It’s not surprising Ambrose Bierce’s work has inspired imitators over the years. What’s surprising is when the imitators are actually any good.
My nods here are going out to other humorous dictionaries. They’re not going out to some 25%-humorous anthology that can’t figure out what it wants to be after a dozen years trying (…Urban Dictionary). They’re also not going to collections that call themselves dictionaries but are really more like organized quote books, like The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations.
My usual caveat: I read a lot (and did some extra research here), but I sure don’t know everything, and extra recommendations in the comments are welcome.
The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit. Lois Beckwith’s office satire is narrowly focused, but you could say the same thing about Dilbert and The Office, and they ruled their respective roosts for many years (one of them until quite recently—*cough*). Each bit of corporatespeak in the book is given a straight definition, which is sometimes very helpful. Then follows at least one wry observation, and sometimes more than one, from more than one perspective. (Case in point: the “Accounts payable” entry on the first page has four definitions: one neutral, one sympathetic, two critical.)
All that said, Beckwith’s book is a little too much like the language it’s supposedly satirizing, in that it…tends to get wordy. And that’s coming from me.
HipDict. Though it’s crowdsourced from an online community much like Urban Dictionary was, the Instagram account HipDict is much more focused on the concept of funny, not-quite-correct definitions of common words and phrases. Although the humor can sometimes feel a little like a generational cry for help…
…there’s enough solid observational comedy in there to make it brighten your day.
Sniglets. Back in the Eighties, these jokey definitions were word lovers’ wine of choice. Invented by comedian Rich Hall for the cable series Not Necessarily the News, these jokey “words” with jokey definitions were collected in books, a calendar, and a board game, usually with cartoons illustrated by Arnie Ten. Many of the words had an etymology you could guess at…
…while others just seemed like transcribed baby-talk…
…but all of them had a certain utility designed to make you think, “There should be a word for that. Why isn’t there a word for that? Maybe I should start using that word.”
Sniglets aren’t too useful for would be puzzle-designers, as it wouldn’t be fair to make solvers try to guess at ECTOLACTO or LORP as answers. But among word fans, they are missed. I’ll throw an honorable mention to Mark Friedman’s Funny Dictionary, a more recent book that carries on in a similar spirit.
The Official Dictionary of Idiocy. Of the attempts I’ve seen to translate Ambrose Bierce’s spirit into the 21st century, this is by far the best. It is, in fact, way better than The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm, which the same author published eight years before it, and modestly better than The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm: Sex and Relationships. Maybe practice makes perfect? Practice makes pointier, anyway.
Like Bierce, James Napoli can play rough now and then, either with his choice of words or how he defines them. I can’t guarantee he’ll never offend your sensibilities (or mine). But the sensible chuckle ratio is strong with this one.