Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure

by Doug Lansky and Tim Cahill

Book Overview

If you think you know what's the worst than can happen while traveling, the essayists in Not So Funny When it Happened will set you straight. In over 30 scathingly funny pieces, a diverse array of authors shows just how quickly a pleasant vacation can turn into an embarrassing anecdote. In Vietnam, John Wood invents increasingly elaborate fictions to explain his ex-wife's "accidental death" in order to avoid humiliating himself by admitting...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932361448
• ISBN13: 9781932361445
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Travelers' Tales
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Either travel fans or those who enjoy humor will love this 'best of' travel writing collection

Many of the best travel stories have their origins in mishaps, and here to offer up a satisfying dish of events is Not So Funny When It Happened, a survey of the best tales from travelers around the world. These come from Dave Barry, Bill Bryson, Anne Lamott and others: familiar authors whose funny encounters are not to be missed. Either travel fans or those who enjoy humor will love this 'best of' travel writing collection which takes an unusual approach to the normally-serious topic of travel experiences. Highly recommended. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Presented on a Bed of Chaff Beans and Snoose Noodles

As I travel quite a bit, mostly on business, but occasionally for pleasure, I sometimes enjoy reading travel humor. I am unsure what criteria were used to select the stories in this volume, but largely the results are amusing to hysterical. My favorite, hands down was the Bill Bryson piece titled "What's Cooking?" ("We have a crepe galette of sea chortle and kelp in a rich mal de mer sauce..."), though almost as funny were "A Train, A Frog, and Aliens" by Randy Wayne White, and "Bad Haircuts Around the World" by Doug Lansky. Many of the other pieces were also quite funny, and a few only modestly amusing, though generally sincere. A couple were downright unpleasant, namely editor Tim Cahill's own "Speaking in Tongues" and especially the almost unendurable J. P. Donleavy piece "The Fox Hunt", which was not only distasteful and crude, but not a trifle funny.By and large this is an entertaining travelogue, and I recommend it. It is particularly good for a short plane trip, as it will take about two or three hours to read. Parts are genius, but just know that other parts are occasionally a bit of a drag.

But funny to read

This book is just what it sounds like - brief stories of travel disasters. The authors range from the usual suspects (travel writers like Bill Bryson) to humorists (Dave Barry) to other well-known authors (Anne Lamott) to a few I'd never heard of but will look into now (Nigel Barlow and Luis Alberto Urrea). The stories were mostly credible and all pretty funny when you got past cringing. I also really like the interpositioning of comics and short shorts. If there's another installment, I'll definitely read it. My only negative comment is that it seemed the funniest pieces were at the front, or maybe one should just read it in small doses.

Very Funny Now

There are some hilarious, absurd, and painfully funny stories in this collection, including a couple of disgusting ones...I would worry about someone's mental health if they didn't find something to laugh out loud about in this book.

Glad I Wasn't There

What a wonderful collection of truly amusing stories!! After reading " The Dentist in Cameroon" I wanted to cancel my own dentist appointment!! "What I Did in the Dollhouse" was over the top and so colorfully written that I almost wet myself!! Travelers' Tales has done it again by providing a rich assortment of humor and misadventures from around the globe.