Our Dumb World by Inc. The Onion
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Book Reviews of Our Dumb World
Book Review: Gut buster
Summary: 5 Stars
Sure, not every line in the book is funny. But sometimes you are reading along and read something you just aren't expecting. So, expect to bust a gut at random times.Book Review: Da da da Dumb
Summary: 5 Stars
You'll laugh your Assyrian Botswana off. Have a magnifying glass handy, though, as the tiny print is hard to read.Book Review: Amusing Geographic Skewering Could Use a Greater Distribution of Poison-Penned Stereotyping
Summary: 4 Stars
If it wasn't for the title - granted a big "if" - you would swear this was one of those glossy DK Eyewitness Travel guides which stake their claim on elegant graphics that blend key facts, historical timelines, topographical maps and robust color photos. However, a flip to any page will expose the prevalent cutting humor - familiar to fans of the satirical faux-newspaper - that leaves the reader either offended or in stitches. I have to admit I am mostly in the latter camp since it soon becomes clear that no one remains completely unscathed is this parody of the paperback desk atlas, a literary species that has miraculously survived the Web since one can surmise that the globe in all its complexity is too enormous to present on one screen. There are definitely more hits than misses here, but the misses do swing wide.
Look at the section on Mexico, for example, which starts with the subheading, "Now Hiring 2.4 Million Busboys" and presents a photo comparison between the work done by ancient Mayans (The El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza) and that done by modern Mayans (a pile of dirty dishes shaped like a pyramid). In explaining the language, the editors assert "Mexicans speak Spanish as quickly as possible just to get it over with" and record that in 1953 that the U.S. decided to export San Diego back to Mexico. The Vatican City is described as "The Catholic Disneyland", while Brazil's iconic image of Christ the Redeemer has been photo-shopped into Christ the Avenger with automatic weapons extending from each hand. The Caribbean is lumped together as "The Seriously Who Cares Islands", and our cumulative indifference to Darfur makes the sarcastic description of Sudan rather apt - "All Better Thanks to You".
Not all their targeted zingers work well. Describing Uganda as "No Child Left Alive", the editors claim the country has the world's largest standing child army and that they are willing to be killed for their country if someone can help them tie their shoes. That's pretty harsh no matter how cynical one could get about the absurdist machinations in the third world. In contrast, some countries appear exempt from serious-minded skewering such as Australia which the editors describe as one giant nature cable TV show. The book could have been tightened up for such lapses to provide a more even hand in cultural stereotyping. Regardless, the editors made no country safe from the barrage of acerbic comments including ours. A good example is Florida, which is dubbed the "The Silent Holocaust". Some of the funnier comments show up upfront where one world map is subdivided into Bono Awareness, meaning each country is graded on how much U2 singer Bono cares about it within his personal agenda. This is funny stuff, although not consistently so and probably best absorbed in small doses. The cynicism can get overwhelming.
Book Review: Better for browsing than a straight read, but hilarious either way.
Summary: 4 Stars
A pretty awesome atlas compiled by The Onion staff, with pages dedicated (more or less) to every country on Earth. If you buy it, I recommend just browsing through it - if you read it all at once, as I did, it can get a little tiring and tedious in parts, especially as they attempt to find a way to get comedy out of yet another horrific situation in Africa. Honestly, they do a great job - the book is equal parts cynical mocking, satirical jabs, and horrific trip around the world, all done with the Onion's trademark dark humor. It's rare to find a book that makes me laugh this hard or has so many quotable lines - it's just better in small doses, I think. But it would make a superb counterpart to America: The Book and I Am America (And So Can You) in its taking on of the current world. Not for the easily offended, but for those who enjoy the Onion's typically warped stuff, highly recommended.Book Review: Brutal and intelligent global satire
Summary: 4 Stars
Merciless, funny and brutal, fans of the Onion will love this satirical atlas of the world. Rather than celebrate the richness of countries cultural legacies, or industrial and economic strengths, the Onion chooses to focus on what life is 'really' like -i.e. Arrogance in France, incest in the American South, mass murder in Africa, a whole host of obscure nations struggling to find any sort of identity. Rich in humour, with a mass of jokes on each page. This is a great addition to your humour collection.
The effort of keeping up such intensive satire is clearly wearing, and the atlas is stronger in territories the authors are familiar with (i.e. North America), than in some other parts of the world (Africa). But it certainly contains enough brutal satire to keep even the most cynical reader happy.