Parodies Books

A cute book, read it for the humor. It is very funny!! Those who believe The One Minute Manager teaches you to be a manager in 3 minutes are foolish. The One Minute Manager helps new managers understand how to work with new relationships in their new position. If you have has a bad experience with your manager who is following the steps of The One Minute Manager then you are either a poor employee or work for a manager is just not following the steps properly, You will most likely rationalize the situation and believe what you want.

This book was an easy and quick read. However, written mostly in generalities. For me, the book offered little in the way of applicable advice. Potential buyers should realize this book was written around 1984.

Do you have one of those One Minute Managers? Don't despair and don't get so mad that you end up telling your boss exactly what you think of the One Minute style. Instead take a deep breath, relax and find yourself a copy of the 59 Second Employee. It tells you everything you need to know in order to keep your cool until your manager goes on to something else.

Is your manager always right? Do you frequently need a scolding for your foolish work behavior? If not, then you NEED this book!

I was afraid this gem was no longer available - I am so glad that it's still around! Because as long as people are still reading and recommending "The One-Minute Manager", then "The 59-Second Employee" is the best antidote.

Think about your job and the skills you've learned over all the years you've been employed. If you saw a book that purported to teach those skills in a few One-Minute rules, you'd know it was silly. But somehow some managers believe that managing other people is as simple as that! You need to protect yourself from any manager who handles you this way.

This book tells you how to manage up - how to use your knowledge and skills to help your manager help your team and help you.

If you are managed by someone else, you need this book. If you manage others, then PLEASE read this book! You owe it to the people you depend on.

If you think that "The One Minute Manager" and "Who Moved My Cheese?" are good books, then this book is definitely not for you.

However, if you look up over the Dilbert calendar on your desk and shake your head at the multiple idiocies of "one-minute management" invading corporate America today, then you will certainly enjoy this book.

I red this book because one review claimed that it was better than Christopher Moore's "Lamb". It wasn't. And yet it was still a darn good book.

Basic story is this: Average college guy is having a bad day. Bad day turns worse when angels capture him. Day gets even worse after that after he meets Jesus in Heaven, who incidentally, turns out to be a jerk. Apocalypse ensues.

The story itself is only average-ly written, almost like what you would expect from a high- school honors class english assignment. The story itself is incredibly engaging, though.

All in all, not as good as "Lamb", but still definitely worth your time if this is the sort of story you go for.

This book can be summed up with three words: Ha ha ha. I really don't care about people being offended. Political correctness is the second most rediculous concept ever, after affirmative action. This book makes fun of everything, and rightfully so. If you think you might be offended by reading a book the hammers everything and everybody, then don't buy it. It's as simple as that. But, for the rest of the free thinkers, read on with pride. This book will have you laughing on the first page. By the time you reach page 50, your sides will hurt. This book covers a lot of ground, and makes the end of the world sound like the best thrill ride ever. If you like flying midgets, a very dimented Lucifer (more so than you would normally think), making fun of Religion, Angelic fight clubs, Jesus as a politician, God as a terrible & vengeful father figure, and protagonists that turn out to destroy the world via a self help movement, then this book is for you. It's just good fun.

There is a fine line between farce and simply being absurd, between making a point and clobbering the reader over the head with it. Matthew Moses walks that fine line daringly in Anti-Christ: A Satirical End of Days. There are many in its intended audience who will view it all as a reflection of the renowned mantra from Network, 'I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!' Moses is mad about two things in particular: religion, especially the Roman Catholic Church, and the current state of politics and government. Hysterical in its portrayals of both institutions, there is enough of a kernel of truth to cause both cringe worthy moments within these pages. The book rises above the level of a first novel, highly entertaining...for those who have tolerance of the material. More important, it will strike a responsive chord with those tired of the increasing dominance of religion in society and its growing role in politics, as well as those who see a political system attuned toward the self-interest of politicians and the powerful rather than helping the average citizen. This is satire and farce that not only portrays the corruption and misuse of societal institutions, but also excoriates those institutions for what they have done to the principles upon which they claim to be based.

I could understand how Christians would loathe this novel. It really slams religion. Well, it escoriates 'organized' religion. I think this book works best as a symbolic journey of the individual trying to find their own way in reality, various choices having to be made in the face of trying situations in order to not only determine who they are but what their place is in reality. This is a story of growth for a slacker (young college kid) who is forced to mature leading to the destruction of the world (his original mindset where he has no authority) and its resurrection as a reality he not only has a place in but helped to create (hence, maturity). Sure the book bashes Christ but if your skin is so thin that you are attacking it on that principle then it is obvious you didn't get the novel and really should sit down and go over your philosophical underpinnings. If your beliefs are so tenuous you want something destroyed because they challenge them then maybe you don't believe as much as you thought you did.

God, this is humor I have missed since the 1980s. You know, the type which isn't worried about being politically incorrect. Humor is simply that: humor. It's not meant to be taken seriously. It's supposed to make you laugh. This book is quite offensive but the way it handles the subject matter is hilarious. Come on, it makes the Vatican out to be a quasi-terrorist/organized criminal group. Do you think you'd ever see something like that in print? And the punches this writer delivers to government are brutal, but sadly honest with a simple-minded, easily manipulated president and less than honest political aides. Even funnier is the diet plan proscribed by the "Anti-Christ" for the obese. You'll laugh at the simplicity of it. This book is all about corruption, imperfection, and the power of the individual. Great satire. You should give it a read.

Horrible. It just didn't do it for me. Maybe it's just my definition of "Graffiti", I assumed it was going to be different tags n such like how the cover suggests, but all you get are pissed off people who are angry at their fathers writing on the walls... granted that is what a public bathroom consists of but no need to make a book of it. Thank God Amazon accepts returns, I can't get this there fast enough.

... Men's room, women's room, uni-sex bathrooms, political messages, religious-like messages and just some examples the author finds significant in such art form. The book is quite well organized with arguments that come in a short essay at the beginning of each section that the photographs follow.

I like the author's sensibility to women's literary creativity from the part where he chose and examined a number of examples that demonstrate some very interesting feminine experience we normally do not hear but anonymously. They are about negative experience and difficulties of women. It's almost forbidden to voice out how weak one feels sometimes because Americanism is a lot of the time about suppressing the reality of weakness and despise whoever that're suffering, ironically, if one is a woman. But when nobody is watching, at least, at that very moment of writing the graffiti, the truth is revealed and the emotions are very genuine. Just from the phenomenon of such feminine writing we can identify how discriminatory our culture is against women that seek a medium to put their negative experience in words. That is a good section.

I also like the author's viewpoint on "dialogue" here and there throughout the entire book. It's so true that by reading what other people write in the bathrooms, we not only see what has been said anonymously once in time, but also a continuous exchange of private experience with the other unknown people, making the act of graffiti itself interrelated among the writers and readers. The idea of dialogue certainly challenges us to evaluate how effective the more addressed communications outside of the bathrooms in our daily lives actually are.

Mark Ferem in this book documents all those bathroom bits of wisdom and insanity that you've never wanted to forget. It's as insightful as it is entertaining. great bathroom reading.

They say that an image is worth more than one thousand words. That's the case with each of the pictures taken by Mark Ferem in this book; images that are composed mostly by words. Words that don't even need to be read because they talk to you loud and clear. Sometimes like a whisper, sometimes like a scream.

Wrapped in an innovative and appealing design, the pictures unfold as you pass the pages and it seems like you are looking at a collection of everyday archeological pieces that the author has looked for, found and preserved carefully.

All the messages are incredible. Personally, some made me laugh almost unstoppably for their wittiness. Others made me think of the deepest, philosophical questions in life. You have to see them by yourself.

Finally, I loved the way Ferem writes his own words. His conclusions on what he saw and is presenting to us in this book come from abstraction but go to the point. They don't intend to pretend or confuse with academic artifices. Instead, they synthesize the experience you get after observing these outstanding individual messages, and then he puts them into a large sociological, psychological and artistic context about this type of art or subgenre. It comes from him so easily because it comes from his sincere passion.

To summarize it: anyone will see that the person who did this book is a brilliant artist himself.

pretty cool book, i 've thought that some the stuff written on bathrooms should be recorded and lo and behold, someone has. some brillant thoughts have been captured on these walls, not to mention, what women write on their walls, its insane. great and very original. a collectors piece for sure.

Now that we have imitation Lazlo Toth's - even the Jerkey Boys are derivative, aren't they! - let's not forget that the same guy who puts on the big hat and sunglasses can be someone else when he wants to be.

I just wish he would have lunch with me at Sushi-To-Die-For?

Are you game?

Lazlo Toth - Nixon-loving, airline-food-hating, Imelda-lusting, Russian-Federation-anthem-writing local nut and obsessive complainer - is back for another go at the politicians and corporations, Having talked up the first Lazlo book to my sons, I was anxious to share Don Novello's delightful humor with them. So I picked up the Volume 2 and opened it and random and read aloud the first couple of letters I came upon. They landed with a thud. Went over like a lead balloon. Or a fart in a funeral parlor.

Like the original, this volume consists of a series of chatty, off-kilter letters to famous people and organizations, with the purpose of soliciting unintentionally comical responses. To work, the letters must skate the fine edge between plausibility and absurdity. Sadly, Novello misses the edge nearly every time. Neither does he give an interesting or consistent personality to his fictitious writer, Lazlo Toth. Or appear to have any purpose other than to ridicule his targets. He doesn't reach for satire, or for social commentary beyond the rather pedantic realization that many famous public figures respond to most mail with stuffy form letters.

Maybe I'm getting old. More likely, Novello lost the ability to summon up the anarchic fun that made his first book so funny. Not to mention, some of his targets are onto him! When you get knowing responses from George H.W. Bush's secretary and from (yikes!) Ronald MacDonald --AND YOU PUBLISH THEM!! - something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

For the religiously sensitive (now *there's* something I wasn't when I first read Toth!) the book can be sacrilegious. Novello named his hero for the insane person who defaced Michelangelo's `Pieta' back in the 70s. As if that's not insensitive enough, Toth writes to the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to report a phony miracle (something involving chewing gum) through the intercession of California's St. Junipero Serra. This results in a couple of rounds of responses with the cardinal from the Congregation, but goes no further. Had Novello developed Toth's fictitious "St. Junipero Serra Prayer Group" a little more, the accumulated bemused responses might have been slightly humorous. As it is, his miracle correspondence is one of a collection of tossed-off jokes.

The funniest exchanges (and there are a few) provoke shocked responses from the recipients. For instance, Toth's insistence on repopulating the war-depleted Kuwait Zoo with American squirrels and raccoons gets a panicky response from the organization actually involved. And it is surprising how many rather large organizations (GM and Anheiser-Busch) actually seem to read at least some letters and respond to them individually. Most of Toth's letters, though, are just pranks - bearding the lion in its own den.

I wanted to give the book a 2, but for some reason felt the urge to finish it. Maybe I was hoping that the humor would all come together by the end. Alas, it did not. But to give it a 3 implies that it is worth another read. And that, dear reader, is something I cannot imagine.

As interesting as it is to see Novello expand upon his letter writing, there's something disappointing about this second volume. Perhaps it's the introductio of Lazlo into a world in which he's already known. The responses from correspondents who already "get the joke" make one feel as though they're peeking behind the Wizard's curtain.

Still, given the pungence of the concept and the quality of Novello's writing, this couldn't help but be another good read. It just couldn't possibly live up to the original volume.

I hadn't looked at my copy of the book for a couple of years, and happened to find it in the bookshelf in the garage while getting ready for a garage sale. While I sat watching people turn their noses up at my junk, I laughed myself silly at Lazlo's amazing letters. His suggestions for "Historical" TV Dinners (Jimmy Carter's Camp David Accord Chicken and Grits) finally led Swansons (aka Campbell Soups) to just ignore him -- rather than send him more coupons for soup. It's a great look into the inner working of the Public Relations departments of large corporations and governments. Whenever you're throwing a garage sale, this book is a must read. Any other time, too.

The original book ('The Lazlo Letters') was set in the mid-70s and was essentially a tremedously funny, well-executed goof on Watergate and its participants. 'Citizen Lazlo' is wider in its timeframe (1977 - 1992) and focus (all over the map).

For flat out hilarity, nothing can beat (as mentioned by an earlier reviewer) the "Fit For a President Microwave TV Dinner" idea that 'Toth' pitches to the Campbell Soup Company. [Sample: Nixon-Mao Frozen Chinese Banquet...eat the meal that ended 23 years of hostility.]

My favorite has got to be his pitch to Kinney Shoes for a new advertising campaign based on "The Wind Beneath My Wings," entitled "The Feet Within My Shoes":

Did I ever tell you you're my hero?

Tho' you're the farthest parts of me

I can run faster than a beagle

You are the feet beneath my knees

The cadence of these letters continues the unique, hilarious style perfected by Novello/Toth in his first book. Check out a sample greeting to Nicolae Ceausescu in 1988: "Belated Happy Birthday! Stand up! You deserve it!"

Truly laugh-out-loud funny stuff.

One note of interest: since this is the second volume, some of the respondents are in on the joke. Those that are respond with a matching level of humor.

If you're a cat owner, or should I say if you are owned by a cat... :) This book is for you. I think only cat people will understand the humour in this book. It's a really short read but you'll probably find yourself nodding your head in agreement many, many times.
How often have you tried to read the newspaper or eat dinner in peace only to have kitty stalking you. You know what I mean. This book tells it from the cat's point of view. They try to tell you that they are so hard done by... as if. Read the book and you'll know what I mean.

I love giving this little book to new cat owners, especially ones who are first-time cat folk. Nicole Hollander's "Sylvia" cartoons have long been favorites of mine, and she turns her attention and talent to astutely describing life with our furry purry friends.

Her cartoons are hilarious -- just the right combination of "in your face" humor and subtlety -- and the text consisting of essays and "quizzes" is wonderfully funny. Anyone who has ever lived with a cat will see something they recognize: the finicky eater, strange cat habits in the bathroom, cats and vets, what cats do while we're away at work. There's even a "Dear Abby"-like column running throughout the book, offering "helpful" advice to "reader" questions.

Yes, Nicole Hollander has nailed the feline mystique cold. You'll love it.

great book just to have around to make you laugh on a day when nothing seems funny--if you don't laugh at this, then nothing will ever cheer you up again.

Those of us who love our kitties to an almost "nutty" degree will appreciate the territorial cats depicted here!
Another book with humorous cats worth having is Henry Beard's "French For Cats: All the French Your Cat Will Ever Need."

One of the best funny little books I've seen in a long time. Cat keepers will love it and cat lovers will see snippets of their own furry babies in these pages. This creator of "Sylvia" must sometimes sneak into my house and spy on my cats. I read this one often, and it always makes me laugh. All my cat keeping friends got this for Christmas. This one is a keeper.

Mabel Maney is a great writer, full of exuberance and wit. So many books these days are so glum, it's a pleasure to enter Maney's world and see the colors and sights jump off the page. I will definitely read any other books she has coming out!

Mabel Maney, yeah, YOU! Keep writing PLEASE! And do a tv show or a cartoon or something! Or how about a video game, breakfast cereal, or a school snack? This is just another marvelous Mabel Maney masterpiece! Mabel Maney wrote the book on inside jokes in queer fiction. Please bring Midge and Velma back in another Nancy book and lots more Jane! Thanks for the fun!

If God is in the details, Mabel Maney is surely going to heaven in a diamond-studded dog collar! The research it must have taken her to get this parody oh-so-right boggles the mind. I no longer wish I were around in the sixties to see Vegas in its heyday because Maney has recreated the scene(s) to such hilarious perfection and detail that I don't need to taste the fondue to know it was disgusting.
As for Maney, all her books are a fun romp filled with joy, silliness, and chutzpah, and Girl With The Golden Bouffant is another notch in her lipstick case.

I am a huge Mabel Maney fan, but I was disappointed in this book. There's no light hearted romance in this book--just endless inventories of horrible 1950s pop culture items, and tiresome characters beating each other up. Jane spends the entire book in drag with a glued-on unibrow. Way too much of the book is about Cedric and his unappealing love interest. I kept waiting to be entertained and charmed, as I inevitably am by Maney, and instead I felt just slightly ill. Read the Nancy Clue books or the original Jane Bond parody, but borrow this one from someone who will take it back.

Mabel Maney is in cahoots with her reader and trusts them to get the jokes, and this James Bond parody abounds with them. She's a hugely intelligent writer, but don't let that stop you. There's a gem lurking in every sentence--her writing bears close inspection. Maney's sly social commentary sneaks up on you, and her own sense of laughter is infectious. Wonderful foolishness combined with a keenly observed sense of the world we live in.

Ok, it was the opening of the book that caught my attention. Being told that if you bought this book you need to give up on being a pirate right off is a wonderful touch. Yes, this book pokes fun at the Pirate lifestyle; heck, pirates poke fun at the pirate lifestyle. Happy reading!

Good for all ages. Only wish it had a bit more content, most chapters just start going then abruptly end. would recommend to any one, even a ninja.

Have you, too, "always had a lub/hate relationship with land"? Looking for a reliable listing of the best shops and restaurants on Tortuga, or the best and worst names for your ship? Wondering just how necessary the beard and eye patch are, really? If you're looking for an authentic guide to pirates, don't waste your money on loud, garish, plotless pirate movies that leave you feeling dizzy and unfulfilled; TGMNP is a *far*, *far*, farrrrrr better use of your time and money! It is cleverly written in easy-to-read Piratese, guffaw-inducing until the last page, and more importantly, chock full 'o helpful advice. For example, it served as inspiration for my new pirate a cappella group, Treble on the High C's... I also particularly enjoyed the Pirate/Yiddish dictionary and Pirate Cursing cheatsheet - A billion blisterin' barnacles on a blasted blue bialy to anyone who doesn't have the good sense to buy this book!

In the third outing of the Government Manual to New (Superheroes, Wizards, Pirates) we learn how to be... well a new pirate. You'll learn many things like how to dress, amount of rum you need, picking out a crew, rum, selecting a ship, parrots, the proper conjugating of verbs, rum, naming your ship, where to find treasure, where to hang out as a pirate, and where to find rum. Do not be distracted by movies involving undead monkeys or bursting into random songs. Pirates sing chanteys not songs. Of particular use are the charts on verb conjugating, how to make up your own swearing phrase, pirate to Yiddish dictionary, and hot spots in Tortuga to find your rum. You also get useful tips on what you should do if you are tagged with the black spot from a pirate, the use of parley, and of course rum filled wenchery fun.

Great addition to the Gov't Manual series by these two. I'm eagerly awaiting more. Remember, pirates are found at places like Cockroach Island, not Rainbow Pony Cove. And beware of Cuthbert St Cadbury.

Hilarious up until the final plank-walk. I don't know how much rum these guys consumed, but this was a crazy, rollicking, and surprisingly informative tour through every nook and cranny of piratiana, real and imagined.

It's very true that it's helpful. By reading the six main characters profiles and exmaining them you can find almost every character in an story. By using this book and a little thought you can prevent yourself from becoming a second-rate rip-off or sterotype. The world doesn't need another Pokemon/Yugi-O, we need original designs.
I can unerstand the need for a comfort zone, but also the need to think. Break free of the chains of mediocrity and create an original character! I don't know how man Goukous and Gukos I can take anymore.

Firstly, don't think that you're getting something similar to the title that this book spoofs - this book gives almost NO technical information about drawing. That's not the point of this book, and it makes that point clear.

Neither is this book meant to be a the final source on how manga-style comics should be done. It's a spoof, a parody, a satire. It pokes fun at what the manga genre is today, and it pokes fun at itself.

What this book does do is it provides a fresh, funny look at Japanese comics, and the stereotypes they often follow. Charicatures of the artists/writers lead the reader on a journey of several aspects of manga, from everything from the absurd and often-used plotlines to the asinine and overdriven sexuality found too often in the comics. All of this is done in a humorous light, through crude but still well-done drawings that fit the book's tone.

For anyone who says that there is nothing to be learned from this book, there is PLENTY, though it's all presented in same way as the book's off-hand humor. From repeatedly sticking generic protagonist "Guy Iconic" in the hero role of every mini-story, to the characters playing "Samurai Showdown" to research their historic period comic, this book is loaded with pitfalls that often befall would-be manga-style comikers. "Come up with fresh characters!" "Do REAL research!" Things that may seem obvious but mangaka hopefuls overlook these things all the time.

This book definitely isn't for everyone. It was written by a group of guys who had something to say about the mediocrity and lack of originality of manga today. They put what they had to say in the form of a comic -- a snarky, quirky one at that. It won't help you draw manga any better than you did before you bought it, but it'll give you several things to think about in the creation of your own. Plus, you'll have fun reading this along the way.

As my title says, DON'T BUY this book if you're looking to learn how to draw manga. This book teaches you NOTHING. I'll repeat, you will LEARN NOTHING! You have been warned.

This book is nothing more than a collection of drawings thrown together... some examples here, some rough sketches here, some panty shots there, some more panty shots there... etc etc. This book is claimed to be a dirty and humorous take on drawing manga and whatnot. It's really just an excuse to be funny and silly. The drawings are pretty pathetic. Also, there is NO color whatsoever (except on the cover).

I advised you, if you want to learn how to draw manga, pick up the "Learn How to Draw, Supersize Compilation 1, 2 and 3" first. Then pick up some other popular learn-how-to-draw books posted on Amazon. If you are finally comfortable with your drawing technique (and have a ton of cash leftover), then purchase this book for fun and leisure. I hope that helped. I was seriously duped into thinking that I could "learn" something from this book, but I didn't.

Despite the title, How NOT to Draw Manga actually teaches nothing about NOT drawing manga. Instead, it highlights the most common features theoretically found in the most popular manga but--because the creators are trying to promote originality--does not actually provide concrete examples as proof. The facts presented rely entirely on the reader's own prior knowledge of manga to make the jokes work, but mine must be more limited than I was aware, as I could only think of one or two manga serials that fit the proposed stereotypes.

The book is written as a cynical "preaching to the choir" diatribe about how manga (and anime) serials are often mass-produced as though from a cookie-cutter but, despite pointing out the many repeated themes in manga, fails to actually teach anything about how to be ORIGINAL, or even why originality is superior to "tried-and-true." There are many ways to "not draw" in the manga style, but ironically the book fails to teach this. Even the characters admit that original ideas more often than not have a difficult time taking off. Why? Because people like familiar things and, even as formulaic as manga can get, fans enjoy seeing what works. Was the idea to make a completely ironic and self-defeating book? If not, I'm not so sure I get it.

If anything, How NOT to Draw Manga would better be used as a Cliffs Notes for manga and anime, demonstrating the similarities between many popular titles that, in their prime, were considered to be quite *gasp!* ORIGINAL. Is How NOT to Draw Manga simply a case of sour grapes? Maybe, but don't pick up this book if you think you'll learn how not to draw manga.

for love of gawd people this is a freaking spoof, the title its self says it all. it's basically making fun of manga, damn learn to laugh at yourselves, geez you guys give us all a bad name.

DAMN FAN-BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought this book was hysterically funny back when I was a child, now in hindsight it's even better. Yes, there is a "bad" word here and there but it is completely in context. A perfect gift book for just about anyone (who has a sense of humor).

My 4th grade teacher gave me this book to read in 1985. She thought the title was fitting of me and never read it herself. Needless to say, I was uncomfortable with the 'f' word seeing as how I was only 9 years old, and showed the book to my father who immediately called the school board. My 4th grade teacher was asked to leave at the end of the school year because of this book. It should NOT be at schools or marketed to children. It would only be appropriate if a parent could explain some of the context. We lost a dear teacher because of this book.

I think this book was first published in 1977, which, when you think about it, makes it thirty years old! What is even more amazing, again, if you think about it, had the book been published in 1877, it would still hold many truths and facts about kids which would be pertinent today! The author is an absolute mater of observation and has the ability to articulate her observations. As an example: There are two pages devoted to how to eat a cafeteria lunch. I can remember doing the exact same things when I was a school boy in the late 1940s and early 1950s. As a subsitute teacher, now in my retirement, I have the opportunity to observe the cafeteria in several different schools. The behavior is identifal to my school days, identical to that described in the book, and I have no doubt the same will hold true fifty years from now. From the caring of pets to the ritual of hanging up the phone after talking to a friend, it is all here. The book is well written, funny, and so very, very true. Childhood does indeed age well!

Caution: Although this book might at first seem like it is made for children as one of the audiences, be aware that How to Eat Like a Child contains two instances of a vulgar four letter word beginning with "f."

How to Eat Like a Child would be a great gift to new parents . . . especially from their own parents!

This book has two appeals. First, to those who wish to remember their own youth. Second, for those who wish to remember what their children were like. In either case, you will find yourself feeling the situations in your body, in your mind, and in your emotions.

Ms. Ephron is a very good observer, and has a good memory for the way things work.

The title is actually just referring to one five-hundred word essay, that leads the book off. Ms. Ephron wrote this for The New York Times Magazine in 1977 and got a tremendous response, including an invitation to write more material. The result is this book which is filled with wit, wisdom, and love. I've captured a few brief excerpts to give you a flavor of how you will eat up the contents of this book:

Eating: "Cooked carrots: On way to mouth, drop in lap. Smuggle to garbage in napkin."

Watching television: "Your mother is calling you. Do not hear her . . . ."

Hanging up the telephone: "Are you still there?"

Playing: "After using your bed as a trampoline, transform your room into a giant spider web . . . ."

How to laugh: "Call a pizza parlor and send your teacher seven pizzas."

Caring for a pet dog: "Each day, procrastinate and complain until your mother finds it easier to feet it and walk it herself."

Birthday party guest: "If reminded, say thank you.
Go home.
Throw up."

School: "Tell your teacher for the second time this week, that you do not have your homework because the dog ate it."

Arranging to be excused from the dinner table: "Lean back until your chair rests precariously on its two back legs. Fall over."

Being sent to room: "Slam door."

How to torture sister: "Pretend to eat shaving cream . . . . Wanna try some?"

Ride in car: "Ask if you are almost there yet."

How to sleep: "Fall out of bed and don't wake up."

This book really deserves a sequel that focuses on how to be the parent of the child who is behaving like a child. I suspect that subject would be a lot funnier!

Think back. How would you behave if you were not constrained by so much socialization, guilt, and desire to please? Where would it be appropriate to adopt some of that wonderful freedom of childhood?

I got this book in the early 80s when I was about 10-12. My older sister and I read it, CRYING in hysterics. I think it was the first book EVER to make me do that. Snorting, sobbing laughter.

She and I quoted it for years afterward. ("Your mother is calling. ... Do not hear her. Do not hear her. Do not hear her.")

I have three kids now and think my middle one (7) is just ripe enough for this. I can't wait to share it with her. She's gonna LOVE it.

As far as this having the f-word in it (see other review), I grew up in a very conservative house (no cursing, EVER) and have absolutely NO recollection of there being "bad" words in this book.

I wouldn't hesitate for a MINUTE to share this hysterical book with children (ages 8 and up). It's not obscene or inappropriate. It's hysterically funny. If the f-word is in there, it's probably in there once or something and easily censored with a Sharpie by any concerned parent.

Delia Ephron is a goddess. This book is great and I'm ordering a new copy for a new generation.

Mad Magazine has recycled much of its old content for new paydays in collection books over the years. I think that Mad About Star Wars is one of the better collections - not just because it gathers nearly all things Star Wars that have appeared in their pages since the saga began, but because of the wonderful annotations and commentaries which make this book more like a DVD and a cultural history. It's nice to have all the in-jokes pointed out for those of us who were too slow to catch them the first time around. Learning about some of the whackier merchandising spin-offs was worth the price of admission by itself. The only thing that could have improved this book is hard covers.

The cover says it all... this book contains thirty years of "Star Wars"-related parodies from the pages of MAD, and if you're a fan of either the movies or the magazine, you're in for a treat.

One of the best things about this book is that the writers aren't afraid to really go after George Lucas and the stars of the films; they repeatedly take sharp jabs at Lucas's greed, the stiff acting, the merchandising run amok, etc. In contrast, many recent, high-profile "Star Wars" parodies in other media (i.e., "Family Guy," "Robot Chicken") have tended to have fun with the characters and specific scenes while being careful not to insult Lucas personally, probably out of fear of angering him. Ironically, Lucas doesn't seem to mind MAD's material at all; in fact, he's actually sent fan letters to MAD (which are included in this book), and he even wrote the book's introduction!

However, as the editor points out in several of the entertaining trivia pieces that accompany the articles, there was a good deal of repetition in MAD's "Star Wars" pieces over the years, and as a result, "MAD About Star Wars" can wear kind of thin if you try to read too much in one sitting. It's best to enjoy it a bit at a time.

It's great to have so much "Star Wars" humor together in one place, including parodies of all six movies, "Star Wars"-themed Fold-ins, and even a spoof of the "Star Wars" postage stamps. So go ahead and check it out, and may the farce be with you!

Over the years, Mad Magazine has pocked fun at the Star Wars movies, and the entire Star Wars phenomenon - from episode 4 to episode 3...er, you know what I mean. This book contains all of their Star Wars bits, including their wonderful parodies of the movies, their goofy one-liners, their hilarious covers, and even their funny fake posters. As an added bonus, this book contains numerous behind-the-scene anecdotes (did you know that George Lucas was a big fan of MAD's Star Wars' parodies?), interesting coincidences and numerous funny pictures.

Overall, I found this to be a great book. I loved seeing the parodies again, not to mention many cartoons and gags I never saw before! It kept me up late reading, trying to keep from busting out loud laughing (and earning the ire of my wife!). My fourteen-year-old son is a huge Star Wars fan, and like me he loved this book. We both give it our highest recommendations. Buy it!

This a great collection of recycled trash from the original issues. Since I have long lost what little mind I had, I feel that I am reading this for the first time.
I like the annotations (fancy word for the notes along the sides).

I bought this book as a present for a friend, and I was very tempted to keep it for myself. MAD humor might not be for everyone, and the jokes worked most of the time, except when they didn't (as was to be expected). What I hadn't expected at all was to find the book full of historical information, anecdotes, and other real-world stuff that helped place all the original jokes within the larger context of the Star Wars sub-culture and pop culture in general. Trying not to give anything away from the book, let's just say that at times reality surpassed fiction, and even MAD humor!

I do remember reading some of the original jokes more than 20 years ago, and I distinctly recall some of them being in color. I was disappointed to see many of them reproduced in black and white in this book -and in a somewhat smaller format. It's a minor fault, and I would have given this book five stars had I not seen the original material already. Overall, this is a good book, and it's definitely great for Star Wars fans of any level.