I’M BACK FOR MORE CASH

Sportscaster and Washington Post humorist Kornheiser (Bald As I Wanna Be, 1997) gathers columns that seem to exceed in number those gracing the Acropolis in its heyday.

And a couple of his jests date from that same heyday. (Bada-boom, bada-bing!) The author is a popular funster of the capital, where comedy is traditional, and here you’ll find some wit from inside the Beltway, but much recycled stuff relying on the usual raw material of the professional comic writer. There are his friends and family, including his late father, son Michael, daughter “sweet baboo Elizabeth,” friend Nancy, boss George, and a guy named Chip Muldoon. (Mrs. K is mentioned sparingly; for the most part, she seems quite content to stay out of it.) Tony discusses early-bird specials in Florida and the poor quality of TV meteorology in the environs of the District. He writes of class reunions, of his large midsection, and of his bald pate. There are guy things to consider, like golf clubs, his new Cadillac (a really old guy thing), the rotten state of air travel, and of course the wonderfulness of “boinking,” as the lapidary text frequently puts it. Such topics may be timeless, but there’s much ado about notables like Al Gore doing the macarena, Darva Conger and her bridegroom, Elián González and the fisherman, or Dennis Tito’s tour in the Mir spacecraft. Once hilarious, the material is now just lightly entertaining nostalgia. There are snappy references to long-canceled TV performers. Some good gags are repeated in later pieces. A little pruning would have helped. But let’s not cavil: the collection is often a hoot. Take the cash, Tony, and run.

In bites of a thousand words or less, Kornheiser offers happenin’ zingers from the turn of the century, complete with rim shots and all the brio of Henny Youngman.