Because reading can be funny-damental, we report on two new comedy tomes that are out, both of which, for different reasons, are drawing on rich traditions.
In Chicago, it’s sometimes called “casing,” “capping” or “sigging,” which is short for signifying. In Atlanta, it’s known as “joning.” In New York, it’s known as “snapping.” The universal term is “playing the dozens.”
But the meaning of the terms are all the same: Talking about people in a rather unflattering way.
“Your house is so small, you have to go outside to change your mind.”
“Your mother is so ugly, she looks like death standing on the corner sucking on a Life Savers.”
These and other gems can be found in “Snaps” (Quill, $8.95, 175 pages), a collection of more than 450 insults that can be used for fun and entertainment.
Compiled by James Percelay, Monteria Ivey and Stephen Dweck, “Snaps” also offers a history of this game of dissing, tips on how to effectively talk about someone, and choice cuts by a variety of comics, singers, sports figures and others (the last three caps were from Montel Williams, Quincy Jones and Sinbad).
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Jones also wrote the foreword for the sometimes rough and raunchy book, which shows the reader that playing the dozens, which is still popular in the African-American community, is a cultural game that dates back to slave days.
“The book is about an element of the African-American culture that is real, that has been here for as long as the African American has been in this country,” says Ivey, the standup comic who hosts the syndicated television show “The Uptown Comedy Club.”
The game evolved from something “that the slaves played when they first came to this country,” Ivey says, “as a means of being able to talk about the master without having to suffer the whip.”
When capping on someone, the top insults are the ones directed at a person’s mother.
“Your mother is so generous, she’d give you the hair off her back,” says George Wallace, the so-called King of the Mama Jokes.
“I don’t think you can get any closer” than snapping on a person’s mother, says comic and actor Doug E. Doug.
“Everyone’s mother is obviously important to them,” says Doug, star of ABC’s comedy “Where I Live” and the Disney hit “Cool Runnings.” “You might love your father, but there is no debate about mothers.”
Doug’s own personal chestnut? “Your family is so poor, they go to Kentucky Fried Chicken to lick other people’s fingers.”
Snapping can be ruthless, but it usually is all in fun, according to Wallace, who has incorporated a fair amount of snaps in his standup act.
“It’s like a value of who can come up with the quickest quirk about degrading someone,” says Wallace, “but not really meaning it.”
Wallace says in his day, casing on someone was a form of entertainment. Literally.
“We weren’t rich enough to have even playgrounds in our neighborhood, so we had to come up with some kind of conversation to entertain us. So we talked about each other.”
Comedy born out of another tradition can be found in Laugh Factory magazine, published by the 15-year-old Hollywood comedy club of the same name, the former home of Fox-TV’s “Comic Strip Live” (R.I.P.).
The monthly publication, which is expected to hit outlets nationwide this month, is spearheaded by Laugh Factory club owner Jamie Masada, and will be written primarily by standup comedians.
The first issue, which has a lovely cover shot of Tim Allen in a parody of Janet Jackson’s provocative Rolling Stone cover last year, contains stories written by Woody Allen, Art Buchwald, Rich Hall and Louie Anderson, and a slam of Madonna by former buddy Sandra Bernhard, among others.
There are also some hilarious features, including hits by Brett Butler of ABC’s “Grace Under Fire”; jokes that should be “boycotted” (“What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef”); a Los Angeles high school math exam (“Johnny has an AK-47 with a 40-round clip. If he misses 6 out of 10 shots and shoots 13 times at each drive-by shooting . . .”) and others.
“People are so involved with what they’re doing, they’ve forgotten how to laugh,” explains Masada on why he’s sending Laugh Factory magazine out to the masses.
To his way of thinking, the public is stressed, what with constantly running the rat race, and with such disasters as earthquakes, floods, snowstorms and cold weather hitting us at various times.
That’s where Laugh Factory magazine, at $2.95 an issue, comes in.
“I think people need to escape . . . and they need to learn how to laugh again,” says Masada, who has two other clubs in the U.S., including one in Aurora. “They’ve got to take their time and enjoy themselves. Laughter is the best thing in life. If you’ve forgotten how to laugh, you’ve forgotten a part of life.”
Masada, who put out a version of the magazine in the mid-to-late 1980s, uses comics as writers, because who else knows funny?
“Comics have a special way of looking at everything,” he says. “They can look at something, and look at it in a funny way, instead of regular journalists, who look at it as a serious thing that happens.”
The magazine, which seems aimed at the National Lampoon audience, will be open to all kinds of views, says editor-at-large Paul Mooney, a comic who wrote a piece about how being black is perceived as being negative in America.
“We want to be funny, and we want to go after a lot of people,” says Mooney, who has written for Richard Pryor, created Homey the Clown for “In Living Color” and has toured with everyone from Eddie Murphy to Sam Kinison.
“We want to go after the famous and make it funny . . . and those that take it seriously, that’s on them.”
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The standup lineup
Here’s who’s working at the comedy clubs. Current sets are scheduled to run through Sunday; all new acts begin on Tuesday unless otherwise noted. Lineups are subject to change.
Funny Bone-Naperville (1504 Naper Blvd.-Tower Crossing Shopping Center; 708-955-0500): Making a special appearance Friday is Jeff Cesario. Following a Best of Chicago weekend, it’s Joe Marlotti starting on Tuesday.
Zanies-Vernon Hills (230 Hawthorn Village Commons, Vernon Hills; 708-549-6030): Ventriloquist Taylor Mason, a”Star Search” winner, headlines this weekend, except on Sunday, when Jon Stewart, host of the MTV talk show bearing his name, makes a (you guessed it) Special Appearance. Improv group Midwest Comedy Tool & Die stars with Kevin Naughton on Tuesday.
And . . . Appearing at the Funny Firm (318 W. Grand Ave.; 312-321-9500) as part of a you-know-what this weekend is Mario Joyner, former host of MTV’s “Half-Hour Comedy Hour” and owner of his own HBO “One Night Stand.”