Waterstones SIGNED The Greatest Nobodies of History by Adrian Bliss

New and unread. Signed by author.

The popular YouTuber Adrian Bliss takes a hilariously skewed look at history, bypassing famous names in favor of celebrating the incidental and accidental figures who changed the world. 

Will ship carefully from smoke free and pet free home

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Washington

Waterstones SIGNED Edition

The Greatest Nobodies of History

Scott Adams

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

California

Cartoons from the comic strip "Dilbert" feature the hapless engineer and his cynical canine companion, Dogbert

It's Obvious You Won't Survive by Your Wits Alone

ed741231-c150-4366-95d0-8eb1f6dba298-1

#mst3000 #riffing #comedy #cultclassic This is the very hard to find and very sought after Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide from 1996. Lists the episodes with plenty of information for fans and newcomers.  The book is in like new condition and needs a real super new home filled with love and appreciation for MST3000.

Michigan

Describes the plots of more than one hundred bad science fiction movies, and shares some of the comments used on the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" television show in an attempt to make the movies funny

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide

3013b78c-6e1a-48f9-8e90-5dae3b882d87-1

Kliph Nesteroff

The Unheralded Story of Native Americans and Comedy

A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and Esquire

From Kliph Nesteroff, "the human encyclopedia of comedy" (VICE), comes the important and underappreciated story of Native Americans and comedy.

It was one of the most reliable jokes in Charlie Hill's stand-up routine: "My people are from Wisconsin. We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem."

In We Had a Little Real Estate Problem, acclaimed comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff focuses on one of comedy's most significant and little-known stories: how, despite having been denied representation in the entertainment industry, Native Americans have influenced and advanced the art form.

The account begins in the late 1880s, when Native Americans were forced to tour in wild west shows as an alternative to prison. (One modern comedian said it was as "if a Guantanamo detainee suddenly had to appear on X-Factor.") This is followed by a detailed look at the life and work of seminal figures such as Cherokee humorist Will Rogers and Hill, who in the 1970s was the first Native American comedian to appear The Tonight Show.

Also profiled are several contemporary comedians, including Jonny Roberts, a social worker from the Red Lake Nation who drives five hours to the closest comedy club to pursue his stand-up dreams; Kiowa-Apache comic Adrianne Chalepah, who formed the touring group the Native Ladies of Comedy; and the 1491s, a sketch troupe whose satire is smashing stereotypes to critical acclaim. As Ryan Red Corn, the Osage member of the 1491s, says: "The American narrative dictates that Indians are supposed to be sad. It's not really true and it's not indicative of the community experience itself...Laughter and joy is very much a part of Native culture."

Featuring dozens of original interviews and the exhaustive research that is Nesteroff's trademark, We Had a Little Real Estate Problem is a powerful tribute to a neglected legacy.

We Had a Little Real Estate Problem

a924f158-e9b6-463f-9b46-40f0e09696ad-1

Fredrik Backman

Small rip on side cover but otherwise great condition

A Novel

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller A People Book of the Week, Book of the Month Club selection, and Best of Fall in Good Housekeeping, PopSugar, The Washington Post, New York Post, Shondaland, CNN, and more! “[A] quirky, big-hearted novel…Wry, wise, and often laugh-out-loud funny, it’s a wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure.” —People From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove comes a charming, poignant novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined. Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world. Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next. Rich with Fredrik Backman’s “pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature” (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious times.

Anxious People

c47822a6-42e9-4a60-93ce-ac3d6c26ead5-1

David Nicholls

David Nicholls brings the wit and intelligence that graced his New York Times bestseller one day to a compellingly human, deftly humorous new novel about what holds marriages and families together—and what happens when everything threatens to fall apart. Douglas Petersen may be mild mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that, against all odds, seduces beautiful Connie into a second date . . . and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades after their relationship first blossomed in London, they live more or less happily in the suburbs with their moody seventeen-year-old son, Albie. Then Connie tells Douglas that she thinks she wants a divorce. The timing couldn’t be worse. Hoping to encourage her son’s artistic interests, Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world’s greatest works of art as a family, and she can’t bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead with the original plan is for the best, anyway? Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage, and may even help him to bond with Albie. Narrated from Douglas’s endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves and learning how to get closer to a son who’s always felt like a stranger. Us is a moving meditation on the demands of marriage and parenthood and the intricate relationship between the heart and the head. And in David Nicholls’s gifted hands, Douglas’s odyssey brings Europe—from the streets of Amsterdam to the famed museums of Paris, from the cafés of Venice to the beaches of Barcelona—to vivid life just as he experiences a powerful awakening of his own. Will this summer be his last as a husband, or the moment when he turns his marriage, and maybe even his whole life, around?

6a7f8226-8c81-49b7-90ac-8f2f3c8fb265-1

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Brynne Weaver

Colorado

The Ruinous Love Trilogy

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice--unlike anything you've read before--now available in all bookstores When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive--the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

Butcher and Blackbird

c24f9b4a-13b1-4058-9d1b-096053d772bd-1

Cory O'Brien

Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-BS Guide to World Mythology by Corey O’ Brien (1st Print Edition; Paperback)

Condition is Like New. There a small bend on the upper corner and some shelf wear markings on the bottom of the book.

Please feel free to ask questions! 

Texas

A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology

From the creator of Myths Retold comes a hilarious collection of Greek, Norse, Chinese and even Sumerian myths retold in their purest, bawdiest forms! All our lives, we’ve been fed watered-down, PC versions of the classic myths. In reality, mythology is more screwed up than a schizophrenic shaman doing hits of unidentified…wait, it all makes sense now. In Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes, Cory O’Brien, creator of Myths RETOLD!, sets the stories straight. These are rude, crude, totally sacred texts told the way they were meant to be told: loudly, and with lots of four-letter words. Did you know? Cronus liked to eat babies. Narcissus probably should have just learned to masturbate. Odin got construction discounts with bestiality. Isis had bad taste in jewelry. Ganesh was the very definition of an unplanned pregnancy. And Abraham was totally cool about stabbing his kid in the face. Still skeptical? Here are a few more gems to consider: • Zeus once stuffed an unborn fetus inside his thigh to save its life after he exploded its mother by being too good in bed. • The entire Egyptian universe was saved because Sekhmet just got too hammered to keep murdering everyone. • The Hindu universe is run by a married couple who only stop murdering in order to throw sweet dance parties…on the corpses of their enemies. • The Norse goddess Freyja once consented to a four-dwarf gangbang in exchange for one shiny necklace. And there’s more dysfunctional goodness where that came from.

Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes (1st Print Edition)

c1db530b-491b-4cdd-be7a-2d4a65e93063-1

Amy Poehler

Dust jacket has light wear, book itself is in excellent condition. Only ready once. Hardcover edition of Yes Please.

Smoke free and pet friendly home



Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Minnesota

In a perfect world . . . We'd get to hang out with Amy Poehler, watching dumb movies, listening to music, and swapping tales about our coworkers and difficult childhoods. Because in a perfect world, we'd all be friends with Amy—someone who seems so fun, is full of interesting stories, tells great jokes, and offers plenty of advice and wisdom (the useful kind, not the annoying kind you didn't ask for, anyway). Unfortunately, between her Golden Globe-winning role on Parks and Recreation, work as a producer and director, place as one of the most beloved SNL alumni and cofounder of the Upright Citizens' Brigade, involvement with the website Smart Girls at the Party, frequent turns as acting double for Meryl Streep, and her other gig as the mom of two young sons, she's not available for movie night. Luckily we have the next best thing: Yes Please, Amy's hilarious and candid book. A collection of stories, thoughts, ideas, lists, and haikus from the mind of one of our most beloved entertainers, Yes Please offers Amy's thoughts on everything from her "too safe" childhood outside of Boston to her early days in New York City, her ideas about Hollywood and "the biz," the demon that looks back at all of us in the mirror, and her joy at being told she has a "face for wigs." Yes Please is chock-full of words and wisdom to live by.

Yes Please

a20c676c-0246-4e30-a47f-8fbc6c62604f

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Pennsylvania

A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom Vol 1-3

Mikiyo Tsuda

For myself, this was a great mini series to get introduced to BL - starts off with a male MC who changes “naturally” into a female, but still has his male tendencies. Cute and funny with a hint of drama and identity crisis. Great art too -a forever fan of the author Mikiyo Tsuda!

Connecticut

Meet Megumi! She's petite, adorable, and a total eye-catcher. In fact, she reminds almost everyone at school of the very elite (and very missing) boy student Kei Yoshikawa. Whispers and wild rumors begin to run riot from the hallways to the exclusive school rooftop--and the most powerful clique on campus has their sights set on sweet Megumi, too. Can her good friend Makoto shield her from a showdown and help her "skirt" the issue? Are some secrets just too big to keep?

The Day of Revolution, Vol.’s 1-2 COMPLETE

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Kevin Kwan

It’s the eve of Rachel Chu’s wedding, and she should be over the moon. She has a flawless oval cut diamond, a wedding dress she loves, and a fiancé willing to tour his meddling relatives and give up one of the biggest fortunes in Asia in order to marry her. Still, Rachel mourns the fact that her birth father, a man she never knew, won’t be there to walk her down the aisle.

Then a chance accident reveals his identity. Suddenly, Rachel is drawn into a dizzying world of Shanghai, splendor, a world where people attend church in a penthouse, where exotic cars race down the boulevard, and where people aren’t just crazy rich. . . they’re China rich.

"Kevin Kwan, ... author of Crazy Rich Asians, is back with a ... new novel of social climbing, secret e-mails, art-world scandal, lovesick billionaires, and the outrageous story of what happens when Rachel Chu, engaged to marry Asia's most eligible bachelor, discovers her birthfather"--

China Rich Girlfriend

92021395-45a2-4652-b71f-c506a9450c18

Adachitoka

Modern classic supernatural action series! Yato x Hiyori forever!

Mammoth Paperback (8 to 10 lbs)

DIVINE INTERVENTION FOR SALE Yato is a homeless god. He doesn't even have a shrine, not to mention worshippers! So to achieve his ambitious goals, he's set up a service to help those in need (for a small fee), hoping he'll eventually raise enough money to build himself the lavish temple of his dreams. Of course, he can't afford to be picky, so Yato accepts all kinds of jobs, from finding lost kittens to helping a student overcome bullies at school.

Noragami: Stray God Vol.’s 1-21 & Stray Stories Vol.1

7c969403-1041-405b-bbb1-03f5bd3bee7a-1

Tsuneo Takano

Takeshi Obata

A cool mini series from the author of death note! If you like dragons and action, (think game of thrones territory) you will like this series. First edition printing all volumes.

He's out to save the world, one rack at a time! In the midst of a war, a child is born during a bloody battle at the cost of his mother's life. From this baby comes forth a huge and powerful dragon born of Shadow. Within minutes the dragon lays waste to the landscape, but a quick-thinking knight locks the baby in a cage of darkness, where he grows to be a young man, knowing only the kindness of his young female tutor. Until the day the Shadows attack and he is set free... During a bloody war, a child is born at the cost of his mother's life. From this baby comes forth a huge and powerful dragon born of shadow that lays waste to the landscape. A quick-thinking knight locks the baby in a cage of darkness, where he grows to be a young man, knowing only the kindness of his young female tutor. Until the day the Shadows attack...

Ral o Grad, Vol.’s 1-4 COMPLETE

417f210d-08c7-47d8-bddf-d541d65b42c3-1

South Carolina

Katherine Center

The Rom-Commers *SPRAYED EDGES*

b50c1398-982e-4dae-a2bc-2e619329dbf3-0

Cynthia Willett

Julie Willett

Coming at stand up comedy from a female and subversive POv


New York

How Feminists and Other Subversive Comics Speak Truth

A radical new approach to humor, where traditional targets become its agents Humor is often dismissed as cruel ridicule or harmless fun. But what if laughter is a vital force to channel rage against patriarchy, Islamophobia, or mass incarceration? To create moments of empathy and dialogue between Black Lives Matter and the police? These and other such questions are at the heart of this powerful reassessment of humor. Placing theorists in conversation with comedians, Uproarious offers a full-frontal approach to the very foundation of comedy and its profound political impact. Here Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett address the four major theories of humor--superiority, relief, incongruity, and social play--through the lens of feminist and game-changing comics such as Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Hannah Gadsby, Hari Kondabolu, and Tig Notaro. They take a radical and holistic approach to the understanding of humor, particularly of humor deployed by those from groups long relegated to the margins, and propose a powerful new understanding of humor as a force that can engender politically progressive social movements. Drawing on a range of cross-disciplinary sources, from philosophies and histories of humor to the psychology and physiology of laughter to animal studies, Uproarious offers a richer understanding of the political and cathartic potential of humor. A major new contribution to a wider dialogue on comedy, Uproarious grounds for us explorations of outsider humor and our golden age of feminist comics--showing that when women, prisoners, even animals, laugh back, comedy along with belly laughs forge new identities and alter the political climate.

Uproarious

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Kathleen Rowe Karlyn

History and theory of women in American stand up comedy

Women in American Comedy

Amy Schumer, Samantha Bee, Mindy Kaling, Melissa McCarthy, Tig Notaro, Leslie Jones, and a host of hilarious peers are killing it nightly on American stages and screens large and small, smashing the tired stereotype that women aren't funny. But today's funny women aren't a new phenomenon—they have generations of hysterically funny foremothers. Fay Tincher's daredevil stunts, Mae West's linebacker walk, Lucille Ball's manic slapstick, Carol Burnett's athletic pratfalls, Ellen DeGeneres's tomboy pranks, Whoopi Goldberg's sly twinkle, and Tina Fey's acerbic wit all paved the way for contemporary unruly women, whose comedy upends the norms and ideals of women's bodies and behaviors. Hysterical! Women in American Comedy delivers a lively survey of women comics from the stars of the silent cinema up through the multimedia presences of Tina Fey and Lena Dunham. This anthology of original essays includes contributions by the field's leading authorities, introducing a new framework for women's comedy that analyzes the implications of hysterical laughter and hysterically funny performances. Expanding on previous studies of comedians such as Mae West, Moms Mabley, and Margaret Cho, and offering the first scholarly work on comedy pioneers Mabel Normand, Fay Tincher, and Carol Burnett, the contributors explore such topics as racial/ethnic/sexual identity, celebrity, stardom, censorship, auteurism, cuteness, and postfeminism across multiple media. Situated within the main currents of gender and queer studies, as well as American studies and feminist media scholarship, Hysterical! masterfully demonstrates that hysteria—women acting out and acting up—is a provocative, empowering model for women's comedy.

Hysterical!

bfd78099-fd16-4632-88f6-254f0ed46684-0

Joe Toplyn

If you’re interested in any way in late night television or comedy writing this book is for you 

How to Write Monologue Jokes, Desk Pieces, Sketches, Parodies, Audience Pieces, Remotes, and Other Short-Form Comedy

He has written and produced comedy/talk shows for over fifteen years. Now four-time Emmy winner Joe Toplyn reveals his proven methods of writing for late-night television in this one-of-a-kind insider's guide. Toplyn analyzes each type of comedy piece in the late-night TV playbook and takes you step-by-step through the process of writing it. His detailed tips, techniques, and rules include: * 6 characteristics every good monologue joke topic must have* 6 specific ways to generate punch lines* 12 tools for making your jokes their funniest* 7 types of desk pieces and how to create them* 9 steps to writing parodies and other sketches * How to go after a writing job in late night* PLUS a complete sample comedy/talk show submission packetAlso use this comprehensive manual to write short-form comedy for the Internet, sketch shows, magazines, reality shows, radio, advertising, and any other medium.

Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV

97b8dd86-fbe8-4b9b-bde9-ab06ee31f300-1

Katelyn Hale Wood

Black Feminist Comedy in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century United States

Laughter in the Archives: Jackie "Moms" Mabley -- I Love You Bitches Back: Spect-Actors and Affective Freedom in I Coulda Been Your Cellmate! -- The Black Queer Citizenship of Wanda Sykes -- Contemporary Truth-Tellers: A New Cohort of Black Feminist Comics -- Conclusion.

Cracking Up

b30cf886-a0fe-42c0-ac00-23501e5be009-0

Charna Halpern

Del Close

Mike Myers

Kim H. Johnson

The Manual of Improvisation

The 'Harold', an innovative improvisational tool, helped many actors on the road to TV and film stardom, including George Wendt (Norm on Cheers). Now it is described fully in this new book for would-be actors and comics. The 'Harold' is a form of competitive improv involving 6 or 7 players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and 'free associate' on the theme into a series of rapid-fire one-liners that build into totally unpredictable skits with hilarious results. The 'Harold' is a fun way to 'loosen up' and learn to think quickly, build continuity, develop characterisations and sharpen humour.

Truth in Comedy

6d025d08-880b-4754-a3c9-bfbe1596d3f8-1

Jerry Seinfeld

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

The popular performer presents his unique and trenchant observations on the American scene, touching on everything from relationships to Raisinettes

SeinLanguage

b26ef577-64a4-4397-a0a3-1b2962c71149-1

Daniel Sloss

Never read. Purchased a second copy when I saw him live and got an autograph so off loading the first copy. 

And Other Comforting Thoughts on Family, Friends, Sex, Love, and More Things That Ruin Your Life

One of this generation's hottest and boldest young comedians presents a transgressive and hilarious analysis of all of our dysfunctional relationships, and attempts to point us in the vague direction of sanity. Daniel Sloss's stand-up comedy engages, enrages, offends, unsettles, educates, comforts, and gets audiences roaring with laughter--all at the same time. In his groundbreaking specials, seen on Netflix and HBO, he has brilliantly tackled everything from male toxicity and friendship to love, romance, and marriage--and claims (with the data to back it up) that his on-stage laser-like dissection of relationships has single-handedly caused more than 300 divorces and 120,000 breakups. Now, in his first book, he picks up where his specials left off, and goes after every conceivable kind of relationship--with one's country (Sloss's is Scotland); with America; with lovers, ex-lovers, ex-lovers who you hate, ex-lovers who hate you; with parents; with best friends (male and female), not-best friends; with children; with siblings; and even with the global pandemic and our own mortality. In Everyone You Hate Is Going to Die, every human connection gets the brutally funny (and unfailingly incisive) Sloss treatment as he illuminates the ways in which all of our relationships are fragile and ridiculous and awful--but also valuable and meaningful and important.

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Adrian Bliss

The Greatest Nobodies of History

Scott Adams

It's Obvious You Won't Survive by Your Wits Alone

Best Brains, Inc. Staff

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide

Kliph Nesteroff

We Had a Little Real Estate Problem

Fredrik Backman

Anxious People

David Nicholls

Us

Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Brynne Weaver

Butcher and Blackbird

Cory O'Brien

Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes (1st Print Edition)

Amy Poehler

Yes Please

Sora

A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom Vol 1-3

Mikiyo Tsuda

The Day of Revolution, Vol.’s 1-2 COMPLETE

Kevin Kwan

China Rich Girlfriend

Adachitoka

Noragami: Stray God Vol.’s 1-21 & Stray Stories Vol.1

Tsuneo Takano; Takeshi Obata

Ral o Grad, Vol.’s 1-4 COMPLETE

Brynne Weaver

Butcher and Blackbird

Katherine Center

The Rom-Commers *SPRAYED EDGES*

Cynthia Willett; Julie Willett

Uproarious

Kathleen Rowe Karlyn

Hysterical!

Joe Toplyn

Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV

Katelyn Hale Wood

Cracking Up

Charna Halpern; Del Close; Mike Myers; Kim H. Johnson

Truth in Comedy

Jerry Seinfeld

SeinLanguage

Daniel Sloss

Everyone You Hate Is Going to Die

The Rom-Commers SPRAYED EDGES