Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item, continued
“A delightful tour of the cheap and the weird.” – Publishers Weekly
“Beautifully photographed and lovingly detailed.” – Philadelphia City Paper
“Newgarden is a novelty nerd. He’s studied the stupid, researched the ridiculous, interviewed the inventors and produces patent numbers to prove it!” – Nude Book Reviews
Set Cheap Laffs on a coffee table or desk. Wait for moocher to approach. He will be intrigued by the amusing cover and he will naturally want to become better acquainted with it. Once engaged, he will discover a tome of rare historical import that plunders pop culture’s sub-basement to chronicle the aesthetic and cultural achievements of the novelty joke item.
Sharply designed, exploding with priceless illustrations, and written to pseudo-scientific specifications, this book captures a thriving, if marginal, industry devoted to the creation of a modest product of questionable quality, taste, originality and necessity. Unearthing the best, worst, oddest and most intriguing novelties of the past century, this highly entertaining treasury is sure to appeal to the demanding connoisseur consumers of twentieth century pop culture and its detritus.
Guaranteed entirely harmless.