Rating: 
Summary: Know your history
Review: This book is a scream, but I caution you: know your history before you pick it up and take it all for fact. The author makes free use of dubious sources for many of the people he writes about, but he does give a general historical overview of each person AND he is VERY funny. This is a good book for reading aloud to a friend or family member. (Again, though, it helps if the person to whom you are reading is also fairly well versed in history.)
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliance Post Mortem
Review: This book was compiled by one of Cuppy's acolytes using the notes and writings of perhaps one of the most brilliant and definitely unsung American writers of the past century. Cuppy was indeed that rare breed known as "humorists"; far more insightful and respected than the mere "comedian", and far more poignant than the "humor writer"
How such a mind could take his own life before seeing the culmination of this fantastic work is beyond me, but rest assured, you will delight in the fruits of his labors. MUST READ.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliance Post Mortem
Review: This book was compiled by one of Cuppy's acolytes using the notes and writings of perhaps one of the most brilliant and definitely unsung American writers of the past century. Cuppy was indeed that rare breed known as "humorists"; far more insightful and respected than the mere "comedian", and far more poignant than the "humor writer"
How such a mind could take his own life before seeing the culmination of this fantastic work is beyond me, but rest assured, you will delight in the fruits of his labors. MUST READ.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant! Funny! Brilliant! Funny!
Review: This is a fantastic book for anyone who enjoys, educated humor. Since history is my passion, I've found this book -- accurate, entertaining, and sharply witty -- to be a wonderful method of reflecting on serious courses in a different light. And yet those who dislike history lessons can expect to enjoy this too, from what I've heard. (Plebeians. ::cough::)For those with a good sense of irony, sarcasm, and very dry humor, Willy Cuppy's comments (and the funny, tangential runoff of his writing, found in the footnotes of every page) feel almost tailor-made. There's a sense of very personal humor, as though you're party to a running monologue with this writer, in some warm room somewhere with burnished leather easy chairs.
It's just sad Cuppy didn't get the acclaim he deserved within his lifetime.
Rating:
Summary: History Nerds Will Worship, Others Will Sit and Giggle Madly
Review: This is a fantastic book for anyone who enjoys, educated humor. Since history is my passion, I've found this book -- accurate, entertaining, and sharply witty -- to be a wonderful method of reflecting on serious courses in a different light. And yet those who dislike history lessons can expect to enjoy this too, from what I've heard. (Plebeians. ::cough::) For those with a good sense of irony, sarcasm, and very dry humor, Willy Cuppy's comments (and the funny, tangential runoff of his writing, found in the footnotes of every page) feel almost tailor-made. There's a sense of very personal humor, as though you're party to a running monologue with this writer, in some warm room somewhere with burnished leather easy chairs.
It's just sad Cuppy didn't get the acclaim he deserved within his lifetime.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and true!
Review: This is one of my favorite books to give to people who need a good laugh. Mr Cuppy writes with a very dry sense of humor, and knowing the intensity of his scholarship and research makes this all the more funny, because it's true! Don't miss the footnotes; they're the best part of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good? You have got to be kidding me, right?
Review: Well, I hate to go against the flow of all the glowing reviews about Mr. Cuppy's book, but you have go to be kidding me! I love history. I love sarcasm if it's done in moderation (and not proffered in the mindless "Friends" sitcom-like way). I love parody. I love learning about the human side of life. But this thing, this beast, this pretension of a book? What drugs are you on? I'm giving this book two stars because Mr. Cuppy manages to use English language and grammar in a reasonably literate fashion. But, please, talk about thuddingly ham fisted. If you like the fey humor the New Yorker dishes up on a bad day; if you like inscrutable comic rhythms such as the old NBC Dave Letterman show had with Brother Theodore (come to think of it, the new CBS Dave Letterman still has inscrutable comic rhythms) this might be for you but to me Mr. Cuppy's droll little footnotes and attempts at tongue in cheek humor are just insufferable. E.g., "I heard different." "It goes to show you never know." "Pronounced Chumley."??? Oh, dammit, I'm ROFLMAO! Not! Imagine a Yalie, Princeton or Harvard man droning on about something of infinite gest (well, of infinite gest only to them) in that "piping" tone of voice and (shudder). Well you get the point. Awful.
Rating:
Summary: Good? You have got to be kidding me, right?
Review: Well, I hate to go against the flow of all the glowing reviews about Mr. Cuppy's book, but you have go to be kidding me! I love history. I love sarcasm if it's done in moderation (and not proffered in the mindless "Friends" sitcom-like way). I love parody. I love learning about the human side of life. But this thing, this beast, this pretension of a book? What drugs are you on? I'm giving this book two stars because Mr. Cuppy manages to use English language and grammar in a reasonably literate fashion. But, please, talk about thuddingly ham fisted. If you like the fey humor the New Yorker dishes up on a bad day; if you like inscrutable comic rhythms such as the old NBC Dave Letterman show had with Brother Theodore (come to think of it, the new CBS Dave Letterman still has inscrutable comic rhythms) this might be for you but to me Mr. Cuppy's droll little footnotes and attempts at tongue in cheek humor are just insufferable. E.g., "I heard different." "It goes to show you never know." "Pronounced Chumley."??? Oh, dammit, I'm ROFLMAO! Not! Imagine a Yalie, Princeton or Harvard man droning on about something of infinite gest (well, of infinite gest only to them) in that "piping" tone of voice and (shudder). Well you get the point. Awful.
Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly sane and humorus veiw of history.
Review: Wil Cuppy is a writer who is unafraid to tell you his opinion, and ready to tell you how someone else got it wrong. His thoughts are out landish, and his comments wry. The sarcasm is driping off of every page,and anyone else is the room bound to ask why you are snickering uncontrolably. Share it with them.
The views on historical figures are interesting, fresh, and previously unheard of. I wonder why they never taught us these things in school.
This book was well planned and researched, and makes want to look up his sources, just to see if perhaps he made some of this up.
Despite the distaction of the hillarious footnotes, this is a quick and enjoyable book that I have scoured bookstores for, and sent to all of my friends.
I recommend that you grab any copies of this book you can get, becaue it is a hard find that is well worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: History for those who hate history.
Review: Will Cuppy was a blithe original. His view of history, meticulously researched in the grand academic manner, yields results that are at first glance about 65 degrees off center. Go back and read them again, and the truth behind them comes out. The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody is a delight; it is informative (and has more verifiable facts in it than a library full of ordinary history texts); it is, besides, a work of rare humor. Read it, and you will think three several times before venerating any hollow hero.
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