Parody Books

This book is just as relevant now as it was in the age it was written. If you don't "get it" then it wasn't meant for you.

I found this book to be thoroughly enjoyable. Lenny Bruce is an interesting guy and I think it's very insightful just of life and society in general and of all their inconsistencies. Though today, I'm sure, is much different than Lenny's era, most of what he has to say still applies. He can be really funny at times, but I'd say its a darker humor. I remember thinking it dragged just a bit when he gets deep into his legal battle near the end of the book but overall it kept me entertained.

I first read this book at the tender age of fourteen, and even then it had an impact on my perceptions. Now, over thirty years later, it has remained one of the strongest influences of my life! I would not be the wise and compassionate Spiritual teacher that I am without having read about Lenny's life of pushing the boundaries and comedic concepts far ahead of his time. He was and still is the most profound comic Spiritual visionary America has ever seen...and most likely will ever see. Long live Saint Lenny!

You could be forgiven for thinking that this book is by Eric Bogosian. Although generally okay, the Fireside edition spends more time talking about Bogosian on the front cover than it does talking about Bruce himself.

Too bad. But luckily for the reader, this book is pure Lenny.

More readable than the transcripts of his performance (since he intended this to be read)-- How To Talk Dirty and Influence People is part autiobiography and part diatribe. Bruce explains, jokes, cajoles and convinces as he writes. This is the story of his life from his birth until 1963 when it was written.

Lenny Bruce is a very important figure in the histories of performance and free expression. This book is a little bit sketchy to be a final remembrance, but is still worth the time and effort that it takes to read. In particular, the beginning sections of the book are magical-- funny, wry and moral. It loses the thread a little bit towards the end, as Bruce is more and more obsessed with the legal wars that he was then fighting on every front. Certainly understandable, but the latter chapters are much less open for the reader and seem to have been written in a much bigger hurry than the rest of the book.

If you are interested in Bruce, this book is a must-read. The Fireside edition is bound with an introduction by the aforementioned Bogosian and with a preface by Kenneth Tynan.

You don't have to be a fan of Lenny Bruce to love this book, you don't have to really know who he is (I really only know him from a few recordings and by reputation). This book is funny. This book is still a valuable piece of social satire and criticism. This book is an interesting story. This book is a piece of history. This book is great. This book should be read.

It is an indespensible book for anyone in IT. I don't know how I survived without Mr. Bunny's Guide. It is that informative. Whether you're a programmer, database administrator, web developer systems administrator or project manager. This is the book to get.

I'm not exaggerating. This is one of the best examples of whimsical humour ever, and I speak as a life-long fan of Monty Python, The Goons, Steve Martin, Beachcomber, John Lennon's poems, etc. etc. The contents page alone is God-like.

First off, if you want to learn about ActiveX, then this is not the book for you. However, if you want to be entertained by a parody of ActiveX, where wordplay, innuendo and absurdity about ActiveX are used to create some very funny jokes, then it is right for you. Mr. Bunny, the smart one with the glasses and pocket protector, and Farmer Jake, the guy in the overalls with the rake, are the main characters in a story about a "quest" for knowledge.
Everything in the book is a joke; there is a very good one about CLSID registry entries, "Contrary to popular belief, the CLSID registry entries, when spelled backwards, do not contain the subliminal message `I worship Satan'." If you have ever had to write and use CLSID registry entries, you know how much devil there is in the details. Points of additional reading contain entries such as:

* New York City Phone Book.
* United States Internal Revenue Code.
* ActiveX For Bunnies.

I found the last especially funny, the parody in relation to the "For Dummies" series and this book is quite good. Even the exercises are jokes; the following are given as end of chapter exercises:

* Optimize the following Visual Basic code: n = 1
* Point
* Click
* Find the missing poodle.

The book is very funny and a welcome change from the relentless detail that appears in some programming books. I recommend it very highly as comic relief.

I was on a train when I started to read this book. I usually don't laugh out loud, but when I was reading this, I just couldn't help it.

This is definitely one of the funniest "geek" books I've seen (haven't seen too many). My wife doesn't get it!

After reading through many books on ActiveX control and programming this book was a welcome relief. It is funny and witty and short.

This book is written largly based on using ActiveX control in VB. Anyone familiar with VB (even if they don't know ActiveX)will get most of the jokes and diagrams.

I would recommand this book to anyone that has had just a little too much technical documentation and would like a mental break. Hey, you may even learn something in the process.

I bought this book for a friend that mmoved here from Boston and has a very thick accent. We joke each other all the time and I thought the book was perfect for her. She got a kick out of it.

Open it to any page a get a great laugh. Great book!

Ah Maureen, I see she's still got the venom flowing, bless her heart...

I remember Maureen well from her days in Raleigh, or H-E-double hockey sticks, as she liked to call it. She became semi-famous for her column criticizing everything southern after she had to move to Raleigh, NC because of her husband's job transfer. For a woman who prided herself on her hyphenated last name & feminist stance, I think it was a bitter pill to swallow.

Of course her editor loved all the responses that flowed in following virtually all of her columns, which were nearly always condescendingly critical of the South in general, and Raleigh in particular. Ms Maureen never bothered to look around with an un-jaundiced (is that a word?) eye long enough to attempt an embrace of her new environment. Need an example? She insisted on returning to Filthydelphia...ERR... Philadelphia to have her hair styled, since 'they just don't understand how to do it down here'.

I could go on providing background as to why this is only yet another condescending slam on all habits Southern pretending to be a 'gently humorous look at the South', but there's enough info provided here already as proof.

Need verification? What other book puts such a huge amount of its' content out for people to 'pre-read' before buying? No, this is like one of those sophomoric comedic movies targeted at the 15-25 yr old male audience, the ones where all the 'funny' stuff is contained in the trailers, you know? Only this targets the folks who live in the North and think everybody in the South either lives in a tar-paper shack or on a plantation.

Northerners who either have never visited the South or who think 'The Beverly Hillbillies' and 'The Dukes of Hazzard' represent Southerners accurately should love this book. No one else will. It's interesting that so many of Maureen's neighbors in North Raleigh found both Raleigh, and North Carolina to be wonderful places to live, and embraced the locals' customs and idiosyncracies. Maureen never bothered with that, instead voicing her complaints about the lack of availability of the regional foods of Philadelphia while disparaging the regional foods of central NC & criticizing people for being 'slow' and 'falsely gracious'. Based on Maureen's hypercritical style, I can perhaps understand why someone meeting her would feel 'forced' to act friendly.

Personally, I found it a waste of paper, and am disappointed any trees had to be sacrificed for her vindictiveness. I don't know if Maureen is happy back in Pa., but I do pity her for wasting the several years she spent in Raleigh and for not having the ability nor desire to objectively view anything outside of her personal cocoon.

I loved the humor in this book! Having been born and raised in the Philly area myself and subsequently traveling and working throughout the South, I could easily identify with the author's humorous, playful and ultimately affectionate view of Southern Living, as seen through Yankee eyes. The book reads well if you've got the time to read it chapter by chapter or just a bit, as the time allows. I'm a fixin' to read this one again soon!

Maureen has done herself proud to have such an insight into what makes Southern People so very special!!! We offered her a pardon for being born in Yankee-Land, and bestowed to her an official "Southern Belle" title if she would live here in Raleigh, NC for
10 years. Her husband was so overwhelmed to see the Southern changes in her, he just had to take her back to Philadelphia!!!

Maureen grasped the marvelous culture of the South, and even a little of the funny customs that we have!!

Read "Suddenly Southern" to get an idea what the Yankee's are missing by not moving to the South!! Understandably, not all can appriciate our customs, I guess that is the reason I-95 runs both South and North!!

The defining question is, "How many people have you heard of that Retires to the North!!!! I rest my case!!

Sonny Kellum

I like this book. It's funny and very entertaining. Some of these situations are familar.
Also I like the fact that if I have to put it down I can come back to it when I get the time and I don't have to go back and reread the pages before.
I can also use some of these sayins and information and not only have an answer but a little private joke as to where it came from.

I bought this book as a gift for a friend my age. After I had received the book myself as a gift, I knew she could relate to many of the stories in the book and would enjoy as much as I. It is typical of life in the south for people of middle age. Most enjoyable!

This is another fun romp with Celia Rivenbank, the Southern belle of belly laughs. Quick and fun summer read!

If you are from "The South" you will nod as you laugh until tears dilute your bowl of grits while you read this classic. If you are not from "The South" (bless your heart) you will still be captivated by Celia's hilarious view of life south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Everyone will love this one.

This is the second of her books that I have read and loved both! She nails our "southernisms" on the head. If you are from the South, have lived in the South, or know someone who has you'll love this. She talks of all things southern with the beauty and sharpness of a Cherokee Rose.

I first got a taste of Dave Barry after coming upon an essay of his online, which described his misadventures at one of those silly "self-improvement" seminars. Needless to say the cracks about Tony Robbins being an android & other stuff basically required a quick change of undies. So, I wanted to experience more of aching tummies & soggy panties, so I bought this book. Unfortunetely, the story wasn't in this one BUT I was treated to absolute hilarity such as Dave's trip to Bimini on his boat named "Buster".....and the embarrassment of being around guys with "more manly" names for boats like "Sea Biceps" & "Testosterone Torpedo" (guys are weird). Then there's his son, who makes poor Dave feel old with the former's earring & penchant for cutting-edge music such as the song "Detachable [...]" (this is a real song, by the way...or as Dave would say, "I'm not making this up". My sister used to hear all the time on the radio back in the 90's). So, if you want a blast, get this book. Oh.......and remember to visit the "Porcelain Throne", first.

A collection of amusing anecdotes from the American writer, humorist and columnist Dave Barry. He finds all sorts of weird, crazy, stupid and funny stuff that people do, say or come up with all across the United States of America, and puts them into print.

Dave doesn't mind a drop of the droll, Dave doesn't.

I have read nearly all of Dave's books, and it never ceases to amaze me that he can be hilarious on each and every occasion. He doesn't duplicate any annecdotes, he simply uses his comic genius to make up new ones.. you will never be bored with Dave's ability to make you rush to the toilet to save wetting the floor, or laughing so hard you feel sick, and the back of your head hurts. This book is my favourite. Every story is funny, clever, and even sometimes sentimental. Please buy this one, you won't regret it. He's on top form.

Sorry, my husband and I listened to this for quite a bit and did not find it funny at all and didn't even want to continue listening to it, it just seemed long and boring--I guess we have a different sense of humor than most of the other reviewers.

In addition to following up 1992's "Dave Barry Talks Back" with a collection of his weekly humor columns from the Miami Herald through 1994, this book also includes several longer pieces Dave Barry wrote for other publications, including one about the "natural" birth of his son, an expose of a Western Florida UFO hoax, and a couple of travelogues (of a sort) about a trip to China on the eve of Britain's withdrawal from Hong Kong and a boating trip to Bimini Bay. Also included is a rather serious (for Barry) column about his son being hit by a car while riding his bike, which is actually quite touching.

But of course, the staple of any Dave Barry book is the zany humor, and it is plentiful here, including among many other classic columns the infamous "Bad Song Contest." If you are a Dave Barry fan, you will enjoy this book, and if you haven't discovered him yet, this would be a fine place to start.

This was a gift - and he loved it. Very funny. All golfers should have such a sense of humor!

This "book" is inane. If there were negative stars I would give it a negative 5. How this got published I have no idea, except in someone's garage. The spiral binding was weird, but weirder was the fact that most of the pages contain no more than a dozen words on them and the pages are only printed on one side. This is a flip chart of not that funny comedy for a bad stand up act. Anyone who has golfed for any length of time has heard most if not all of these jokes on the links. Ball dropping trousers - how original. I'm not sure who all these people are who have submitted rave reviews as "letters to the publisher" but I suspect they are the editor and the authors extended family puffing up the ranking. Certainly no modestly intelligent reader could have enjoyed this book. It's just no possible. I doubt you will find this book in a bookstore because no one who sees it would buy it - only suckers online. I would try and sell this at a garage sale but in good faith I could't let someone buy it, and I doubt anyone would anyway having leafed through it. The fact this sells for "Used and New" for 1 cent says it all, except someone should give you the penny as a gift for taking it off them.

Hands down, the best golf humor book of the year. Illustrated, dirt cheap, filled with furtive techniques for boosting your own golf game while undermining your opponent's, funny. Get Dad a copy. While supplies last.

This is totally original. The chapter headings alone brought tears to my eyes. I have also used this book for golf outings, placing it in the "goodie bag." Perfect.

Publisher received this note!


"Your books for our company Outing were a complete smash hit!!
The winners are talking about them, weeks after our June 15 event!"

Todd William

The only thing missing was the fact the The Dude claimed to be a roadie for Metallica on the Speed of Sound Tour and the band actually didn't do an album tour for the album.

Enjoy a few caucasians, put on your favorite robe, jelly shoes and your favorite bowling album after watching the movie a couple dozen times and any true fan will enjoy the book as much as the movie.

Duder Out

Is this your homework, Larry? Is this your homework, Larry?

Full of hilarious stories about how the Coen Brothers came up with the idea for the movie. The book is not something I would recommend for anyone who's not already a huge fan of the movie. Watch the movie about 15 times, then buy this book.

I've heard him go on and on about The Big Lebowski, and after watching it with him (and hearing him quote every line in the entire movie!!!) I must admit I loved it. I bought this book as an impromptu gift, and we've laughed along with it for many hours. The 'Achiever Speak' section is hilarious, and the book really is the perfect accompaniment to the film.
A must have for the hard-core Lebowski fan!

all I have to say is, they track down the origin of the whole film. Little Larry's homework.

I was SO looking forward to this book when I ordered it. However, it's more of a novelty book with lots of filler (quizzes etc.). Some of the interviews are interesting. If you're a Big Lebowski fan, and you can find this book used, buy it! However, do NOT pay full price.

Excellent! I start law school in about a month, and have read several law school prep books. Most of them made me want to run away from law school when they weren't boring me to death. The Law School Trip is just the opposite. I couldn't put it down. Every time you turn the page you learn something new, and I literally found myself laughing out loud at least once every chapter. Read it!!!

A must read for all law students.

From the perspective of someone who has just decided to start law school and has been reading some pretty dry law school stuff, this book was great ... very refreshing! McClurg obviously loves his chosen career, but is able to see the humor and irony in legal education and the field of law.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to others who are trying to learn what they're facing when starting law school.

a person does not have any humor tried hard to be humorous.
terrible book, and insane price, double spaced text, only 200 pages and charge for 23 dollars, a bad book, by all means.

Of all the books that I gave my mom to read, this is the only one that caused her to call me and tell me how hard she laughed.

This is one of the funniest books I have ever bought. If you happen to be familiar with The Onion's online news site, you will absolutely love this book. It is filled to the brim with some of the funniest headlines and stories I have ever seen. Such as "Nation's Dog Owners Demand To Know Who's A Good Boy" and "Girlfriend Changes Man Into Someone She's Not Interested In." And even though you know the headlines and stories are fake, it manages to pull you into it's own reality. If you are looking for something to read that will leave you bawling with laughter get this book. You WILL NOT be sorry.

Strange to start a reprint series with number 13. Maybe they'll go back and fill in early year's of the newspaper's run. As it is, you have classic stories about the metric system taking off in the inner city (think 9mm). Rude, flippant stuff and very funny.

A great book. Even the little "news" tidbits they usually have on the front page of their site, in the sidebars that are not archived, are all there.

A slight gripe: most of the articles are spread over two - and sometimes three - pages. These pages are often not adjacent (e.g. article from p.48 is continued on p.50), so you often have to skip all over the place while other articles distract you.

Another gripe is that this is the only complete volume :). We need more!

My friend bought this book last year and we became obsessed. We still quote from it on a daily basis. "You hurt me just now when you hit me with that shovel" and "I bet I wouldn't be laughing so hard if it was me in that fire" top our list, as well as "Your honking has shown me the error of my ways." Our amusement never fades and it is as funny the millionth time as it was the first. Even real newspapers remind us of the Onion, with headlines like "Pretty China Tea Set Just a Fake." The Onion really does hit the nail on the head. Some articles are slightly disturbing, but in a funny, if offensive, way. There are some incredibly blasphemous articles, but if you can take a joke you will be fine.+++

If you love satire, you'll love this book. It is completely sick and wrong, and that is why I love it. I have laughed extremely hard while reading it in the morning over breakfast. It brings that crazy year in a better light.

This is a very entertaining novel on the fake Steve Jobs. It's easy to see Jobso in my mind dong and reacting to each situation in the book. If you like the "Fake Steve Jobs" blog, get the book.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I do wonder how the CEO of a company like Apple can write a book like this and get away with it tho.... Sorry what? Not the real Steve Jobs?! Oh. Well if is all just made up, I guess it's alright.. Would have been better if it were true though. Yeah, so it's OK. Bummed.

FSJ(Danuel Lyons) does an excellent job of mixing the real and the farsical to create a hillarious look at Silicon valley and the geeks folks who work and live there. While the over all effect is enjoyable, the book tends to drag toward the end as he wraps up the story lines. This isn't the funniest book i have ever read but well worth the time.

This book was just too funny! I loved it! And I usually don't read books of this genre, but being a huge Apple fan, I couldn't turn it down. It was a much needed break from my typical genre of Mysteries and Suspense. I highly recommend this book!

For starters, this book has some packaging problems. You'd never know from the wrapper that it was meant to be a novel, rather than (as you might expect, based on the blog) a collection of short essay-like zingers about the tech industry. And while the jacket designer picked the right font (Myriad) the book as a whole suggests not The Steve's aesthetic perfectionism but a cynical make-it-shiny-it'll-sell approach. For goodness' sake, the glue used in this book's binding *smells* terrible. Neither Fake nor Real Steve should have permitted that kind of sloppiness to be attached to his name.

Moving on to substance: this book doesn't have much. The plot, such as it is, is driven by El Jobso's "persecution" by the SEC for options backdating, which causes him to think about dropping out of the industry. This topic is less than gripping, even for Apple cultists. It's dressed up with some enjoyable boardroom backstabbing and we see Steve fire and betray numerous colleagues in amusingly derisory fashion. But the long-form plot you might want from a novel is mostly missing, as the book is written in episodic little nuggets whose connections are sometimes unmotivated. And the Fake Steve character doesn't really develop, beyond the shallowest of eventual revelations (he doesn't really believe he invented the iPod; he worries but then eventually just accepts that he's sociopathically selfish). Meanwhile the novel's other characters are an awkward mix of real names (Jobs loves to get stoned with Larry Ellison, and Hillary Clinton turns out to be kind of mean, ha ha) with fictional and/or fictionalized ones (most of the other Apple staff we meet, the designers and engineers and board members, are composites). You get the feeling some real publishing lawyer told Fake Steve to tone it down at risk of a libel suit, and as a result we're left with a roman a clef whose key doesn't unlock much of interest. Even people who attend WWDC and have read Sculley's autobiography (why would you do that to yourself?) will sometimes be left wondering whether the book is retelling real Apple-history incidents or not.

The zingers you've enjoyed from the blog are here, though less consistently hilarious than you might expect. Sadly, the blog's writing style did not adapt well into the sustained voice you'd expect from a real novel. All the sentences here sound alike: there's little variety of pace or rhythm, and as a result the Jobsian insult-humor punch lines that were the blog's meat and potatoes (ha, vegan joke) instead too often end up as predictable clunkers. The blog is successful partly because it's so topical, with each entry delivering a single point; the book feels meandering and unfocused by comparison.

But you'll still LOL once in a while. There are episodes and moments here as cleverly imagined as anything in the blog, from Jobs prank-calling Sculley to his negotiations with the music industry to his quickly quenched qualms of conscience after visiting a Chinese iPod factory. (Some of this is transcribed verbatim from the blog, in fact, but it's still funny.) It's nice, and sometimes funny, to see the Fake Steve character get a little more room to breathe without having to respond directly to the day's news; just a pity he doesn't have much else to respond to in this awkwardly plotted fake novel.