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In this fascinating book Kenneth Baker explores how the Seven Deadly Sins – Pride, Anger, Sloth, Envy, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust – have shaped history from the Greek and Roman Civilisations, through their heyday in the Middle Ages, when sinners really believed they could go to Hell for all eternity, to the secular world of today, where they are still an alluring and destructive force. Today most sinners are punished in this world not the next: • Black Pride and Gay Pride have made tens of mil...

This important new book provides a comprehensive analysis of humor from a social-psychological perspective, addressing questions about the use of humor and its effects in daily life. It examines the social psychology of humor on micro-level phenomena, such as attitudes, persuasion, and social perception, as well as exploring its use and effect on macro-level phenomena such as conformity, group processes, cohesion, and intergroup relations. Humor is inherently a social experience, shared among p...

The president has gotten himself into a bit of trouble. Maybe you heard? The entire country is waiting to see what former FBI director and current special counsel Robert Mueller has dug up on former mail-order steak salesman and current US president Donald Trump. The wait is over-sort of-with the publication of The Mueller Report by Jason O. Gilbert. Leaked by an anonymous and vengeful White House source who goes only by the mysterious code name "Melania T.," The Mueller Report is a hilari...

Boccaccio's collection of bawdy, comic and sometimes tragic tales, which had an enormous influence on English literature, notably on Chaucer.

In this examination of stand-up comedy, Rebecca Krefting establishes a new genre of comedic production, "charged humor," and charts its pathways from production to consumption. Some jokes are tears in the fabric of our beliefs-they challenge myths about how fair and democratic our society is and the behaviors and practices we enact to maintain those fictions. Jokes loaded with vitriol and delivered with verve, charged humor compels audiences to action, artfully summoning political critique. Sinc...

Have you ever wondered why we celebrate Christmas the way we do? In this whimsical book, Jonathan Green tells you all about the fascinating stories behind our most beloved holiday traditions. Make yourself cozy by the fireplace, open up this fully illustrated treasure trove, and learn: Why we sing carols Why we burn Yule logs Why we hang stockings Why we kiss under the mistletoe Why we send greeting cards Why there are twelve days of Christmas And what is figgy pudding? Each chapter exp...

"Swing the Light and tell me tall tales of the salty sea, of foreign shores and ports of call as experienced by me." Story telling at sea is an art form going back millennia and here are the stories I have entertained people with for decades. These are my memories of my time in the Royal Navy in the 1970s - including why my mate has a tattoo of red lips, why I 'borrowed' a car, how I missed an orgy and how I lost the Cod War. Read about my adventures in the Caribbean, the East coast of the USA...

Funny and Feminist TriviaWomen of Interest is a humorous compendium of little known facts about the history, fame, fortunes, fashions, and fictions of the female species-enough to impress your mother and your boss, win arguments with your boyfriends and husbands, and generally know more about your fabulous female self. One of the most fascinating trivia books for women. Did you know that women outnumber men by five to one in shoplifting convictions? Or that researchers at Northwestern Universit...

'What guts. What attitude! These are the immortals I wish I'd learned about at school.' OLIVIA COLMAN Channel the feminist power of mythical goddesses in this witty, inspirational gift book. 'Wonderful.' CERYS MATTHEWS Whether it's the Norse warrior goddess Freya breaking all the rules, the Yoruba goddess Oshun being unafraid to ask for what she's owed, or the Japanese goddess Uzume finding humour and playfulness in even the most embarrassing of situations: this fierce and fantastic tour...

Although he called himself merely a "printer" in his will, Benjamin Franklin could have also called himself a diplomat, a doctor, an electrician, a frontier general, an inventor, a journalist, a legislator, a librarian, a magistrate, a postmaster, a promoter, a publisher - and a humorist. John Adams wrote of Franklin, "He had wit at will. He had humor that when he pleased was pleasant and delightful... [and] talents for irony, allegory, and fable, that he could adapt with great skill, to the pro...

The Battle of Hastings, where Harold's penchant for wearing on his head an upturned bucket rather than the standard issue helmet was to prove his undoing; the invention of the wheel, which occurred when a gentleman in Mesopotamia stumbled upon a bucket and watched transfixed as it rolled across the floor; the foundation of Rome: Romulus, Remus and a bucket - the rest is history. Unchanged in design over millennia, the humble bucket possesses a versatility unmatched in the history of human inv...

A raucous parody—DEFINITELY NOT FOR CHILDREN—of the popular If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series, Sam Miserendino and Mike Odum present the third installment of the Addicted Animal Series.  Following the success of other adult-themed parodies of children’s books, author Sam Miserendino presents a delightful tale that will entertain readers with its charming combination of innocence and lack thereof. A humorous play off of the famous If You Give a Moose a Muffin, the book tells the story of a ki...

In the beginning, everything was fine.* And then along came Zeus. *more or lessAhh Greek myths. Those glorious tales of heroism, honour and... petty squabbles, soap-opera drama and more weird sex than Fifty Shades of Grey could shake a stick at! It's about time we stopped respecting myths and started laughing at them. Did you know Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, was born of some discarded genitals? Or that Hera threw her own son off a mountain because he was ugly? Or that Apollo once kidn...