Of All Things

Robert C. Benchley approaches the most trivial subjects with an exploding-head earnestness that makes the absurd feel official. In this collection of essays, he delivers devastating mock-scholarly takes on natural history, proper comportment, and the sacred rituals of polite society, tracing ridiculous logical threads through topics no one should ever take seriously. His gift lies in the straight face: he will construct an elaborate defense of some offensive social habit or deliver a lecture on the proper way to sneeze with the gravity of a Supreme Court justice. The humor lands through precision, through the exact moment when his exaggerated logic tips into lunacy, and through his apparent inability to notice that no one else is treating these matters with equal gravity. These are dispatches from a man genuinely outraged that the world fails to follow proper procedure, and the comedy emerges from that perfect earnestness. Benchley remains essential reading for anyone who delights in watching pretension deflate in real time.