|
7146075
|
It is perhaps a sign of the strength of our republic that so few people feel the need to participate. That must be the reason.
|
|
humor
voting
|
Jon Stewart |
|
d6e15d3
|
"Mr. Edwards admired the well-built, pleasant house and heartily enjoyed the good dinner. But he said he was going on West with the train when it pulled out. Pa could not persuade him to stay longer. "I'm aiming to go far West in the spring," he said. "This here, country, it's too settled up for me. The politicians are a-swarming in already, and ma'am if'n there's any worse pest than grasshoppers it surely is politicians. Why, they'll tax the lining out'n a man's pockets to keep up these here county-seat towns..." "Feller come along and taxed me last summer. Told me I got to put in every last thing I had. So I put in Tom and Jerry, my horses, at fifty dollars apiece, and my oxen yoke, Buck and Bright, I put in at fifty, and my cow at thirty five. 'Is that all you got?' he says. Well I told him I'd put in five children I reckoned was worth a dollar apiece. 'Is that all?' he says. 'How about your wife?' he says. 'By Mighty!' I says to him. 'She says I don't own her and I don't aim to pay no taxes on her,' I says. And I didn't."
|
|
humor
pioneer-days
politicians
taxes
|
Laura Ingalls Wilder |
|
183d9c3
|
"Incidentally, am I alone in finding the expression "it turns out" to be incredibly useful? It allows you to make swift, succinct, and authoritative connections between otherwise randomly unconnected statements without the trouble of explaining what your source or authority actually is. It's great. It's hugely better than its predecessors "I read somewhere that..." or the craven "they say that..." because it suggests not only that whatever flimsy bit of urban mythology you are passing on is actually based on brand new, ground breaking research, but that it is research in which you yourself were intimately involved. But again, with no actual authority anywhere in sight. Anyway, where was I?"
|
|
humor
|
Douglas Adams |
|
7a3383f
|
There are a lot of things I can't control. I don't know what's going to happen in the next few days.I don't want what I am going to face, what kind of choices I am going to have to make. I can't predict it. I can't control it. It's too big.' I nodded at my shovel. 'But that, I can predict. I know that if I pick up that shovel and clear the snow from the walkways, it's going to make my neighbors safer and happier.' I glanced at him and shrugged. 'It's worthwhile to me.
|
|
humor
life
|
Jim Butcher |
|
b5d06f2
|
"The whole "lets find Bigfoot" thing seems a little ill-planned to me, personally. Granted, my perspective is different than that of non-wizards, but marching out into the woods looking for a very large and very powerful creature by blasting out what you're pretty sure are territorial challenges to fight (or else mating calls) seems... somewhat unwise. I mean, if there's no Bigfoot, no problem. But what if you're standing there, screaming "Bring it on!" and find a Bigfoot? Worse yet, what if he finds you? Even worse, what if you were screaming "Do me, baby!" and he finds you then? Is it me? Am I carzy? Or does the whole thing just seem like a recipe for trouble?"
|
|
humor
|
Jim Butcher |
|
2ac9962
|
THE NECESSITY OF APPEARING IN YOUR OWN FACE There are days when that is the last place in the world that you want to be but you have to be there, like a movie, because it -----features you.
|
|
humor
|
Richard Brautigan |
|
2100dd8
|
There was no one to really argue with, but Mama managed it expertly every chance she had. She could argue with the entire world in that kitchen and almost every evening, she did.
|
|
humor
|
Markus Zusak |
|
efc66ef
|
The baloney weighed the raven down, and the shopkeeper almost caught him as he whisked out the delicatessen door.
|
|
humor
meat
opening-lines
shoplifting
|
Peter S. Beagle |
|
16cb225
|
"Snarling an oath from an Icelandic saga, I reclaimed my place at the head of the queue. "Oy!" yelled a punk rocker, with studs in his cranium. "There's a fackin' queue!" Never apologize, advises Lloyd George. Say it again, only this time, ruder. "I know there's a 'fackin' queue'! I already queued in it once and I am going to queue in it again just because Nina Simone over there won't sell me a ruddy ticket!" A colored yeti in a clip-on uniform swooped. "Wassa bovver?" "This old man here reckons his colostomy bag entitles him to jump the queue," said the skinhead, " make racist slurs about the lady of Afro-Caribbean extraction in the advance-travel window." I couldn't believe I was hearing this."
|
|
humor
london
punk
racism
skinhead
|
David Mitchell |
|
1534476
|
Inside the pub, Richard's friends continued to celebrate his forthcoming departure with an enthusiasm that, to Richard, was beginning to border on the sinister.
|
|
going-away
humor
|
Neil Gaiman |
|
a1dfac6
|
While the churches, bringing the sweet smell of piety for the soul, came in prancing and farting like brewery horses in bock-beer time, the sister evangelism, with release and joy for the body, crept in. silently and greyly, with its head bowed and its face covered.
|
|
humor
philosophical
|
John Steinbeck |
|
607f389
|
"Craig: 'When I used to drink, I binge drank...and I'm kind of like that with Doctor Who. I save up a lot of it on the DVR and then like I get my big scarf on and my hat and I stay at home and just watch them.'
|
|
humor
|
Craig Ferguson |
|
306c432
|
A fallow mind is a field of discontent.
|
|
aviation
bahamas
carl-hiaasen
cuba
humor
john-d-macdonald
key-west
mystery
randy-wayne-white
thriller
tim-dorsey
tom-corcoran
|
John H. Cunningham |
|
0f6979e
|
My mouth was dry as cotton and my head hurt like hell. I tried to lift it, and the effort left me shaken and nauseated. I satisfied myself with just shifting my eyes around. I thought of all the books I'd read, all the mysteries. Spencer wouldn't have ended up this way. Neither would Kinsey Milhone. Or Henry O. Or Stephanie Plum, Well, yeah, maybe Stephanie Plum.
|
|
humor
mysteries
|
Charlaine Harris |
|
c639143
|
"I went to the doctor," said the woman next to Ethel. "I said to him, 'I've got an itchy twat.'" [...] She went on: "The doctor says to me, he goes, 'You shouldn't say that, it's a rude word.'" [...] "I says to him, 'What should I say, then, doctor?' He says to me, 'Say you've got an itchy finger.'" [...] "He says to me, 'Do your finger itch you all the time, Mrs. Perkins, or just now and again?'" Mildred paused, and the women were silent, waiting for the punch line. "I says, 'No, doctor, only when I piss through it."
|
|
humor
|
Ken Follett |
|
65ec472
|
Some things were above my pay grade. Actually, there were things that slithered on their bellies that were higher than my pay grade.
|
|
humor
humour
work
|
Jodi Taylor |
|
2ae45bf
|
it will be generally found that the popular joke is not true to the letter, but is true to the spirit. The joke is generally in the oddest way the truth and yet not the fact.
|
|
humor
humour
jokes
truths
|
G.K. Chesterton |
|
885e469
|
Out last chance is a cat's magic sight. We are doomed.
|
|
cat
humor
magic
|
Laurell K. Hamilton |
|
fabffbd
|
Lovely Arra Sails, nectar to all males, how I'd like to spear you like a whaler spears a whale!
|
|
darren-shan
humor
innuendo
larten-crepsley
mr-crepsley
sexual-innuendo
vampire
|
Darren Shan |
|
7895184
|
If you can try to nap where someone's sitting, Although there is another empty chair, Then rub against his ankle without quitting Until he rises from your favorite lair; If you can whine and whimper by a portal Until the bolted door is opened wide, Then howl as if you've got a wound that's mortal Until he comes and lets you back inside; If you can give a guest a nasty spiking, But purr when you are petted by a thief; If you can find the food not to your liking Because they put some cheese in with the beef; If you can leave no proffered hand unbitten, And pay no heed to any rule or ban, then all will say you are a Cat, my kitten. And -- which is more -- you'll make a fool of Man!
|
|
humor
rudyard-kipling
|
Henry N. Beard |
|
3f5b030
|
He said that we had just had an argument, what more did I want? It was too polite, I said.
|
|
humor
|
Alice Munro |
|
755654f
|
" "I saw a dog pursuing automobiles; On and on he sped. I was puzzled by this; I accosted the dog. 'If you catch one,' I said 'What will you do with it?' 'Dumb cat,' he cried, And ran on."
|
|
humor
stephen-crane
|
Henry N. Beard |
|
df15971
|
--?Acabas de... lavar un plato? --Dee retrocedio lentamente, parpadeando. Miro a Daemon--. El mundo se va a terminar. Y sigo siendo vir... --!No! --gritaron los hermanos al unisono. Daemon parecia que en realidad iba a vomitar. --Jesus, nunca termines esa oracion. En realidad, nunca cambies eso. Gracias. La boca de ella se abrio. --Ustedes esperan de mi que nunca tenga... --Esta no es una conversacion con la que quiera empezar mi dia. -- Dawson agarro su mochila de la mesa de la cocina--. Estoy yendome a la escuela antes de que esto se vuelva todavia mas detallado.
|
|
humor
spanish
virgen
|
Jennifer L. Armentrout |
|
e1555b1
|
What if I got hit by lightning while walking with an umbrella? Ban umbrellas! Fight the menace of lightning!
|
|
computers
funny
humor
humour
lightning
terrorism
umbrellas
|
Cory Doctorow |
|
278d160
|
Being a geological formation gives you a lot of time to think. Also, I subscribed to a number of learned journals.
|
|
fantasy
humor
|
Neil Gaiman |
|
30935ad
|
Classroom Activities 1. Using felt and yarn, make a hand puppet of . Ta-da! You're !
|
|
antonin-scalia
clarence-thomas
humor
scotus
|
Jon Stewart |
|
363ca9e
|
Susie: Hi Calvin! Aren't you excited about going to school? Look at all these great school supplies I got! I love having new notebooks and stuff! Calvin:All I've got to say is they're not making me learn any foreign languages. If English is good enough for me, then by golly, it's good enough for the rest of the world! Everyone should just speak English or shut up, that's what I say! Susie: You should maybe check the chemical content of your breakfast cereal.
|
|
humor
school
|
Bill Watterson |
|
106b428
|
"More recently, during a debate in the House of Lords in 1978 one of the members said: "If there is a more hideous language on the face of the earth than the American form of English, I should like to know what it is." (We should perhaps bear in mind that the House of Lords is a largely powerless, nonelective institution. It is an arresting fact of British political life that a Briton can enjoy a national platform and exalted status because he is the residue of an illicit coupling 300 years before between a monarch and an orange seller.)"
|
|
english
humor
politics
|
Bill Bryson |
|
28b7d0c
|
"Fat-heided creatures, the Carmichaels," she said judiciously. "Loyal enough, but stubborn as rocks." "Thus sayeth a Fraser," I remarked. "The Carmichaels must be something special in that line."
|
|
humor
jenny-murray
stubbornness
|
Diana Gabaldon |
|
5890b90
|
"I guess I forgot we were going out tonight." "We always go out on Fridays." "It's Thursday, Alvis." "You are so tied to routine."
|
|
humor
routine
|
Jess Walter |
|
24c3df5
|
"I said the first thing that came into my head unfortunately. "Save the drama for your mama " I told her just like an eleven-year-old." --
|
|
humor
|
Charlaine Harris |
|
163c260
|
...It's probably polite to pretend you don't see people coming out of pawnshops, anyhow.
|
|
humor
pawn-shop
polite
|
Dashiell Hammett |
|
5a0be44
|
"Is your dog in a coma?" Quinn asked when the dog didn't move a muscle. "No. Lump leads an active and demanding internal life that requires long periods of rest."
|
|
humor
|
Nora Roberts |
|
99d15f2
|
Honestly, the only question most Americans ask about a new building at this point is basically: Is it a soul-sucking eyesore of cheap-ass despair? It's not? Whew.
|
|
architecture
humor
|
Sarah Vowell |
|
14ec96d
|
"Nevertheless, he had, on a certain star-lit evening, said wonderingly and quite reverently: "Deh moon looks like hell, don't it?"
|
|
humor
naturalism
|
Stephen Crane |
|
26f2530
|
"I don't get it. I'm sexually attractive to a remarkable degree-" "And humble." "It's not bragging if it's true. And I'm his-which means, this is in the bag. Or should be."
|
|
humor
sabine
|
Kresley Cole |
|
d2b61fa
|
Of course, you didn't want our help. Now I have to go beat up some soldier just to keep my ego intact.
|
|
humor
janco
magic-study
|
Maria V. Snyder |
|
8619649
|
There are two Venices I know about and one of them is a hotel in Vegas. The other is an L.A. beach where pretty girls walk their dogs while wearing as little as possible and mutant slabs of tanned, posthuman beef sip iced steroid lattes and pump iron until their pecs are the size of Volkswagens.
|
|
humor
society
|
Richard Kadrey |
|
057733d
|
Imagine trying to live in a world dominated by dihydrogen oxide, a compound that has no taste or smell and is so variable in its properties that it is generally benign but at other times swiftly lethal. Depending on its state, it can scald you or freeze you. In the presence of certain organic molecules it can form carbonic acids so nasty that they can strip the leaves from trees and eat the faces off statuary. In bulk, when agitated, it can strike with a fury that no human edifice could withstand. Even for those who have learned to live with it, it is an often murderous substance. We call it water.
|
|
humor
water
|
Bill Bryson |
|
563439e
|
New Rule: If we want to find a place to cut government waste, we must start with the DEA rubber duck. Yes, on the DEA's website you can buy a rubber ducky with a DEA badge and a cop's hat. Which I recommend doing, because they're a great place to hide your weed.
|
|
drugs
humor
politics
|
Bill Maher |
|
ec51145
|
Stop saying drug use makes people lazy. Jimi Hendrix did a lot of drugs, even though he's been dead for forty years, he's making new records. Suck on , Partnership for a Drug-Free America!
|
|
humor
jimi-hendrix
laziness
music
productivity
|
Bill Maher |
|
6fd20a6
|
"Would you have references?" "I'm awfully sorry but I haven't. I just arrived in New York, and don't know a soul. Except you." I smiled but she didn't smile back. She stood hesitating, and I said, "It's true that I'm an escaped convict, an active counterfeiter, and occasional murderer. And I howl during the full of the moon. But I'm neat."
|
|
humor
references
tenants
|
Jack Finney |
|
106382d
|
New Rule: Someone must x-ray my stomach to see if the Peeps I ate on Easter are still in there, intact and completely undigested. And I'm not talking about this past Easter. I'm talking about the last time I celebrated Easter, in 1962.
|
|
easter
humor
peeps
|
Bill Maher |
|
4d7f0c1
|
"New Rule: Oil companies must stop with the advertisements implying they're friends of the environment. "At Exxon Mobil, we care about a thriving wildlife." Please--the only thing an oil executive has in common with a seagull is they'd both steal french fries from a baby."
|
|
humor
oil-industry
|
Bill Maher |
|
2b2082b
|
If I can't suck your milkshake through a straw, it's not a milkshake--it's a glass of ice cream.
|
|
humor
ice-cream
milkshake
milkshakes
|
Bill Maher |
|
90ad531
|
You had a bad day once, am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed. Why else would you dress up like a flying rat?
|
|
humor
misfortune
|
Alan Moore |
|
d6572f8
|
"The barber ran to the broken window, and saw Gavroche, who was running with all his might towards the Saint Jean market. On passing the barber's shop, Gavroche, who had the two children on his mind, could not resist the desire to bid him "good day", and had sent a stone through his sash. "See!" screamed the barber, who from white had become blue, "he makes mischief. What has anybody done to this Gamin?"
|
|
humor
les-mis
les-misérables
miserable
victor-hugo
|
Victor Hugo |
|
26d19bf
|
"I hold the biscuits in front of his face and he stands up. "What do I have to do?" he says. "Nothing," I say. "They're for you." "Are they poisoned?" he says. "No," I say. "Eat one," he says. So I do. "Probably the others are poisoned," he says. "Eat a fraction of each." I eat a corner off each biscuit. He looks at the reminders suspiciously, then sniffs them. "I'm not sure it's worth it," he says. "How I wish you'd never come. Perhaps you've left the poison off of just those corners." I begin to realize I'll doubt whatever information he gives me. "Lick the entire biscuit," he says. "Then give them to me." So I lick each biscuit. "Both sides," he says. I lick both sides of each biscuit. I give him the wet biscuits and he cracks them open and sniffs them. Then he puts them in his pocket. "What do you want?" he says. "Now that you've failed to poison me to death."
|
|
doubt
humor
paranoia
poisoning
|
George Saunders |
|
5dc5162
|
"You know what you need?" "What?" "You need to think about what a badass bald man would do in this situation" "There are no badass bald men. By definition." "What about Dwight D. Eisenhower?" Carlos suggested. "President Eisenhower?" "Doesn't he qualify as a badass?" Carlos insisted. "Look, he may have been president, but he doesn't exactly come to people's minds when you ask them to think of a badass." "All right. How about Kojak?" Carlos asked. "That police detective show with Telly Savalas?" Sammy asked. "Yeah, Kojak. He was a badass. Always cool under pressure." "All right," Sammy replied. "Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that Kojak was a bald badass. So what?' "So you have to imagine how Kojak would deal with this situation we have in front of us. He wouldn't be worried about whether this girl digs bald guys. He would just walk right up to her, knowing that he's a badass and just take care of business. You see, it's all in the delivery."
|
|
dating
heeb
humor
kojak
relationships
|
Zack Love |
|
9e40015
|
"A misunderstanding?" Elizabeth echoed. "With an anvil?" "Oh, stop," Harriet admonished her. "I think he looks very dashing." "As if he dashed into an anvil."
|
|
humor
|
Julia Quinn |
|
9351e8e
|
Freedom was the price of privacy.
|
|
humor
inspirational
|
Susanna Kaysen |
|
d67d656
|
Kissing him last night at the pep rally had been like kissing an underpass.
|
|
humor
similes
|
George Saunders |
|
eebf637
|
Because of social strictures against even the mildest swearing, America developed a particularly rich crop of euphemistic expletives - darn, durn, goldurn, goshdad, goshdang, goshawful, blast, consarn, confound, by Jove, by jingo, great guns, by the great horn spoon (a nonce term first cited in the Biglow Papers), jo-fired, jumping Jehoshaphat, and others almost without number - but even this cautious epithets could land people in trouble as late as the 1940s.
|
|
humor
language
swearing
|
Bill Bryson |
|
8c017b2
|
The pleasant fact is that the British are not much good at violent crime except in fiction, which is of course as it should be.
|
|
humor
humour
travel
|
Bill Bryson |
|
0b94608
|
I cross my fingers that if a demon dunks me in a vat of boiling lava I'll get thrown together naked with River Phoenix, and that he'll say I'm cute and try to kiss me.
|
|
humor
palahniuk
|
Chuck Palahniuk |
|
fd4f86d
|
Southern hospitality and Amish cooking - Ya'll Come Back, Danki.
|
|
christian
humor
southern
|
Karen Harper |
|
f4ad75d
|
Despite my mum being from a small village in the middle of a forest, I'm not a country person. I don't like my bacon sandwich to be curiously snuffling at my fingers. But sometimes being police means holding your breath and fondling a pig.
|
|
country
humor
|
Ben Aaronovitch |
|
e2c2b96
|
"That's what a skinwalker is: a mean asshole with a meaner spirit squatting inside." "
|
|
humor
kevin-hearne
oberon
tricked
|
Kevin Hearne |
|
8c9eb5a
|
My father was a man, and I know the sex pretty well.
|
|
gender
humor
men
sex
women
|
Elizabeth Gaskell |
|
779d11f
|
He rolled his eyes. Why was he surprised about anything having to do with her? Of course she'd be able to lift a large stone. She was Henry. She could probably lift him.
|
|
humor
|
Julia Quinn |
|
ea7f6f4
|
We pretend to catch and eat more pretend bugs than could ever actually live in one cave. The number of pretend bugs we pretend to catch and eat would in reality basically fill a cave the size of our cave.
|
|
humor
|
George Saunders |
|
381dc1a
|
Swelter, as soon as he saw who it was, stopped dead, and across his face little billows of flesh ran swiftly here and there until, as though they had determined to adhere to the same impulse, they swept up into both oceans of soft cheek, leaving between them a vacuum, a gaping segment like a slice cut from a melon. It was horrible. It was as though nature had lost control. As though the smile, as a concept, as a manifestation of pleasure, had been a mistake, for here on the face of Swelter the idea had been abused.
|
|
fantasy
humor
|
Mervyn Peake |
|
bafd06a
|
"Sex," the driver said, "Has no one ever told you about it?" I took the New York Times from my carry-on bag and pretended to read, an act that apparently explained it all. "Ohhh," the driver said, "I understand. You do not like pussy. You like the dick. Is that it?" I brought the paper close to my face, and he stuck his arm through the little window and slapped the back of his seat. "David," he said, "David, listen to me when I am talking to you. I asked do you like the dick?" "I just work," I told him. "I work, and then I go home, and then I work some more." I was trying to set a good example, trying to be the person I'd imagined him to be, but it was a lost cause. "I fucky-fuck every day," he boasted. "Two women. I have a wife and another girl for the weekend. Two kind of pussy. Are you sure you no like to fucky-fuck?" If forced to, I can live with the word "pussy," but "fucky-fuck" was making me carsick. "That is not a real word," I told him. "You can say fuck, but fucky-fuck is just nonsense. Nobody talks that way. You will never get ahead with that kind of language." Traffic thickened because of an accident, and, as we slowed to a stop, the driver ran his tongue over his lips. "Fucky-fuck," he repeated. "I fucky-fucky-fucky fuck."
|
|
humor
sex
|
David Sedaris |
|
2d6695d
|
Would you like a glass or are you still being obnoxious?
|
|
humor
jonathan-hale
|
Krista Ritchie |
|
af1bc5b
|
"New Rule: Whenever you think the Tea Party can't get any dumber, they get dumber. Now they're in love with Donald Trump. Because nothing says "We're serious about fiscal responsibility" quite like a billionaire whose corporations have filed for bankruptcy three times."
|
|
humor
|
Bill Maher |
|
0bb1085
|
Among the dragons, the prohibition against asking direct questions did not exist, and-as Harrier discovered immediately-dragons were even more outrageous gossips than sailors.
|
|
dragons
gossip
humor
jamese-mallory
location-6262
mercedes-lackey
page-344
the-phoenix-unchained
|
Mercedes Lackey |
|
57eefab
|
You can take the barbarian out of the tavern, but he can take the blood out of your body.
|
|
humor
short-stories
violence
|
Greg X. Graves |
|
2f4aee6
|
Sorry. I forgot your lust for small talk. And how have you been in the fourteen hours since we last spoke, eight of which you were sleeping?
|
|
humor
|
Jennifer Crusie |
|
9b5ab8b
|
"Hasn't stopped us before. And besides, if they wanted to kill us, we'd be dead by now and would be having an entirely different conversation. I wonder if I'd still be mad at you, or if we would talk in words or pictures. Maybe in smells. That would be cool." -Janco"
|
|
afterlife-speculation
funny-and-random
funny-but-true
funny-quotes
humor
thought-provoking
|
Maria V. Snyder |
|
3bfef1b
|
I still want it to die. Like immediately. With fire.
|
|
humor
|
Karin Slaughter |
|
579d111
|
I mean, this man was not /Voltaire/ we killed.
|
|
humor
|
Donna Tartt |
|
2374905
|
"Just a month after the completion of the Declaration of Independence, at a time when he delegates might have been expected to occupy themselves with more pressing concerns -like how they were going to win the war and escape hanging- Congress quite extraordinarily found time to debate business for a motto for the new nation. (Their choice, E Pluribus Unum, "One from Many", was taken from, of all places, a recipe for salad in an early poem by Virgil.)"
|
|
humor
language
|
Bill Bryson |
|
eb0c835
|
"Strauss! Oh yes, he was so-so. He wrote pretty music- But what is that compared to Mozart?' Suddenly, Bess and George spotted Nancy coming towards them. 'Nancy!' the cousins chimed simultaneously and raced toward her. 'I see our bus driver is still at it.' Nancy grinned. 'All the way from Salzburg." George groaned. 'Did he run off the road again?' 'Not once but many times,' Bess said. 'It was awful. Once he got so angry because someone compared Beethoven to Mozart that he actually stopped the bus, ran outside, and shouted into the valley, Over and over. The professor had to go out and drag him back to the bus."
|
|
humor
mozart
nancy-drew
|
Carolyn Keene |
|
2b3d8c1
|
Anyone who thought this would be a weak point in the manor's defenses would have a rude surprise, shortly before coming down with a serious case of death.
|
|
humor
|
Mercedes Lackey |
|
bdb994c
|
"Xingu!" she scoffed. "Why, it was the fact of our knowing so much more about it than she did--unprepared though we were--that made Osric Dane so furious. I should have thought that was plain enough to everybody!"
|
|
dangerous-philosophy
didacticism
humor
manners
new-york
pretension
puns
|
Edith Wharton |
|
8cd3cc5
|
"Maybe she's got a Facebook page, like every other kid in America. We could put something on her wall." Her eyes lit up very briefly before she slumped. "No, she's far too paranoid for that." "I was joking." "Yes, but you know how kids are about Facebook." "But she's hiding from an eight-foot-tall sociopathic werewolf wizard who can call down lightning bolts." "We're also talking about Facebook." Tristan contemplated her. "I think I need to feed you. Your blood sugar must be getting low."
|
|
facebook
humor
tristan
|
Angela Knight |
|
b238a4f
|
I quietly cast camouflage on myself, which is the nearest I can come to invisibility. It binds my pigment to my surroundings, so that I become practically invisible when I remain still. People can see me if I move quickly, but if I imitate the Rock of Gibraltar they have to really know I'm there to spot me. I figured it was best: Naked women rarely welcome the approach of strange naked men, except in porn movies.
|
|
humor
|
Kevin Hearne |
|
0d8b3fb
|
Very few conversations with Charles Dickens did not include a laugh from him. I had never met a man so given to laughter. Almost no moment or context was too serious for this author not to find some levity in it, as some of us had discovered to our embarrassment at funerals.
|
|
humor
|
Dan Simmons |
|
d184d82
|
Oh, go right ahead,' she replied. 'You seem to have such an affinity for canines.' 'Clearly,' he shot back, keeping his voice low so that Mary could not hear, 'they are not so different from women. Both breeds hang on my every word.
|
|
humor
|
Julia Quinn |
|
96de60d
|
"And you, Lord Bridgerton," she replied in a tone that could have frozen champagne, "are almost as handsome as your brother." Colin snorted again, only this time it sounded as if he were being strangled. "Are you all right?" Miss Sheffield asked. "He's fine," Anthony barked. She ignored him, keeping her attention on Colin. "Are you certain?" Colin nodded furiously. 'Tickle in my throat." "Or perhaps a guilty conscience?" Anthony suggested.
|
|
funny
humor
the-viscount-who-loved-me
|
Julia Quinn |
|
a7a30ab
|
An ordinary man can enjoy breakfasting on juice and rye bread. But when you are underfed, scorned, miserable or just plain bored, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little more colourful, exciting, tastier, meatier and juicier.
|
|
animated
cat-haee
cathaee
children-s-books
dark
dark-humor
edward-gorey
enhanced-epub3
general-fiction
graphic-novel
haee
humor
illustrated-books
lessons
life
middlings
pets
quirky
quirky-characters
r-s-vern
series
shel-silverstein
tim-burton
trilogy
young-adults
|
R.S. Vern |
|
cd119af
|
Wrath: look at how their folklore portrays our species. There's Dracula for Christ's sake, an evil bloodsucker who preys on the defenseless. There's piss-poor B movies and porn. And don't get me started on the whole Halloween thing. Plastic fangs. Black capes. The only thing the idiots got right are that we drink blood and that we can't go out in daylight. The rest is bullshit, fabricated to alienate us and stimulate fear in the masses. Or just as offensive, the fiction used to create some kind of mystique for bored humans who think the dark side is a fun place to visit.
|
|
humor
irony
wrath
|
J.R. Ward |
|
1f500fd
|
She reaches down into her bulging tote bag and pulls out a small plastic box with a hinged lid. It contains a round pill box with a threaded lid from which she tips out a vitamin pill, a fish-oil pill, and the enzyme tablet that lets her stomach digest milk. Inside the hinged plastic box she also carries packets of salt, pepper, horseradish, and hand-wipes, a doll size bottle of Tabasco sauce, chlorine pills for treating drinking water, Pepto-Bismol chews, and God knows what else. If you go to a concert, Bina has opera glasses. If you need to sit on the grass, she whips out a towel. Ant traps, a corkscrew, candles and matches, a dog muzzle, a penknife, a tiny aerosol can of freon, a magnifying glass - Landsman has seen everything come out of that overstuffed cowhide at one time or another.
|
|
humor
lists
purses
|
Michael Chabon |
|
bdb88f8
|
What is Time, O sister of similar features, that you speak of it so subserviently? Are we to be the slaves of the sun, that secondhand overrated knob of gilt, or of his sister, that fatuous circle of silver paper? A curse upon their ridiculous dictatorship!
|
|
humor
time
|
Mervyn Peake |
|
5f8c42d
|
After the gratifications of brutish appetites are past, the greatest pleasure then is to get rid of that which entertained it.
|
|
battle-of-the-sexes
don-quixote
dorothea
humor
life
love
lust
pleasure
sex
truth
|
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra |
|
0197fcc
|
The potatoes were starch grenades. The canned carrots were revolting because that is their nature.
|
|
humor
|
David Mitchell |
|
be5f5f5
|
"Straightening, I asked, "What do you believe in?" "Old love songs, best friends, the collected works of J.R.R.Tolkien, crispy pork egg rolls with just the right amount of grease, the Big Boss and eternity." "The Big Boss?" Zachary pointed up, as if to heaven. "Pious,"I teased."
|
|
best-friends
humor
|
Cynthia Leitich Smith |
|
2325ea0
|
(Frances has gotten out of bed again and come to her parents' room...) 'How can the wind have a job?' asked Frances. ' has a job,' said Father. 'I have to go to my office every morning at nine o'clock. That is my job. You have to go to sleep so you can be wide awake for school tomorrow. That is job.' Frances said, 'I know, but...' Father said, 'I have not finished. If the wind does not blow the curtains, he will be out of a job. If I do not go to the office, I will be out of a job. And if you do not go to sleep now, do you know what will happen to you?' 'I will be out of a job?' said Frances. 'No,' said Father. 'I will get a spanking?' said Frances. 'Right!' said Father. 'Good night!' said Frances, and she went back to her room.
|
|
humor
jobs
spanking
stalling
|
Russell Hoban |
|
e039538
|
...you'll see, he said, they'll go back to dividing everything up among the priests, the gringos and the rich, and nothing for the poor, naturally, because they've always been so fucked up that the day that shit is worth money, poor people will be born without an asshole...
|
|
corruption
human-nature
humor
|
Gabriel García Márquez |
|
04240a0
|
"You'll be reading the breakfast menu without me before you know it." Hmm, maybe I don't want to learn French"
|
|
humor
|
Stephanie Perkins |
|
3b7215c
|
Here comes Mamma Vauquerr, fair as a starrr; and strung up like a bunch of carrots. Aren't we suffocating ourselves a wee bit?' he asked, placing a hand on the top of her corset. 'A bit of a crush in the vestibule, here, Mamma! If we start crying, there'll be an explosion. Never mind, I'll be there to collect the bits--just like an antiquary.' 'Now, there's the language of true French gallantry,' murmured Madame Vauquer in an aside to Madame Couture.
|
|
comedy
good-natured
humor
mockery
obliviousness
wit
|
Honoré de Balzac |
|
fd76746
|
How is it you can talk so nicely?' Alice said, hoping to get it into a better temper by a compliment. 'I've been in many gardens before, but none of the flowers could talk.' 'Put your hand down, and feel the ground,' said the Tiger-lily. 'Then you'll know why.' Alice did so. 'It's very hard,' she said, 'but I don't see what that has to do with it.' 'In most gardens,' the Tiger-lily said, 'they make the beds too soft - so that the flowers are always asleep.
|
|
flowers
humor
plants
|
Lewis Carroll |
|
a61877c
|
"And this? Aldhelm of Malmesbury. Listen to this page: 'Primitus pantorum procerum poematorum pio potissimum paternoque presertim privilegio panegiricum poemataque passim prosatori sub polo promulgatas.' ... The words all begin with the same letter!" "The men of my islands are all a bit mad," William said proudly."
|
|
british-humour
humor
the-british-are-mad
|
Umberto Eco |
|
c52f424
|
This person has hoped and dreamed and now it is really happening and this person can hardly believe it. But believing is not an issue here, the time for faith and fantasy is over, it is really really happening. It involves stepping forward and bowing. Possibly there is some kneeling, such as when one is knighted. One is almost never knighted. But this person may kneel and receive a tap on each shoulder with a sword. Or, more likely, this person will be in a car or a store or under a vinyl canopy when it happens. Or online or on the phone. It could be an e-mail re: your knighthood. Or a long, laughing, rambling phone message in which every person this person has ever known is talking on a speakerphone and they are all saying, You have passed the test, it was all just a test, we were only kidding, real life is so much better than that.
|
|
humor
literature
short-story
|
Miranda July |
|
8380e37
|
His books commingled democratically, united under the all-inclusive flag of Literature. Some were vertical, some horizontal, and some actually placed behind others. Mine were balkanized by nationality and subject matter.
|
|
humor
|
Anne Fadiman |
|
5ece4f1
|
His red hair was buzz cut, and he wore his ill-fitting suit like something that he planned to rip his way out of when he turned into the Hulk.
|
|
humor
|
Jim Butcher |
|
2a9f5aa
|
"If I ever invade Calderon again," he said, "it will be in the summer."
|
|
humor
|
Jim Butcher |
|
37d28fa
|
I was doing the new Summer Lady a favor, running down a rogue storm sylph. Got to go all over the place in those tornado-chaser geekmobiles. You should have seen the look on the driver's face when he realized that the tornado was chasing .
|
|
humor
|
Jim Butcher |
|
2d130fe
|
"With the rise of classical Greece, the soul debate evolved into the more familiar heart-versus-brain, the liver having been demoted to an accessory role. We are fortunate that this is so, for we would otherwise have been faced with Celine Dion singing "My Liver Belongs to You" and movie houses playing The Liver Is a Lonely Hunter. Every Spanish love song that contains the word corazon, which is all of them, would contain the somewhat less lilting higado, and bumper stickers would proclaim, "I [liver symbol] my Pekingese."
|
|
humor
liver
science
soul
|
Mary Roach |
|
7bebf0a
|
I am drawn to Tom Sawyer Island because a tribute to Mark Twain would not be out of place in a theme park of my own design. Should Vowell World ever get enough investors, I'm going to stick my Tom Sawyer Island in Love and Death in the American Novel Land right between the Jay Gatsby Swimming Pool and Tom Joad's Dust Bowl Lanes, a Depression-themed bowling alley renting artfully worn-out shoes.
|
|
as-i-lay-dying
great-gatsby
humor
mark-twain
tom-sawyer
|
Sarah Vowell |
|
1b6d740
|
If he's like any other man I've ever met, it's not my smile he's going to be looking at.
|
|
brad-thor
fiction
humor
life
men
scot-harvath
thriller
|
Brad Thor |
|
0d9c061
|
"After Hiram Bingham built the first church on Oahu the student recalls, "When it was completed some of the natives said among themselves, 'That house of worship built by the haoles is a place in which they will pray us all to death. It is meant to kill us."
|
|
god
humor
religion
|
Sarah Vowell |
|
f1f91ad
|
Well, good Christ, how was I supposed to know all that, Hannah? Who looks into the fine points when he's hungry? I'm eight years old and chocolate pudding happens to get me hot. All I have to do is see that deep chocolatey surface gleaming out at me from the refrigerator, and my life isn't my own.
|
|
humor
|
Philip Roth |
|
99ae9a7
|
"Is she special? (asks the gay waiter)" I thinks she's going to break my heart" On arrival of the girl" The flannel is fine honey,but I have'nt seen anyone that over accesorized since batman!"
|
|
funny-and-random
humor
|
Christopher Moore |
|
34a5df3
|
How gratifying it is to amuse. How easy it gets to toss off a witticism to ease any awkwardness, to sidestep any solemnity. When you amuse, it even seems, for the briefest possible moment that you are who you appear to be, so clever and confident and at ease.
|
|
coping
humor
|
Caroline Kettlewell |
|
409372a
|
"...indeed, with the Radletts, you never could tell. Why, for instance, would Victoria bellow like a bull and half kill Jassy whenever Jassy said, in a certain tone of voice, pointing her finger with a certain look, "Fancy?" I think they hardly knew why, themselves."
|
|
humor
nonsense
|
Nancy Mitford |
|
4b7fb65
|
There were dumplings on the train, sold by grim men and women with deep lines cut into their faces by years and worry and hunger and misery. This was the provinces, the outer territories, the mysterious China that had sent millions of girls and boys to Canton to earn their fortunes in the Pearl River Delta. Matthew knew all their strange accents, he spoke their strange Mandarin language, but he was Cantonese, and these were not his people. Those were not his dumplings.
|
|
funny
humor
|
Cory Doctorow |
|
2fe68e3
|
"I'll keep it in my bedside drawer, in case I'm woken in the middle of the night and mistake the cat for an intruder. An honest accident." "You're not shooting the cat. It would leave a mess."
|
|
gabriel
gun
humor
olivia
|
Kelley Armstrong |
|
60491de
|
"...What do you do with all your money?" "Me and the French hoard gold."
|
|
funny
gold
hoarding
humor
money
|
Dashiell Hammett |
|
16f97e9
|
"It's kind of interesting you're driving a car big enough for a wolfhound and a mastiff to get in the back of today," I said. "And a greyhound, a dark brown bear, and a brindle utility vehicle," said Jill. "Greyhounds don't take up much room," I said. "They're like dog silhouettes."
|
|
greyhounds
humor
|
Robin McKinley |
|
82eb836
|
Majid gave me a brief dazzling golden stare and then half-lidded his eyes again. I know when my life is being threatened.
|
|
humor
|
Robin McKinley |
|
e4ce30b
|
"I heard about them Rangers on TV," Grandma said. "I heard they get dogs pregnant." -Grandma Mazur"
|
|
humor
|
Janet Evanovich |
|
1ba5e57
|
"Marla said, "This isn't like when guys sit backward on the toilet and pretend it's a motorcycle. This is a genuine accident."
|
|
humor
motorcycle
page-108
|
Chuck Palahniuk |
|
6630ab5
|
"What the hell was your pal Bertin demanding?" he asked. "Sipping syrup?" "It's a cocktail he prefers when he gets, ah, overly excited." "A cocktail?" "Of sorts. Lemon-lime soda, vodka, codeine in solution, and a Jolly Rancher candy." "A what?" "Bertin prefers the watermelon-flavored variety." D'Agosta shook his head. "Christ. Only in Louisiana." "Actually, I understand the concoction originated in Houston."
|
|
humor
|
Douglas Preston |
|
030bc5e
|
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.
|
|
democrats
government
humor
politics
republicans
|
P.J. O'Rourke |
|
288e0f2
|
"Help me out," I pleaded. "You've left me alone to deal with this situation, and now we're being dealt the consequences." I swore I heard Tom growl. I actually pulled the phone from my ear to stare at it to make sure it hadn't turned into a tiny lion." --
|
|
fantasy
fiction
gabriella-moretti
humor
joseph-carter
keepers
novella
timeless-series
tom-morris
ya
young-adult
|
Laura Kreitzer |
|
63a35fa
|
"Dash it, they've got no heads!' 'No, but you see, Freddy, they are so very old! They have been damaged.' explained Miss Charing. 'Damaged! I should rather think so! They haven't got any arms either! Well, if this don't beat the Dutch! And just look at this, Kit!'
|
|
humor
|
Georgette Heyer |
|
a8052ce
|
It's hard to imagine talking to Lucy. But I can imagine sleeping with her. I have been imagining it quite regularly. I can't stop imagining it. Maybe it's time for my first Lucy Branch, my first truly physical relationship. And why do I assume it would be a bad thing? Maybe it's better with someone different from you. I could teach her how fluorocarbons affect the ozone. She could teach me about oral sex. We would both become better people.
|
|
humor
sex
|
Blake Nelson |
|
ff5921a
|
"There's a saying," Aeneas said: "Keep an eye on Greeks when they offer gifts." He spoke wryly. "Horses, particularly."
|
|
humor
literature
|
Ursula K. Le Guin |
|
2ce6a9a
|
'We're not... we haven't been writing poetry and sprinkling rose petals and tripping hand in hand under rainbows, Kay.' 'Just because you have Y chromosomes doesn't mean you can't tell each other how you feel, Dylan. Your penises won't fall off if you do.'
|
|
feelings
humor
m-m-romance
|
Kim Fielding |
|
edee6a0
|
At best he read popular science magazines like the Scientific American he had now, to keep himself up-to-date, in layman's terms, with physics generally. But even then his concentration was marred, for a lifetime's habit made him inconveniently watchful for his own name. He saw it as if in bold. It could leap out at him from an unread double page of small print, and sometimes he could sense it coming before the page turn.
|
|
humor
ian-mcewan
physics
science
|
Ian McEwan |
|
5e9f623
|
"...for all that people have tried to abuse it and disown it. "feminism" is still the word we need. No other word will do. And let's face it, there has been no other word, save "Girl Power" -- which makes you sound like you're into some branch of Scientology owned by Geri Halliwell. That "Girl Power" has been the sole rival to the word "feminism" in the last 50 years is a cause for much sorrow on behalf of the women. After all, P. Diddy has had four different names, and he's just one man."
|
|
humor
|
Caitlin Moran |
|
56257fe
|
What exactly did mean, while he was on the subject? That Delaney needed to have sex? that she craved an orgasm? And if that were the case, why couldn't she just take care of the matter on her won in the privacy of her home without putting him through all this torture? Anything was preferable to the thought of her being with Jake.
|
|
humor
needs
romance
sex
|
Sarah Mayberry |
|
c8d4222
|
Not advisable is spread thickly over this entire situation.
|
|
humor
observation
|
C.J. Cherryh |
|
56e4fb9
|
I used to jog but it's bad for the knees. Too much beta carotene turns you orange, too much calcium gives you kidney stones. Health kills.
|
|
humor
sarcasm
|
Margaret Atwood |
|
3659743
|
Old enough to remember the arrival of 'Have a nice day', Patrick could only look with alarm on the hyperinflation of 'Have a great one'. Where would this Weimar of bullying cheerfulness end? 'You have a profound and meaningful day now.
|
|
humor
|
Edward St. Aubyn |
|
25400ef
|
My friend Kathy is the only person who'll be halfway honest with me. 'Did you ever see a cowboy film, where someone has been caught by the Indians and tied between two wild stallions, each pulling in opposite directions?' she asked. I nodded mutely. 'That's a bit what giving birth is like.
|
|
humor
|
Marian Keyes |
|
94096d1
|
It was time for tea as it so often was.
|
|
humor
|
Alexander McCall Smith |
|
f1153cd
|
"It's a fucking pharmaceutical conspiracy, Eve. We've wiped out just about every known plague, disease, and infection. Oh, we come up with a new one every now and again, to give the researchers something to do. But none of these bright-eyed medical types, none of the medi-computers can figure out how to cure the common fucking cold. You know why?" Even couldn't stop the smile. She waited patiently until Mavis finished another bout of explosive sneezing. "Why?" "Because the pharmaceutical companies need to sell drugs. You know what a damn sinus tab costs? You can get anticancer injections cheaper. I swear it."
|
|
humor
peabody
|
J.D. Robb |
|
7f4f40e
|
V.L.A.D.: Vampire League Against Discrimination.
|
|
funny
humor
vampires
vlad
|
Carrie Vaughn |
|
6ea45d5
|
The Scooby gang doesn't travel because they are looking for crimes to solve. They travel because they're one step ahead of the deprogrammers. Somehow, Fred's got them all snookered. It probably has something to do with the Scooby Snacks.
|
|
humor
scooby-doo
|
John Scalzi |
|
97e2230
|
The red tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena.
|
|
humor
science-fiction
|
H.G. Wells |
|
895b890
|
"My only companion from the outside world during nineteen years of isolation has been my personal hatred of Thursday Next. It's kind of like the old me suddenly taking over, and I promised myself that this was how I would act if I ever saw you.' 'I have the same thing, but with Tom Stoppard,' I said. 'You'd kill Tom Stoppard?' 'Not at all. I promised myself many years ago that I would throw myself at his feet and scream "I'm not worthy!" if I ever met him, so now if we're ever at the same party or something, I have to be at pains to avoid him. It would be undignified, you see--for him and for me."
|
|
fandom
hatred
humor
|
Jasper Fforde |
|
38c7df3
|
"As we reached the wooded hill that led to the pipe, Cheater said, "Uh-oh." "What's wrong?" I asked. "Is anyone here thinking about kicking the crap out of me?" he asked. "Not me," I said. "Me either," Lucky said. "Maybe tomorrow," Flinch told him. "But not at the moment." hidden talents"
|
|
humor
|
David Lubar |
|
69db0cc
|
My mother was tickled and I think kind of proud when my father got hit on my an attractive middle-aged Asian lady who hadn't noticed he was with his family. He was certainly pleased about it.
|
|
humor
marriage
|
Craig Ferguson |
|
55e650d
|
"That will solve nothing, my lord." His wife strode into the kitchen, stiff pride shining in her eyes. "I told you to keep her in hand." Brodick glared at his cousin, wondering just when his life had turned inside out. Druce scowled at the sweet smile Brodrick's wife cast toward him. He lifted his finger and pointed at her. "She bit me." --
|
|
humor
pride
|
Mary Wine |
|
8864002
|
The ocean is a Turing machine, the sand is its tape; the water reads the marks in the sand and sometimes erases them and sometimes carves new ones with tiny currents that are themselves a response to the marks.
|
|
humor
inspirational
math
ocean
|
Neal Stephenson |
|
659cf33
|
Quick! To the Bat-Fax!
|
|
humor
|
Bill Watterson |
|
6f97cef
|
New Rule: America has every right ot bitch about gas prices suddenly shooting up. How could we have known? Oh, wait, there was that teensy, tiny thing about being warned constantly over the last forty years but still creating more urban sprawl, failing to build public transport, buying gas-guzzlers, and voting for oil company shills. So, New Rule: Shut the fuck up about gas prices.
|
|
gas
gas-guzzlers
gas-prices
humor
oil
politics
urban-sprawl
|
Bill Maher |
|
344fa8b
|
"The sergeants are shunted forward and they blink and stare up at Gonzo as he leans on the edge of his giant mixing bowl. MacArthur never addressed his troops from a mixing bowl--not even one made from a spare geodesic radio emplacement shell--and certainly de Gaulle never did. But Gonzo Lubitsch does, and he does it as if a whole long line of commanders were standing at his shoulder, urging him on. "Gentlemen," says Gonzo softly, "holidays are over. I need an oven, and I need one in about twenty minutes, or these fine flapjacks will go to waste, and that is happening." And something about this statement and the voice in which he says it makes it clear that this is simply true. One way or another, this thing will get done. Under a layer of grime and horror, these two are soldiers, and more, they are productive, can-do sorts of people. Rustily but with a gratitude which is not so far short of worship, they say "Yes, sir" and are about their business."
|
|
flapjacks
humor
pancakes
soldiers
war
|
Nick Harkaway |
|
8036721
|
Yo no creo en brujas, pero que las hay, las hay.
|
|
humor
witches
|
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra |
|
f6c5def
|
"Eyes on hers, he flicked her shoulder. Her mouth fell open. She started stomping the floor. "What in God's name are you doing?" he demanded. "Trying to kill the giant tarantula, because the only reason I can figure you just fucking flicked me is because there was a big, fat spider on my shoulder."
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humor
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J.D. Robb |
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c0964de
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"Yeah," Chris said. "I lose a couple limbs getting drunk and falling into harvesting combine, I'm an idiot. I lose the same limbs because I happened to be standing next to the right door when the ship was damaged, I'm a hero."
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humor
sarcasm
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James S.A. Corey |
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824076a
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I don't know what I expected - no maybe I do, Al Pacino from Scarface- but this drug dealer is more like Al Pacino at the beginning of The Godfather reasonably bemused, untouched by his criminal world, sitting with Diane Keaton whispering about Luca Brazzi, not yet asleep with the fishes, or like Al Pacino from Glengarry Glen Ross, although actually, now that I think about it, he's not like Al Pacino at all but more like Kevin Spacey from that film, and who's ever been afraid of Kevin Spacey?
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drugs
godfather
humor
kevin-spacey
scarface
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Jess Walter |