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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
20% Genius, 80% Blah, 14 Feb 2005
Like basically anything else in literature, humor is exceedingly subjective. Comic fiction is probably my favorite genre, and my most desperately sought-after. Alas, there's little out there that truly hits the right note for me, so while others extol the genius of Will Ferrell in "Old School" I often end up retreating to the sublime prose of P.G. Wodehouse (although that scene where they're in the van and "Master of Puppets" is blasting, is pretty sweet). I was enthused to pick up this anthology of short pieces that have appeared in the McSweeny's lit rag or on their web site over the years, as I often find McSweeny's to be good fun (when they're not lapsing into preciousness or lurching into cleverness). There are about fifty pieces in this book (plus about 25 lists), and I'm a little bummed to report that I only really loved 5 of these.As others have noted, J.M. Tyree's "On the Implausibility of the Death Star's Trash Compactor" is excellent stuff, relying, of course, on an appreciation for the film "The Empire Strikes Back." In general, the longer pieces tended to much better. Indeed, the longest piece in the book (at 18 pages), is thankfully also one of the funniest, as Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell imagine a lost DVD commentary for the first "Lord of the Rings" films, as done by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Again, this relies on an appreciation of "The Two Towers" as well as the works of Chomsky and Zinn. It's so sidesplittingly funny that I'm going to violate copyright at work tomorrow by copying it and mailing it to a bunch of friends (I know... so pre-email...). Jim Stallard's excellent 13 page "No Justice, No Foul" is based on the premise that historically, when the Supreme Court has been split, the decision is decided by a 4 on 4 basketball game. Again, the humor is heightened if you're familiar with the personalities that have sat on that august bench. John Hodgman's 10-page "Fire: The Next Stick" is a simple but clever caveman parody of a business meeting. The final piece that really made me chuckle was Keith Pille's "Journal of New COBRA Recruit", which imagines the diary of a shmuck who enters the COBRA force. The humor relies entirely on one's ability to recall '80s TV commercials for G.I. Joe toys... Another five or so of the shorter pieces worked pretty well, but in general, they fell a little flat. So, overall, a lot more miss than hit for me, but everything's so brief that one hasn't invested a lot in the duds. Ultimately, this is an anthology by and for white guys aged 25-45, and is thus rather limited.
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by Dave Eggers
by Penguin
by McSweeney's
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