The American Comedy Box 1915-1994: But Seriously...

The American Comedy Box 1915-1994: But Seriously... is sure to induce a few grins. Chronicling nearly one hundred years of silly 'tude, the four-disc set crams in almost every class (or crass) clown of note, from W.C. Fields through Richard Pryor. The classics include Abbott and Costello's still dizzying ''Who's on First,'' Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks' 2,000-year-old mensch, and George Carlin riffing on those ''Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.'' The box deserves a few heckles for omitting the likes of Bob Newhart and the Firesign Theatre (and including subpar bits by Lenny Bruce and Bill Cosby), yet it's a commendable sampler of jokesters and sickos finding humor in everything from Prohibition to nuclear-age fears-after all, somebody had to. B