THE joke behind "The Little White Car" begins even before the novel does, with its author's name.
Citizens who are audacious enough to talk about the political climate here joke behind closed doors about North Korea as a role model.
The magazine's humor, alternately sophomoric (the editors left no breast joke behind) and acidly incorrect, is celebrated here in comics, photographs and sketches that remain mostly pretty funny.
In a statement, Charney said it was ironic that he now found himself having to explain to Allen the meaning of the joke behind the billboards.
The joke behind Adrian Mole and, indeed, most fictional diaries, is that in trying to seem wiser and more grown-up, the narrator inadvertently reveals truths that are withheld from his or her own scrutiny.
That comes naturally to Mel Brooks, of course, whose favorite genre, in films like "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein," is parody itself, the most knowing of genres, always building upon the joke behind the joke.
