Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item
The creator of the Garbage Pail Kids turns his attention to the "once thriving, if marginal, industry devoted to the creation of a modest product of questionable quality, taste, originality and necessity for fleeting high-impact diversion"—in other words, the novelty item—in this suitably quirky and expertly designed catalogue. There’s the "Funny Dribble Glass," designed to leak its contents on unsuspecting drinkers in such a way as to convince them that the mess is their fault; the "Beatnik Beard," aimed at 1960s youngsters hoping to look like a friend of Kerouac (slogan: "Dig That Beard! Crazy Man!"); and the "Trick Smashed Finger," intended, naturally, to trick someone into thinking you’ve been terribly hurt. Classics (the hand buzzer; the fake dog poop) share space with others less familiar (a dishtowel emblazoned with morose slogans, possibly designed as a booby prize; a box labeled "Don’t be an alcoholic" containing a small pair of fake breasts along with the suggestion to "drink milk"). Additional information on the items’ dates, manufacturers, dimensions, directions and intended audience is carefully compiled, making this a delightful tour of the cheap and the weird.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.