Christopher Cerf
“I don’t want to compare myself with Monty Python because I think they’re geniuses, but what I love about them is that they combine childish nonsense with having to know a lot.”
Christopher Cerf
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“I never thought I’d say that a dictionary is a must-read, but Spinglish is a must-read. There, I’ve said it. It’s also, brilliant, funny, sophisticated and subtle (although it made me laugh out loud).”
“A serious, comprehensive, and informative lexicon of terms and phrases that “spin doctors” have used to gloss over real meaning…enlightening and often just plain funny.”
“Almost 25 years after the amusing The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation, Victor Navasky and Christopher Cerf have compiled its successor, Mission Accomplished! The new book, nicely illustrated by satirist Robert Grossman, hangs authorities of all vocations and ideological stripes with their words about slam dunks, cakewalks, willing coalitions, the war’s cost, Jessica Lynch, Blackwater and much more.”
“This book is irreverent, unfair and subversive. What more could anyone ask for?’”
Christopher Cerf is a writer, composer-lyricist, television and music producer, humorist, and co-founder and president of the educational media and technology company, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., where he co-created and co-produced the multiple Emmy award-winning PBS children’s literacy education series, Between the Lions. A variety of independent academic studies have demonstrated Between the Lions' success in helping kids learn to read, particularly those at high risk of literacy failure.
Cerf has won three Emmys and two Grammys for his musical contributions to Sesame Workshop productions, which include writing over 200 songs for Sesame Street since the show’s debut and creating numerous additional musical numbers for the original Electric Company TV series and for Square One Television. Cerf also played a key role in the founding of the Workshop's Book, Records, Toy and Games Group, and served for nearly a decade as the division’s original editor-in-chief.
Before joining the Sesame Workshop staff in 1970, Cerf served as a senior editor at Random House, where he worked with such diverse authors as George Plimpton, Andy Warhol, Abbie Hoffman, and Dr. Seuss. He was a founding contributing editor of National Lampoon; co-created and co-edited the groundbreaking newspaper parody, Not the New York Times; and has written or co-written several popular humor books (most notably with his frequent National Lampoon co-conspirator, Henry Beard) including The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook and the semi-bestselling Spinglish: The Definitive Dictionary of Deliberately Deceptive Language.
His newest book, A Skunk in My Bunk, a playful easy reader in the tradition of Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop that teaches the basics of word construction, was published in May 2019 by Beginner Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Cerf has been a long-time collaborator of Marlo Thomas on her Free To Be and St. Jude’s books, music albums, and television projects (winning an additional Emmy and Grammy in the process). Since the 1980s, he has also played a pioneering role in the advance of digital technology as a tool for educating young children, collaborating on numerous acclaimed video and interactive projects with the Jim Henson Company, the Success for All Foundation, Columbia Teachers College, Speakaboos, Khan Academy, Tiggly, Teachley, and others.
Christopher Cerf is the son of Bennett Cerf, co-founder of Random House. He and his wife, the award-winning novelist Katherine Vaz, live in New York City.
In 2010, Cerf was awarded the Harold W. McGraw Prize for his contributions to American education.
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Christopher Cerf + Friends
A Skunk in My Bunk!
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Spinglish: The Definitive Dictionary of Deliberately Deceptive Language with Henry Beard
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Blackie: The Horse Who Stood Still
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Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speak
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