The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes (Vintage)

In case you missed the fact that the spine is on the right-hand side -- and that there's a dressed chicken smoking on the cover -- this is a ridiculous book of the nerdiest proportions. (Don't worry, it still reads from left to right; it just looks like the cover's on wrong.) Admittedly, this is a book for the well-read, or at least the intrigued-enough-to-catch-up-on-that-one-book-so-they-can-get-the-reference. Dozens of short writings pay homage -- and wave dollar bills -- at the classics. My personal favorites include "IKEA Product or Lord of the Rings character?", "I See No Other Option than to Resign as Emily Dickenson's Rap-Battle Coach," "Holden Caulfield Gives the Commencement Speech to His High School," and, last but should have been first, "Lady Macbeth on Ambien." Light read, serious giggle.

Let's start from the front. There's a dead chicken smoking a cigarette...but that's the back cover. The book is printed with the back cover on front. There is a section where Gregor Samsa is denied disability because he's now a cockroach. I give you an example here: TWIST ENDINGS. BY GEOFF HAGGERTY - - - - It was a dream. He was a girl. She was a guy. He did it. He wasn't real. He was dead the whole time. She was dead the whole time. They were dead the whole time. It was aliens. It was robots. It was science fiction. God did it. If that's doesn't float your boat. don't buy this book.

Virtually all anthologies are uneven, and The Joke Book of Book Jokes is no exception. But while not every piece herein delivers the comic goods, the ratio is certainly good enough to warrant a favorable review. And the funny contributions are REALLY funny. I'd single out Christopher Monk's "Submission Guidelines for Our Refrigerator Door" as being particularly sublime. It's a wonderful mash-up of parental in-jokes and those oh-so familiar writer guidelines. (Please note, Mr. Monk is no longer accepting Robot Monkey-themed work for his refrigerator, be it drawings, stories, or whatever.) To give you an idea of the book's contents, what follows are two sample chapter endings from "Thrilling Chapter Endings You May Use in Your Next Novel" by Zhubin Parang. ***** 1.) [PROTAGONIST] grimly shook his head, knowing that his plan was not working, and also that the person reading this book has no idea that right now there is a Mad About You marathon on TV. NOTE: This is a long shot, but if it works, the reader will be totally freaked out. ***** 2.) "Does this mean we're breaking up?" [MALE PROTAGONIST] asked, struggling to keep his voice from breaking. "I think so," [FEMALE PROTAGONIST] whispered, as tears rolled down her cheek. "I just think we've grown apart... I'm so sorry." [MALE PROTAGONIST] slowly nodded, and his thoughts briefly flitted to the day they first met, that summer after freshman year, when the world seemed to BOO! NOTE: Ideally, this ending should be used in conjunction with some sort of timed firecracker device hidden in the book's binding. Talk to your publisher.

The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes by McSweeney's: When Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney's Book of Lists hit book shelves with the cover of a triumphant, ethereal, blue, rearing unicorn, readers curiously started reading and then found themselves bursting with laughter, buying the book, and entertaining friends with it. The editors of McSweeney's return with The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes; and if the title doesn't capture your interest, maybe the cover of a plucked headless chicken - with a smoking cigarette in one flabby wing, while smoke effuses from its cylindrical hole of a neck - will. With an introduction from John Hodgman about the cash cow industry of satire, McSweeney's aims its new book at the intellectual crowd as jokes and humor are procured at the expense of classic works and authors revered in collegiate halls. The first piece, The Recruitment of Harry Potter, is from the viewpoint of a quidditch coach looking to recruit Harry Potter to the team. It warns to stay away from talk about He Who Must Not Be Named and anything involving family. From this we go to George Samsa, currently dealing with his life as a cockroach, having his disability claim denied by Social Security for very specific reasons. McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes runs the gamut of literature, leaving no book unopened or unmocked. There are short pieces, such as Possible Titles For Future Sue Grafton Novels After She Runs Out of Letters, including: "/" Is for Slash and "Ctrl+X" Is for Cut; and there are longer pieces like Submission Guidelines For Our Refrigerator Door. Then there are plain weird and unusual pieces like Thirteen Writing Prompts, including 'Write a story that ends with the following sentence: Debra brushed the sand from her blouse, took a last, wistful look at the now putrefying horse, and stepped into the hot-air balloon,' and 'Your main character finds a box of scorched human hair. Whose is it? How did it get there?' Whether it's Jane Eyre Runs for President or Jean-Paul Sartre, 911 Operator, or Klingon Fairy Tales, readers will be laughing out loud and rolling on the floor - or if you prefer LOLing and ROFLing - for hours. And for all those people forced to read long and boring classics, or listen to their teachers verbally worshiping dead writers, McSweeney's Joke of Book Jokes is a restorative tonic, the book you've been waiting for that will make those hours and hours of late night reading of lengthy, overwritten prose worth it, because you'll get all the jokes! For more reviews, and writings, or to buy yourself a copy, please visit [...]

I truly love to laugh. In fact I relish in it. I also love to read. So when something I happen to be reading makes me literally laugh out loud, I am nearing Nirvana. The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes helped me approach that state from page one. It is a collection of shorts, ranging from letters to stories, from authors who take some of our most famous books and literary situations and twist them into things that are nothing short of hilarious. This particular joke book is unlike any other I have ever perused. It pokes fun at the very thing it is: a piece of writing. Starting right out of the gate with a snippet entitled "The Recruitment of Harry Potter" and staying strong with tales of Humbert Humbert's appearance on "To Catch a Predator," to official guidelines for a writer submitting works for a refrigerator door, this collection will have you chuckling to yourself in some places and flat out guffawing in others. You do need to be on top of your literary toes for some of the jokes. No genre is safe from teasing and unless you have read everything from Harry Potter to the Iliad, you may not get some of the humor. On the flip side, not getting a joke in the book is great motivation to research the background of the joke and find another book you can fall in love with. This book is flat out funny and well worth the read. Pick up a copy of McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes and put down whatever you are drinking...you don't want to snort it out of your nose when you laugh! Armchair Interviews agrees.