Jack Douglas (July 17, 1908-January 31, 1989) was an American comedy writer. He wrote in his early career for radio, followed later by television, including The Jack Paar Show, The George Gobel Show, and Laugh-In and even for such stand-up notables as Bob Hope, Red Skelton, and Woody Allen. Douglas and his Japanese-born wife Reiko were also regular guests on the Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson shows.
This book, together with his books The Neighbors are Scaring My Wolf (1968), Shut Up and Eat Your Snowshoes (1970), What Do You Hear From Walden Pond? (1971), and Benedict Arnold Slept Here (1975), recounts the Douglas family's search for the perfect home--in this case on a rubber plantation along the Amazon River not far from the small town of Barritos in Brazil. Douglas's zany humor conjures up a cast of characters that include a willful land baron and his gun-toting wife; a native witch doctor; the local priest, fresh from Hollywood, and his band of undulating converts; an over sexed Pygmy king; a platoon of goose-stepping Cubans drilling for the ever-imminent revolution; and a curvaceous American doctor, hot from the States determined to save the Brazilians from the population explosion with 500 cases of US Aid condoms.
Like much of Douglas's humor and the humorous genre of the time in which he wrote, Going Nuts in Brazil is laced with sexual humor and innuendo--but it is not graphic; if it were a motion picture, it would deserve, probably, a PG-13 rating. Douglas's humor can also be described aptly as quirky perhaps best characterized by the titles of several of his non-searching-for-the-perfect-home books My Brother Was an Only Child (1960), Never Trust a Naked Bus Driver(1960), A Funny Thing Happened to Me On My Way to the Grave (1962), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Hashimoto (1964). Douglas loved to play with and on words and anyone who delights in the clever comedic banter of a by-gone era will enjoy this book.
This book, together with his books The Neighbors are Scaring My Wolf (1968), Shut Up and Eat Your Snowshoes (1970), What Do You Hear From Walden Pond? (1971), and Benedict Arnold Slept Here (1975), recounts the Douglas family's search for the perfect home--in this case on a rubber plantation along the Amazon River not far from the small town of Barritos in Brazil. Douglas's zany humor conjures up a cast of characters that include a willful land baron and his gun-toting wife; a native witch doctor; the local priest, fresh from Hollywood, and his band of undulating converts; an over sexed Pygmy king; a platoon of goose-stepping Cubans drilling for the ever-imminent revolution; and a curvaceous American doctor, hot from the States determined to save the Brazilians from the population explosion with 500 cases of US Aid condoms.
Like much of Douglas's humor and the humorous genre of the time in which he wrote, Going Nuts in Brazil is laced with sexual humor and innuendo--but it is not graphic; if it were a motion picture, it would deserve, probably, a PG-13 rating. Douglas's humor can also be described aptly as quirky perhaps best characterized by the titles of several of his non-searching-for-the-perfect-home books My Brother Was an Only Child (1960), Never Trust a Naked Bus Driver(1960), A Funny Thing Happened to Me On My Way to the Grave (1962), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Hashimoto (1964). Douglas loved to play with and on words and anyone who delights in the clever comedic banter of a by-gone era will enjoy this book.
