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    With These Comics, Learn How to Laugh Like It's 1999 (Hint: Don't)

    As part of our summerlong tribute to funny books, we take a look back at the ennui-drenched anti-humor of some of the 1990s, when absurdity and surrealism were the rule — laughs not so much.
    by Etelka Lehoczky Aug 02, 2019 4 minutes
    <em>Ghost World'</em>s Enid and Rebecca have no time for earnestness or sincerity — or laughs.

    As NPR spends the summer reflecting on literary laughter, a funny thing is happening in popular culture. An era infamous for its uniquely counterintuitive approach to humor is coming back in style. If Seventeen magazine says so, it must be true: The '90s are with us again. Where fashion goes, comedy follows, so dig out your flatforms, paste on an anti-establishment sneer and try to remember what made you laugh two decades ago. If you hate to think back that far, no worries: Just follow these do's and don'ts to recapture the sensibility of the decade's comics and zines.

    Don't: Be funny

    Perhaps the definitive characteristic of '90s alternative comics is that they don't necessarily make you laugh. "It's misanthropic, it's (the 10th issue came out July 2). In the '90s, absurdism and surreality were the order of the day. If you didn't get the point ... well, let's just say you would probably be more comfortable sticking to and . But if you sought out a book like 's , each page challenged you to expand your definition of humor. The stars are a snake and a piece of bacon; the snake can only hiss, and when the bacon talks, it says things like, "I'm real bacon."

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