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February 23

Looking for book: "World's Dirtiest Jokes"

Hello all. My Google-fu is failing me. I'm looking for a book called "World's Dirtiest Jokes", published in 1969 (some sources say 1968). The actual citation for the work is tricky because it was published pseudonymously, but it appears to be by Victor Dodson (real name: John Newbern), "Richard Rodman", and Peggy "Goose Reardon" Rodebaugh. Not sure how real any of those names are; "Victor Banis" is another name that comes up if you search enough - I've no idea at this point what name(s) are actually on the book itself. On slightly more solid ground it was published by Medco Books, a division of Sherbourne Press. Here is an example citation I found. Adding to the frustration is that, of course, a large number of books have similar titles, including "The World's Greatest Dirty Jokes" also published in 1969 (published anonymously by Kanrom) that are unrelated.
From comments in the Legman books, this is apparently a particularly interesting compendium of uncensored mid-century American humor, which is a subject I'm very interested in. I'd very much like to get a copy (hard or soft) of the book, but I'm coming up empty on Google, Abebooks, etc. I found a lead that Lynn Munroe Books might be a place to look, but he has apparently closed up shop. Any suggestions?
If I come up empty here, I'll try WP:RX next, but I'd really like to get the entire book, not extractions from it. Matt Deres (talk) 23:01, 23 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Victor Dodson appears to be a pseudonym used by Victor J. Banis and his partner Sam Dodson. DuncanHill (talk) 23:46, 23 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Makes sense. His name came up, but it wasn't clear to me exactly what the connection was - thank you. Matt Deres (talk) 20:31, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I got to looking, and I managed to turn up one thing. I take it you haven't seen this worthpoint post since you said you don't know what's on the book itself. Interestingly, there's a book with the exact title published 5 years later under the name "Mr. J", and a copy of this book is available on eBay currently, but I'm pretty sure they're not the same. Seems like very few of these books were printed, and finding any mention of it is quite a challenge. Kylemahar902 (talk) 01:49, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wow! You're correct - I had not seen that - that may turn out to be helpful. I agree the Mr J volumes on eBay are probably unrelated. It's not quite the exact same title, though; the ones I saw are titled "The World's Best Dirty Jokes". Too bad! They're cheap and also got a second volume. Matt Deres (talk) 20:38, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

When I saw your ping, I looked again and found something else. Quote:

"(Unpublished collection made by John NEWBERN, q.v., of the "too-hot-to-handle" jokes, poems, and obscœna sent in by readers of his Sex to Sexty and Super Sex to Sexty semibawdy humor magazines. Most of this material was issued by him as The World's Dirtiest Jokes, 1969, by "Victor Dodson," Los Angeles, along with an almost surreptitious pocket-reprint for mass distribution of Immortalia, q.v., also in 1969. The leftover sex-gags and cartoons were combined as a "men's" almanac, the 1968 He-Μan Daily Diary and Stemwinder Reminder, from an east-coast address, New York: Arroco Pub. Co., for presentation to all Newbern's customers, with the sentiment printed in gold inside the padded leatherette cover: "FOR A BUDDY, FROM BIG BAD JOHN.") See: "Victor Dodson.""

The book He-Μan Daily Diary, and Stemwinder Reminder, are both on eBay right now. Hope I could help. Kylemahar902 (talk) 20:43, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you kindly - it's perhaps another piece in the puzzle. I may end up grabbing the item (the one eBay listing suggests that both titles are in fact one volume) out of curiosity, though it's not the actual thing I'm looking for. Matt Deres (talk) 20:51, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think I got something a bit more substantial for you. The magazine referred to in the above message is Sex to Sexty, and I found one issue of that on the internet archive. Based on the above information, I would imagine many of the jokes you will find in this magazine would be similar to or the same as the ones that were put in the book you're searching for. I think this will have to be the end of my quest, though - my search history is starting to get questionable. Kylemahar902 (talk) 21:09, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I do appreciate it. FWIW, when I search stuff for RD, I almost always do it in a "private window" to avoid cluttering my history. Unfortunately, the material that showed up in Sex to Sexty was the cleaned up version; it had no swearing in it (I have a few issues). According to Legman (who amply referenced Sex to Sexty and similar periodicals), this book is the earliest uncensored collection of American humour he could find, apart from his own Rationale of the Dirty Joke the year before. Matt Deres (talk) 02:16, 25 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

May I just say: I feel so old. I remember picking up Rationale of the Dirty Joke at the bookstore (name forgotten) at Sheridan Square in Manhattan some time within a year or so after it came out. Most of it is dry-as-dust analysis. - Jmabel | Talk 20:11, 4 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Both volumes are similar. I don't know if "dry" is the right descriptor, though. He's certainly verbose, but the over-the-top capital-F Freudianism of his analysis leads to some amazing non-sequiturs and commentary. I'm very glad he italicized the jokes to make them easier to pick out, though. His dedication to collecting folklore is commendable and some of the connections he makes to historical or literary precedents is sometimes impressive, but he was a terrible analyst and often a sloppy writer. Who writes thousands of pages of that stuff and then doesn't include a list of references cited or bibliography? Maddening. Matt Deres (talk) 02:58, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Matt Deres: University of Maryland Libraries has a copy. [1] Modocc (talk) 19:26, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting! It's not loanable, unfortunately, but I'll reach out to see if they'd be willing to scan it. Perhaps unlikely, but worth a shot - thank you! Matt Deres (talk) 14:25, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

threats against airlines

A non-credible threat was made against AA292[2]. There were other incidents recently: 2024 Indian bomb hoaxes.

Was there ever a case in history where both of the following were true?

1. an explosive and/or incendiary device was planted on a airline,

2. a bomb threat or ransom demand was sent to the airlines or the authorities

Looking through wiki pages like [3]Timeline of airliner bombing attacks I found many cases of #1, and thousands of cases of #2 (but were all hoaxes). I could not find a single case of where a threat was accompanied by a real bomb. Epideurus (talk) 23:55, 23 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe it's possible. But if someone wants to blow up a plane, why would they telegraph it? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:20, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Ransom demand, "release our leader", etc. Epideurus (talk) 21:22, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

From the list, the 8 March 1972 incident on TWA N761TW would seem to qualify. An explosive was planted (and later detonated), and a threat and demand for money were phoned in. There's also D. B. Cooper, but we don't know what he really had in his briefcase. --Amble (talk) 17:55, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Amble Thank you. TWA N761TW 100% fits.

Also good point about D. B. Cooper. But I guess we would never know for sure. Epideurus (talk) 21:21, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]