Parodies Books

A must have in any home or near any throne. Well done!

This little tome is hilarious.
It's already enhanced my body movements.

When a news maker makes themself a special spot on page six daily by their actions...They are SCHMUCKS!

Jackie Mason, humorist, Comedian and winner for his one man Broadway show "The World According to Me", takes on this challenge of pointing out the "Schmucks" of the world in this abridged CD.

In someways, this seem like an updating of some of "World". He takes on such Schmucks like Bill & Hillary Clinton, Jews for Jesus, Madonna and France with his pointed humor. His wit is razor sharp and so are some of the points he takes on.

Does he make sense? More than you will know. This is more than comedy, it is a lesson in why people do stupid things. His viewpoints make for good listening

Jackie, all I hope is I am not on next year's list!

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

Jackie Mason and Raoul Felder combine comedy and common sense and mix it with a whole lotta chutzpeh to stick it to shmuck after filfthy schmuck. You can practically hear Mason's voice speaking from the pages, laying insult upon insult in joyous irreverance for the self-appointed schmucks in the world. Doesn't matter if you're dead or alive, if you're a shmuck, you can't even hide in the dirt. Rich schmucks, dead schmucks, globo-schmucks and even dumb shmucks from Yasser Arafat to Katie Couric get lambasted. From now on, whenever Al Sharpton's face pops up on your TV screen, you'll be shouting "praise the lard". At the end you'll wonder, "If these guys are all schmucks, what in the world does it take to become a putz?"

Do you want to know what really happened? You could read the Bible, but it turns out that the Bible is only God's "official" biography. So much hype and hyperbole! To get the real scoop on how the Universe began, and what has happened since, you must read The Secret Diary of God (aged 9 1/2 Million Trillion Years).

One might think that Koos Kombuis, a musician from South Africa, is the author of this book. In fact, Kombuis actually translated this book, using technology similar to that used in The Bible Code, from an old Potchefstroom telephone directory (for those, like myself, who do not know their South African geography, Potchefstroom is a small city about 70 miles south-west of Johannesburg). Kombuis knew God would never be so careless as to hide his secret diary in a publication so well-known as the Bible, so he began running his software on the most obscure publications he could find.

This book is thought-provoking, and probably not suitable for those who are devout and without a sense of humor. I highly recommend it.

Think Douglas Adams meets Terry Pratchett, and you'll form a good idea of what Koos Kombuis (pronounced: Quiss Com-base) has penned in this true South African classic.
A bit of background:
Koos Kombuis is a legendary figure in Afrikaans Rock music, and is commonly seen as one of the pioneers in South African alternative music. He is also an accomplished writer, and this is his first book in English. I highly recommended for anyone that would like to broaden their horizons, as this is, although not always actual to especially Americans, a rare gem, written with heartfelt sincerity by one of South Africa's true living legends.

I picked up this book with an armful of others about golf, shielding myself against the actual play of the game by hiding under the covers studying it. This had worked well in a previous life on a previous quest, but Mr. Chiarella's book succeeded only in jabbing me in the ribs until I grabbed my clubs and headed out in the sauna-like heat determined to put together some kind of game good enough to have a pro throw it out and build me a new one. A tolerable one in time for a visit with my brother, where we would play winter golf on brown grass crusted with snow and talk and not talk and let an entire day slip by.

Thanks Tom.

An excellent book that illustrates not the "how", but the "why" of golf. Gives us insight into the people that feel passionately about the sport. A great read for golf fans - and a wonderful resource for those who live with them.

Baur and Summers had no great motive for inventing a holiday, as they explain succinctly in Chapter Two: "Talking like a pirate is fun. It's really that simple." And to help readers engage in as much fun as possible, they have devised the parameters of Pirattitude, the state of mind needed to squeeze the most juice from the day. The definition and test for Pirattitude waits in Chapter Three. Then, in Chapter Four, you can try your hand at a brief test of pirate trivia to prove if you know the name of Blackbeard's ship (was it Queen Anne's Revenge or Sissybritches?) and if a proper slug of grog contains rum or Sprite as a primary ingredient. Trust me, the test isn't very hard.

OK, now we get to the meat of the book. You wanna talk like a pirate? You gotta know the lingo. And these guys want to help you, although they readily admit their research "involved more beer and pizza than actually looking things up." So get ready to pepper your speech with everything from "avast" to "barnacle," from "lubber" to "wench," from "booty" to "salmagundi." And, once you know the words, these scurvy sea dogs help you still more by describing ways to put your new vocabulary to work at home, school, work, church and pretty much anywhere else you might find yourself. (They even provide the very helpful warning that "most women do not consider the phrase 'Prepare to be boarded!' an adequate substitute for foreplay.")

To fill out the book (because it really is pretty slim, after all) the two rum-soaked bilge rats (see how I cunningly weave these piratical words into my text?) provide the lyrics to a new pirate song, biographical tidbits about some real, honest-to-gosh pirates as well as some who exist only on the silver screen, a personality test to determine your level of pirattitude, an advice column and a peek at Baur and Summers' secret ambition.

That's it. That's all there is to it. Well Blow Me Down! is a funny, silly book by two silly, funny men who had nothing to do so they created a modern phenomenon. So don't forget to celebrate Mark's ex-wife's birthday each year by indulging the wee pirate that's in us all!

I find myself laughing out loud (something I haven't done since reading Bryson's, A Walk in the Woods) and thinking of all kinds of people I want to share this book with. Spritely and clever and very fun!

Quite liked it, could relate to the author as a fellow ex-progressive.

Demonstrates clearly the fascist roots of today's "progressives"; the whitewash, lies and coverups indulged in by today's Left about the radically racist-eugenicist-socialist origins of the Left's heroes.

Explains the semantic subterfuge and linguistic drift that maps Classic Liberalism into today's Conservatism, and fascist-socialist-pragmatist utopianism into today's Liberalism.

Finally, the author illustrates the widespread, boiled-frog intrusion of fascist structures into the formerly Classic Liberal and libertarian context of America. Demonstrates clearly that both Left and Right in 21st Century America consequently feel unconstrained and pragmatic about using fascist structures to impose liberty-destroying regulations... with a happy face and for our own good, of course.

This book is a must read, or listen, for anyone who wants to know the truth behind liberals. I'd put this book along with The Marketing of Evil, by David Kupelian, and the Emancipation Revalation Revolution dvd, as must haves for Americans who really want to know what the hell happened to our country.

I had some eye opening experience, when my neighbor gave me to read Goebbels's Diary translated into Czech by Vaclav Moravec. It was 1974 in then communist Czechoslovakia and books like that were not around, this one was found in the roof structure of the church, where my neighbor was laying new roof tile. Official line of communist propaganda never missed an opportunity to place themselves into exact opposite to Nazism/Fascism. When I read the Diary (which described Hitler's rise to power), I was shocked to see the similarity of the Diary language to the major communist media in communist Czechoslovakia. How that can be, if they are supposed to be on opposite side of the political spectrum? Since then I left Czechoslovakia and more and more I was coming to the conclusion, that not only Communists, but current liberals (Democrats and Greens) and socialists in Europe are together with Fascists and National Socialists on the left side of the politics. My conclusion was coming from stepping back from the history of mankind. I was looking on historical evolution of human freedom (individualism), which is not progressing throughout the ages always toward personal freedom, but overall trend does; from barbaric times of killing opponents toward slavery (progress), to feudal serfdom (progress), to Capitalism with more freedom for people selling their work (progress). Socialism is a historical movement back toward serfdom and slavery, not a progress, as leftists like to claim. They are actually reactionary trend. Right is not represented by KKK, Skinheads etc. Those are extreme leftists, just different kind, which embarrasses modern dominant left. They deel with the problem their traditional way - they call them extreme right. It always worked so what. This book provide a lot of information showing the relationship between Fascism and Socialism. Only difference between them is the fact, that Fascism was forced to rename itself due to its adversity toward international control. One can say, that today's Globalism has the same ambitions as Socialist International had. There is a lot of confusion and smoke blowing, but that seams to be a case. Some proponents of Globalism do it for a selfish reason not realizing, that they are heading in the direction of the leftist plan (did I tell the well guarded secret?). Libertarians are confused about it as well because they see globalism as an expression of economic freedom, well, useful idiots maybe? Some leftists oppose Globalism (they are more equivalent of Fascists), some push it like Clinton or liberal Republicans do (those are more like followers of Socialist International). I am sorry that I had to wait for this book for so long. It (in my opinion) does not go all the way but it is an important step in prohibited direction. And it is right direction.

The fact is that Hitler and Mussolini were on the far right. Rather than try to distance their far right from today's far right, Goldberg tries to make them mainstream left. In other words, rather than merely downplaying the truth, he is telling us the opposite of the truth.

I'm a liberal, but am not going to claim that Stalin and Mao were on the right.

Liberals are fascists.

They are *not* Nazis, as Goldberg repeats thought out the book. They are fascists. All Nazis are fascist. Not all fascists are Nazi. Being a fascist is not about hating Jews but its about government control on daily life.

It's a bold statement, but by the end of the book it makes sense. Goldberg first describes Mussolini and Hitler's regimes, slicing the fascism from Nazism and Communism. Then he compares it to turn-of-the-20th-century Progressivism and FDR's New Deal. Then he looks at the protests of the 1960's and LBJ under the fascist lenses, and then Hillary Clinton and the like. Throughout the book he goes back to Italian fascism, German Nazism, and Progressivism and unpeels more and more about their politics and philosophies like an onion. He uses this to discuss economics, race politics, and abortion.

His discussion on FDR and the New Deal was the biggest shock to me. I didn't know that the NRA (National Recovery Administration) employed Nazi tactics like big demonstrations and sanctioning non-NRA aligned businesses. I also didn't know that FDR received a personal letter from Hitler commending him on his New Deal. Before I read the book I thought FDR was the best president ever, followed by Ronald Reagan. Now I'm not so sure he was that great or the closest we have had in the USA to a fascist dictator.

However, by the end of the book you start to wonder if fascism is really that bad after all. Political correctness has made us all accept a "happy fascism," hence the smiley face with the Hitler mustache on the cover of the book. Goldberg discusses this towards the end of the book in a chapter "We're all Fascists now."

The section on abortion and race politics was hard to read, not because they were poorly written but because they are sensitive subjects for me. I also waited to the end to read the Nazi platform in the appendix, which was a let down. It's underdeveloped with it's 25 planks compared to modern standards and doesn't describe all the public policies that the Nazi's eventually implemented.

Liberals are going to revolt at the thought of them being the fascists instead of conservatives being the fascists. But then, do you think conservatives liked that label for the last 30 years? It may not be college textbook quality but it is well researched and referenced. I give it five stars.

And of course, the thing to avoid is eating curry in between lagers, reading this ALOUD with dramatic flourishes (some of which were frankly, unprintable, and certainly unreproducible in this splendid on line journal) in your student flat before a rapt and drunk audience of students who know all your bad habits, and avoid embarrasments that they will tell their children and grandchildren about. Yes, and I expect this book was written in the same way.

I think the introductory text (the one which doesn't involve hairy toes) is roughly about the same level of lunacy as the book proper, but the fact is, I have no doubt that it it perfectly true; a pair of down and about writers alternate betwen emergency supplies of dog biscuits and sleepovers in the library (been there, done that) and surrender their writing careers to a desperate plan of salvation that includes vissitudes in aid of helpless fictional species, bypassing the local libel laws, characters strangely reminiscent of nearly everyone on my course (only smaller and smellier). Yes, I'm thinking about Tim Benzadrine here folks!

So it goes, and if you can read the bit with Lavier and the brick wallpaper lined tree without falling over and spilling lager all over the communal radio, which then spectacularly explodes, then you did better than me.

I think.

The most extravagant parody on JRRT's famous trilogy. Very nice at beginning, little doze at end, but still amazing. I read LOTR many times (and Silmarillion, Hobbit, of course) and like them very much. But i read this parody also with great delight. It's a good buy and a good present!

I did not like this book at all. I'm not a fan of Tolkien's trilogy (though I loved The Hobbitt), but loved the movie trilogy. I found the writing in this to be sophomoric and many of the lines to be idiotic. I don't recommend this for anyone who is NOT a fan of the written version.

So much fun and so silly! AT the same time, it's off color enough, I'd keep the kids away. (After the movie release, these LotR fans seem even younger, huh?) Long live the veggie puns!

When in High School I first found this book and enjoyed reading it. Being a fan of Tolkien I couldn't help but love it. It is just the right mixture of silly jokes, gross scenes and real humor. Humor that makes me laugh out loud on the bus or train. There are lots of books out there trying to be parodies but many fail. Rereading it really allowed me to enjoy it again and, on some cases, allowed me to understand some of the jokes I had not before.
Being published in 1969 I do think some of the jokes are outdated and, frankly, I don't understand some of them. Never did. But the book is still ten [...] many fantasy books and reminds me a lot of the Hitchhiker's Guide in pacing and delivery. I love the character of Goodgulf the Wizard and his ways of dealing with people. You HAVE to have this book if you are a fan of fantasy.

i discovered this book while working at a public library. i found it on the audiobook aisle and gave it a listen. and believe me, if you haven't listened to the audiobook i encourage it. it's completely different hearing martin's voice. i can't imagine not listening to the audiobook and enjoying the written one, in fact.
the book is a series of dry-humoured short stories, all sure to make one smirk. "times new roman announces shortage of fonts" is surely the best one, though "taping my friends" runs a close second.
in my opinion, this is by far the best of martin's books. it's good for airplanes, car rides, or any time you want a short read. give it a read (and a listen!)

Great stuff that'll get a laugh even out of the painfully serious. The 50-year-old Lolita even thinks it's funny. A few quotes. "But this guy was no ordinary guy, he was a red guy." "Think what you think, and stultify what you perambulate." "48. Windows for Dummies. 49. Windows for Idiots. 50. Windows for the Subhuman." This is hilarious stuff that just about everyone will get a kick out of...er, this? Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

D. Heard a taped version of PURE DRIVEL, written and read by Steve Martin,
and I liked parts of it very much . . . the book is a collection of his short stories,
many of which first appeared in THE NEW YORKER.

If you're going to get hold of it, I strongly suggest that this is one
time where the audio version far succeeds the written copy . . . by
listening to it, you'll almost feel like you are getting to hear Steve
Martin in a private performance--given just for you.

One piece, in particular, had me laughing out loud . . . it described
the breakup of a couple who had been dating for only a few
months . . . yet the guy kept writing after the relationship
was over and each time he did, his letters became increasingly
stupider . . . the amazing thing about this tale is that it is sooooo
true; i.e., I've actually seen both men and women do something similar.

I also liked this passage from a piece that announced a shortage
of periods in the Times Roman font:

Most vulnerable are writers who work in short, choppy sentences,"
said a spokesperson for Times Roman, who continued, "We are trying
to remedy the situation and have suggested alternatives, like umlauts,
since we have plenty of umlauts--and, in fact, have more umlauts than
we could possibly use in a lifetime! Don't forget, umlauts can really
spice up a page with their delicate symmetry--resting often midway
in a word, letters spilling on either side--and not only indicate the
pronunciation of a word but also contribute to a writer's greater glory
because they're fancy, not to mention that they even look like periods,
indeed, are indistinguishable from periods, and will lead casual readers
to believe that the article actually contains periods!

PURE DRIVEL does have a few clinkers, though fortunately, there aren't
many of them.

This is truly one of the most delightful books I have ever read. In a very uncharacteristic move, I have made a mental note to hang on to this book so I can go back to it periodically. Martin's writing is just plain funny. I am a tough customer when it comes to humor, but this book had me laughing out loud. Not that it was ever in question, but in this book you begin to see just how intelligent Steve Martin is. Some of the comedy I am sure was over my head, but there was plenty that was not. (Sometimes such intelligent writing may be a pitfall when it might make the book funny to a smaller number of people.)

Steve Martin writes with witty prose in a manner that is comfortable to read and easy to understand. Like many avid readers, I too have that hope in the back of my mind that one day I will be a published author so that I may tease the emotions of readers similar to how I like mine teased. I have read books before which I have visualized myself emulating in my own writing, but before this book I had never felt so strongly an appreciation for the author. This, for the most part, is how I wish I could write.

Pure Drivel is a series of short stories, which I normally avoid because I have had a few bad experiences. I had no problems and I have nothing bad to say about this book. I loved it and have had multiple conversations about it with a friend to whom I lent it. She loved it, too. The book is very light reading when you are in the mood for something quick and minimally involved. The writing is complex and the ideas are abstract, but that should not contradict the previous sentence. I am not ashamed to admit how embarrassingly out loud I laughed at this book.

I chuckled a few times, but it wasn't nearly as good as his other stuff. It was, aptly, Pure Drivel.

I usually write reviews of books that deal with theology and Christian apologetics and other really side-splitting kinds of subjects that, I suspect, provide endless amusement and delight to both of the people who have read them.

But I'm wandering outside my usual field because I found this history of a culturally influential television institution to be quite interesting. It is, at times, funny and-reflecting the reality of what happened-at times, sad.

"Live From New York" basically tells the story of how Saturday Night Live started and it takes the reader through the various eras of the show.

It seems that I'm in the minority among many of the people I know, but I think some of the more recent eras of the show and some of the more recent mixes of cast members are just as funny-and perhaps even funnier-than the early days with Belushi, Akroyd, Chase, and the gang. My friends who disagree with this assessment will, no doubt, snort and wave their hands dismissively. Sometimes I say things that these people disagree with just to watch the snorting and hand waving. When you lead a slow-paced life, little things go a long way.

In telling SNL's history, the book relies heavily on quotes from numerous cast members and writers, past and present. The behind-the-scenes stories of various people who have been involved with the show over the years are captivating for someone like myself who has enjoyed watching SNL in its various permutations over the past several decades.

Book is a great source of commentarys from the people who worked on the shows over the years. It does not deal in a narrative form, only blocks of comments by people. Little detail on specific sketches or true history, more like a collection of things remembered by people involved with the show. It made a great addition to my other books, and is enjoyable on its own.

Virtually everything that has ever happened on SNL is contained within this book. A brilliant narrative assembled almost entirely of interview fragments from people involved with the show, the book is a crash course in SNL history from it's inception to the modern era.

Particularly interesting is the exposure of cast conflict bubbling over onto the show into hilarious sketches, such as Chevy Chase's rise to stardom and Belushi's jealousy becoming a cold open for the show.

Although it's almost 600 pages long, it reads like a much shorter book, and I couldn't put the thing down. I found myself waking up early before work to put a dent in it, and was genuinely aggravated when nine o'clock rolled around and I had to go to my desk.

The book is also incredibly instructive to those interested in sketch comedy. SNL being the pinnacle of the medium, being given the opportunity to get into the heads of such an array of writers and actors is really revealing.

Background:
The authors interview most of the living cast and crew from SNL and gather/mold the various responses into a kind of oral history of what went on behind the scenes of the show from day one. The book also takes a look at what was happening at the network level and the encounters that Michaels and the other producers of the show had when corporate sensibilites clashed with comic creativity. The version I read also has an extra 30 pages or so of what various people think about Lorne Michaels.
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This was a pretty interesting book if your like me and werent even born when the first show came and only really became aware of it in the mid 90's. It does a pretty good job of showing how the show changed (it seems in the casts eye's first) from a show were you did envelope pushing comedy to a place that was more of a spring board to a movie career. The book also does go into detail on most of the famous feuds, deaths, bad hosts/good hosts, and other incidents that have popped up over the years. A great majority of the book deals with how the show comes together, which I think is the most interesting part, and how all the people somehow manage to work together depiste massive pressure and somtimes conflicting personalites. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes SNL and wants some background info on how the show came to be in its current form and perhaps those who might want an idea of what happens on the road to stardom.
m.a.c

This is a big sprawling nonfiction book told in highly readable "sound-bites" more than 25 years after the heyday of the ground-breaking television show Saturday Night Live. The author rounds up everyone involved (with the exception of the poor dead people like John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Chris Farley). So you get an interesting then-and-now view. The participants put their work into perspective with the passing of time. One thing that impressed me was how much this show has influenced American pop culture. Also noteworthy: how incredibly pressured the job was. These people (notably Chevy Chase) ran roughshod over each other, and then had to put up with each other. This is what happens when you get a lot of creative types, big egos, and (yes) recreational drugs at the same table, and then put yourself on a killer schedule. Fans of the show will find this especially fascinating to read.

I listened to this on cassette, somewhat abridged, read by the author,
with some other voices and some sound effects. The Gore imitation is pretty good.


Good satire. Franken's other political books struck me as more hate than humor.
This one can even be enjoyed by Republicans. Political junkies will probably
like it more than most others, but anyone that has been bothered by the behavior
of politicians can get some laughs.

This books is FUNNY.

If you HATE Al Franken you'll love this book. No other character in the book is as despicable as Al. He runs a prostitution ring, cheats on his wife, is insanely stupid, condones violence against political opponents, takes insane amounts of drugs, turns psychotic and is probably the least moral character in modern fiction.

And it's FUNNY.

If you love AL you will hopefully get that it's all a joke. If not, you may not actually AL, you might just think you do.

The book on tape (or CD) will make you laugh often and heartilty.

-Tom

In this book, we see Franken not as his usual politically-outspoken self but rather as another persona - a ridiculous candidate running for president, and winning in what turns out to be one of the most disasterous 100 first (and only) days of any presidency. Those who disagree with Franken's politics will appreciate the book for making fun of all ends of the spectrum in a way that generally sends up the ridiculous nature of a presidential election. Those who agree with Franken may be disappointed that he mocked everyone. However, reading the book with an open mind will probably cause a great deal of mirth and enjoyment.

The book contains a bunch of sources of Franken's fictional presidency (including fictional press clippings and doctored photos). Even though the second half of the book is not nearly as funny as the first, overall, still a great read.

I honestly cannot remember how many times i laughed out loud while reading this book. A must-read!

This is the greatest book of political satire I have ever read. If you can think, read and laugh at the same time buy this book. It will have you rolling.