny as The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, this is another agreeable example of Cuppy's humor, and has the advantage of having been completed in his lifetime under his own supervision.

This is the original hardcover edition of one of my favorite books. For full comments, see the entry for the paperback edition.

This is my father's paperback copy which I nearly read to death. I would give it 6 stars if possible. Cuppy did genuine serious research and included real, if bizarre, facts, but he told everything with a marvelous light style and was a master of the comic footnote. The book is lives of the great (chiefly rulers, plus some early settlers of the Americas) running from Khufu to George III and Leif the Lucky to Miles Standish, as well as two essays on royal pranks and royal stomachs. The witty line drawings by William Steig add a great deal to the fun. As with some of Cuppy's other work, this was edited after his death by Fred Feldkamp.

A childhood favorite I picked up while visiting family. It's a nice lighthearted general romp through history, although it's showing its age by now (the Sumerians will blow over? really, sir?), and definitely written by a white guy who did not know much about the-world-beyond-Europe-and-America, as far as I can tell.

But if you're trying to convince someone that no, really, history is amazing, full of awesome people who did fascinating things for the most hilarious and fucked-up reasons, you could do a lot worse than to hand them this.

It's tough for me not to heap up rose petals for the sainted Author of THE DECLINE AND FALL OF PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY, but the sad fact is that this book just isn't very funny, or even clever.

An amusing, if somewhat dated, book of animal humor. (I say dated because this pre-dates the time that Piltdown Man was recognized as a fake, and includes it as a serious contender in human origins). The book reminds a person that there was a time that someone could be regarded as a humorist without swearing, leering, or making any more than the mildest of sexual innuendos. It is intelligent humor, but much of what is here would probably fall flat for most of today's audiences. Best target audience would be those who can roar out loud at James Thurber, rather than scratching their head and going "huh?" A quick read, with a bunch of enjoyable one-liners. My favorite? The average sparrow is boring. Unfortunately, all sparrows are average.½

This is not a new work. It is a compilation of previously-published Cuppy books in a lightweight edition for U.S. troops overseas. Only the title is new. The text is superb, as is anything by Cuppy, but the type is small and hard to read. Don't buy this book unless you are a backpacker looking for ultra lightweight reading matter. Buy the original books in their original formats.

This is a book of snippets about birds and monkeys, plus mammals and even a few primitive people. Cuppy was a notorious bird hater, so you can imagine how hilariously he deals with them. It must have done him good to write this one! This is certainly not his best book, but contains many quotable lines. For example, "All modern men are descended from a wormlike creature, but it shows more on some people." Or, "It is a good thing to keep out of the Arctic if you look like a seal." The illustrations are not as high quality as those of his other books, but are appropriately bizarre. With Cuppy you really can't go wrong. Another very funny book, but not recommended for oversensitive bird lovers.

This was Cuppy's third book of complaints about animals. It is mostly about mammals, but also gets into amphibians, birds, insects, worms, Greek poets, and practically everything else. It is rich in empirical science, such as, "A decapitated salamander cannot make quick decisions," and philosophical insights, such as, "Intelligence is the capacity to know what we are doing and instinct is just instinct. The results are about the same." And even aesthetics: "The wart hog is often called the ugliest of all animals but the rhinoceros is uglier because he is larger and there is more of him to be ugly."

There is a section titled “Problem Mammals” but Cuppy seemed to have had problems with all the animals in this book, including “birds who can’t even fly” and “birds who can’t sing and know it.” And wombats, of course. “Are wombats people?” he asks, rhetorically. Because animals are, after all, only human. Three whole chapters are devoted to wombats but I can’t say they offer any useful advice on attracting them. No matter. After reading the three chapters you probably won’t even want to attract them!

Some people have accused Cuppy of making up things. I have never found any proof of this, but where did he get the factoid on page 116, that a snail can do the hundred yard dash in thirty hours flat? Can’t help wondering about that one!

Very funny. Cuppy-strength funny. One does not need to be a wombat fancier to enjoy this book, which is lavishly and delightfully illustrated by Ed Nofziger.

This one is mostly about fish, reptiles, and Aristotle, not necessarily in that order. (You will find Aristotle under reptiles.) Plus snippets about some of the animals that have mastered the art of extinction, such as the dodo, “the ultimate in extinction,” which “seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct.” And if you are thinking of adding a snake to your family circle, Cuppy gives you a few points to consider before making that kind of commitment. In general, he is against making pets of snakes, but admits that he might not have met the right snake. Anything by Cuppy is worth reading, and this one is no exception. The text is superb and the illustrations by Steig are first-rate.

This book was put together by Fred Feldkamp after Cuppy's death, but there is no doubt who wrote it. It is pure Cuppy, at his best. Here you get Cuppy's views on cat buttering, fly swatting, canteloupe scraping, prunes, parsnips, alligators, astrology, and many other pressing issues. You get snippets about people he never quite got around to in his "Decline and Fall." Many of his most quotable lines are in this book. Of all his books, this one covers the widest scope of subject matter. The illustrations by John Ruge are brilliant.

Will Cuppy was a great humorist. This is not his best book or his funniest, but it is as close as he ever got to writing autobiography. It provides fascinating glimpses into his life during the 1920s, when he was still an obscure and impecunious book reviewer.

The New York Times said that Cuppy was known as the hermit of Jones Beach "because he used to retire to a shack there to brood from time to time." In fact he brooded there full-time from 1921 to 1929, which should qualify him as an expert. A hermit, said Cuppy, "is simply a person to whom civilization has failed to adjust itself." This book provides all you will need to know, including recipes, housekeeping tips, important information about the history of spinach, and full particulars on "living from can to mouth"— "new, novel and palatable ways of opening tin cans." Advice to cooks: "When you smell it burning, it's done." I hesitate to recommend his recipes, even in emergencies, but his "Cuppy Plan of Motionless Housekeeping" works for me!

He tells how to discourage visitors and how to hide private food stashes from them. He discusses whether a hermit should keep pets, such as fish or clams, concluding in the negative. Pet fish wound one's vanity past bearing with their complete lack of response. And "the appearance of the clam is all against it for anything approaching intimate relations. For what becomes of high romance when you can't tell whether the small exposed portion of the other party is its foot or its face?"

A book of deep philosophical reflections on topics important to hermits: sardine sandwiches, canned corn, ham and eggs, cabbages and beans, coffee and pancakes, free food. Even prunes—did they ask to be stewed? And spinach, also known as succory pottage. The humor is subtle and not for everyone, but this is must reading for Cuppy fans.

I bought this book in 1954 and would not think of parting with it. What does that tell you? This one is a keeper! If I had a family Bible, this book would be next to it on my book shelf. It is both funny and informative. Solidly fact-based.

Will Cuppy trains a witty and jaundiced eye upon the great figures of the past to great merriment. Do not read this book if you are afraid of laughing out loud when reading.

Disappointing. There are occasional good bits ("Persons who raise tiger cubs in their homes are sometimes known as missing persons.") but for the overwhelmingly most part it contrives to be silly without being funny.

It takes the form of a lot short pieces, each about one or a few mammals or birds, all with spoof footnotes. The first section covers some extinct (or imaginary) near-human animals and Modern Man ("There are about 2,000,000,000 Modern Men or too many." — this was written some time ago.) Then he covers a few other primates, then rather a lot of birds (which he thinks are generally too noisy), then back to mammals.

As some consolation, the edition I read, Sutton Publishing 2007, is well made and clearly printed.

Cuppy Humor for Fishermen and Nature Lovers: Very funny if you like dry humor. Had me laughing out loud. Fishing "advice" covers topics from minnows and carp to salmon and pike. Additional chapters on Reptiles, Dinosaurs, and Insects. "The Salmon have strange ideas; they are afraid of parsley and slices of lemon." "Aristotle's discovery that snakes and fish have no feet is a keen bit of observation for an ancient Greek." One can sense that Carlin and Seinfeld took some lessons from Cuppy's observational humor.