Living History

This has artificial recreations of historical characters, a sexy lady assassin, a runaway train and dinosaurs, how could it go wrong? What went wrong is it is all set up to be a rip-roaring comedy, but it isn't very funny. The story is medium length but has the setting and character development of a short story. It takes place in a mildly dystopian world where Little America (the northeast) is under control of a mob-run corporation and Big America (Everything south and west of D.C.) is in a time warp worshiping the past. There's a fair amount of violence that should have been slapstick, but doesn't quite make it. I would choose 'Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede' as a much better example of this sub-genre.