Literary Laugh Track

The other day, when we were at Vroman’s, Matt bought The McSweeney’s Joke Book of Book Jokes, a compilation of book-related humor from the editors of McSweeney’s. It’s been sitting on my living room coffee table amidst piles of newspaper sections and magazines lately and, every so often, I pick it up and turn to a random page to amuse myself. Plenty of it assumes a well-versed knowledge of literature and/or authors and, so, may come off as a bit intellectually elitist at first, but plenty of it is actually pretty accessible. For instance, here’s the piece that made me chuckle today:

“IKEA Product or The Lord of the Rings Character?” by Carley Feldman

1. Faramir
2. Freden
3. Grundtal
4. Boromir
5. Molger
6. Galdor
7. Freda
8. Agerum
9. Babord
10. Frodo
11. Griima
12. Akurum
13. Brunkrissla
14. Sultan Hogbo

(I’ll post the answers in my next blog.)