Word: comically
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...When her comic invention flags, Oates offers the fruit of research into the mores of the late 19th century middle classes in America. Her novel is dense with such tiresome detail as the Zinn family's favorite books (Blanche of the Brandywine and Polly Peablossom's Wedding), songs (What Is Home Without a Mother?) and underarm deodorant (chloride of lime and powdered salicylic acid). Oates' heroines quote liberally from the world's worst verse, culled by the author from such works as The Ladies' Wreath, a Magazine Devoted to Literature, Industry and Religion. But what...
...tiny budget quickly, provided by Bartel's parents and friends. The film has some easy and some earned laughs, half a dozen murders and, for those who can't wait for Porky's 2, the requisite Nude Dancing at a Wild Party scene. This devious comic contraption is set in motion by a husband (Bartel) and wife (Mary Woronov) so decent and affectionate that they could star in their own sitcom. They have dreams no grander than to open a gourmet restaurant called Chez Bland-and the willingness to kill a gaggle of Los Angeles swingers...
...Townsend is taking no chances. New Right political action committees (PACs) have targeted Kennedy for defeat this year as they did many liberal senators in the 1980 elections. The PACs have spent large amounts of money on negative advertising including the mass distribution of a comic book ridiculing Kennedy's character...
...exactly a noble ruin. An affable ruin? A self-amused ruin? A cuddly ruin? Somehow, Peter O'Toole seems to require a modifier all his own, because in recent years he has turned into an utterly unique comic actor, a man who seems to have dedicated himself to the cause of giving decadence a good name...
...strolling about. The Walk, a record of one such expedition and the longest piece in this collection, belongs on any short list of great 20th century stories. Its narrator is an excruciatingly proper and longwinded sort who turns a day's worth of rambling into a small comic epic. He jousts with a tailor over a defective suit: "The sleeves suffer from an objectionable surfeit of length, and the waistcoat is eminently distinguished in that it creates the impression and evokes the unpleasant semblance of my being the bearer of a fat stomach." His adventures are many, but nightfall...