|
 Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition :: 0316018422
Description
| Product Description |
|
| Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of The Planet Earth, 73rd Edition features incorrect statistics on all of the Earth's 168, 182, or 196 independent nations. It also features maps, including a fold-out world map at actual size. Readers will learn about every country from Afghanistan, "Allah's Cat Box," to the Ukraine, "The Bridebasket of Europe."Today's news-parody consumer cannot possibly understand made-up current events without the context of fake world history and geography. That is why The Onion is publishing a world atlas: to help us.Our Dumb World is an invaluable tool for any reader interested in overthrowing a weakened government in East Asia, exploiting a developing nation in Africa, or for directions to tonight's party at Erica's. It is a reference guide to 250,000 of the world's most important places, such as North Korea's Trench of Victory, the Great Human Pyramid of Egypt, and Saudi Arabia's superhighway, the Mohammedobahn. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
Reviews
Customer feedback
|
|
Voting |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Author: Guest
Very high production values and a good overall style don't make up for the low quality of the humor and satire found in this book.
|
Author: Guest
The Onion has done it again! Our Dumb World is intelligent, biting and painfully funny! Quite possibly my favorite comedy book of all time. I highly, highly recommend it.
|
Author: Guest
As a big fan of the Onion, I eagerly anticipated the release of this book and admittedly had high expectations for it. Over the past couple of days I've spent about an hour or two looking through it (one doesn't "read" a book like this), and I've pretty much had enough of it. The quality of the material is just not very good when compared to the Onion's other books (that's to say the weekly, topical/"area man" material) and especially the brilliant "Our Dumb Century," which is the Onion's other "concept" book (which is really not that different; it just uses historical eras/events for material).
"Our Dumb World" can be easily compared to the Daily Show's "America: The Book"--especially since the Daily Show book has a whole chapter on the "rest of the world." It's almost like the Onion took the "International House of Horrors" chapter from that book and bloated it out into 200 "dense" pages of mediocre, painfully obvious jokes about every country in the world. Have you ever noticed how the word "dense" can have two meanings? So much of the book is this level of humor, based on these kinds of observations: southerners are stupid racists, the Irish are drunks, and "thank God I don't live in Africa." (I imagine that there must have been at least some discussion over how to address the subjects of genocide, poverty, and famine prevalent in so many regions of the world in a comedy book. Apparently those pitching for the photo-shopped "children feasting on the carcasses of the dead" images were more persuasive in these discussions.)
Ask yourself: What makes the Onion funny? What do its writers do well?
Then think about whether a 200+ page atlas parody could possibly be an effective vehicle for these strengths. I actually think that this book is about as good as it possibly can be based on the inherent weaknesses of the idea. So many of the pages are filler material and endless variations of the same jokes... and jokes that were already made much more elegantly, tastefully, and effectively in the Daily Show's "America: The Book."
I think that "Our Dumb World" may actually appeal more to casual readers (or those unfamiliar with the Onion), than to actual fans that expect a high standard of humor and who know how good its writers can be.
|
Author: Guest
This is probably the funniest thing I've read since "America: The Book" from the writers of "The Daily Show." Just as "America: The Book" parodied civics textbooks and framed its jokes within that parody, "Our Dumb World" takes on the National Geographic-type student-oriented atlas and makes it all its own. A must-own!
|
Author: Guest
This is easily the greatest thing I've read in a long time (probably the greatest thing since "America: The Book"). Two or three pages out of this book alone would be worth the FULL price tag let alone the discounted Amazon price. Christmas time is coming soon, and if you know people who like books (especially smartass ones with pictures; and I mean seriously, who doesn't) then this might be something you might buy in bulk for this holiday season. You also might want to send a change of underwear with each copy because it's literally that hilarious. No, seriously.
|
Send to Friend
Send to friend
|
|
