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Summary: This is the greatest collection of humor ever assembled!
Review: The Onion is satire at its very best - I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who has been looking for a refreshing cocktail of intelligent humor mixed with pop cultural references.This book contains the most savagely keen and witty commentaries on American culture I have EVER read. Not only has this book consistently made me laugh so hard that tears came rolling from my eyes - but it also made me rethink some of my long held perspectives on U.S. history and world events. Every concise, perceptive, hilarious article (and there are hundreds) is a masterpiece! Everyone with a sharp wit and sense of humor should read this book! I am giving it to all my friends (mostly because I want them to stop borrowing my copy! ). Read it - I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
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Summary: Funnier and Smarter than almost anything out there.
Review: When i first got this book, i and the friend with whom i was reading it were trapped in violent paroxysms of laughter for about an hour before we forced ourselves, teary-eyed, to put it down, only to pick it up again when our sides stopped hurting a little. Honestly, this is about the funniest book you'll ever read. The writing is sharp (any of the Onion's staff could probably make it as "legitimate" reporters, they've nailed the style of newspaper writing so well) and the quality level is consistent all the way through - impressive considering how many stories there are (several per page). Aside from being painfully funny, it's also very smart. The writers know their history, and know it well enough to skewer the last century's hypocrites, morons, and all-out villains, as well as its heroes. Which brings up an important point. Nothing's off-limits to these guys, and they ridicule with equal enthusiasm history's greatest and most awful moments (Great Depression, Holocaust, JFK assassination, it's in there). Fair warning: if you don't think history's sacred cows should be made into hamburger, you will probably be offended - while you're laughing.
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Summary: Must have for anyone who finds humor in history
Review: This is the stuff you didn't learn in the classroom. Several hundred pages of satire later, you gain a greater appriciation for the American dream. I feel that this work is a way for people to look back and say, "God, I can't believe that..." While it was of course written for humor, The Onion takes a surprising look at the Century, touching base on everything from the Industrial revolution, the dust bowl, Spanish Influenza, Man on the Moon, to the Clinton scandal of the late 1990's. THis makes Our Dumb Century a must read for any humorous history buff!
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Summary: Who said there's nothing funny about Wisconsin?
Review: Clever, sarcastic and witty, this is a tremendously funny bathroom/coffee table book. Every week, I look forward to the satire newpaper, and this collection of the century's headlining satirical news events hits all the right marks. Always irreverent, sometimes offensive, never unfunny, the writers for The Onion have got to be the funniest people in America. I literally laughed till I couldn't breathe while reading the likes of "Pentagon Develops A-Bomb-Resistant Desk", "Holy (expletive). Man Walks on (expletive) Moon", "CNN Deploys Troops in Iraq", and "Kenneth Starr Taunts Clinton With 'Sittin in a Tree' Song". This is well worth the money spent. You'll laugh, till you think you can't laugh any more, and then ...
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Summary: Cutting, Wickedly Funny Satire
Review: The Onion, with its weekly release of mock news-articles satirizing and lampooning the current status quo, is one of the most enjoyable humorous newspapers that currently exists. IT employs almost all types of humor, from subtletly to slapstick, from highbrow to lowbrow. However, nothing they write has even come close to the hilarity that Our Dumb Century brings to the reader. The book analyses the 20th Century from a not-quite-so objective standpoint, lampooning popular culture, spawning ludicrous conspiracy theories, ("Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons)and reveling in the stupidity of our country and the world in the 20th Century. Every page brings something funny and satirical, from "World's Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg - 1912" to "President Confronts Depression with 'Big Deal' Plan: 'Big deal, I'm Rich!' Roosevelt Says - 1933" to "Reagan May Have been Elected, Doesn't Recall - 1981." Although I am a history buff, anyone with an elemantary backround in American and World History will be highly amused by this brilliant piece of humor, although I found that as I learned more the book became funnier and funnier. Please, whether you appreciate the lighter side of history or your team just lost and you need something to cheer you up- read Our Dumb Century.
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Summary: A tour de force of history
Review: "Our Dumb Century" is, simply put, the most entertaining book I've ever had the pleasure of reading. On every page, covering each year of the 20th century, The Onion's crack team of writers bring their devastating sense of irony to every important and not-so-important event that a history enthusiast could ever want to think of. No prominent figure, from Hitler to Stalin to Nixon, is spared as the Onion launches a full frontal assault on lies, hypocrisy, stereotypes, and various misdeeds with the irreverent wit that has made its website an internet mainstay for close to a decade and running. You might think one would have a hard time laughing aloud at news of wars, genocides, and other high crimes, but you just need to take a look at the below headlines to understand what I'm talking about: "The Machine: Will It Replace the China-Man?" "Stalin Announces Five-Year 'Everybody Dies' Plan." "Dastardly Japs Attack Colonially Occupied U.S. Non-State." "Stock Market Crashes; Debacle Linked to Jews, Negroes, Catholics, Anarachists, Foreigners, Women Voters." "'The Man' hurt by Black Panther Accusations." "Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons." "Mr. T Releases 'Pity List '86.'" And there's lots, lots more where that came from. Despite a few scattered moments of tastelessness, "Our Dumb Century" is chiefly one hilarious story after another, relentessly lampooning the foibles of human nature and the train wreck that American culture has become of late. I've reread some of these stories as many as ten times, and they never cease to be funny. Sometimes (most of the time, actually), life becomes so absurd that the best way to deal with it is just to laugh, and The Onion has always been extremely useful for just that purpose. "Our Dumb Century" manages to cast the light of irony on some truly dark times, which is an achievement that should not be discounted.
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Summary: Even the typeface is funny!
Review: A parody is a dangerous thing to maintain. Often you get caught in your own cleverness and lose steam (or lose your readers' interest). Our Dumb Century has gone beyond all that. Here is 20th century America skewered for all it is worth, leaving no shortcoming unnoticed, no historical event unmasked. This book is not simply a "goof" on history. The writers really know their stuff. I mean REALLY know it. Each entry is the "front page" of The Onion (gee, we never knew it was THIS venerable...) from the 1900 to 2000 (okay, it came out in 1999, but you can stretch things). Not only are issues of the day dealt with in a hysterical manner (1955: Whites Invent 'Rock and Roll' -- New Caucasian-Based Teen Craze Sweeps America; 1945: WAR OVER! 50 YEARS OF NUCLEAR PARANOIA BEGIN TODAY!), but the typeface, the layouts of the pages, and the quality of the photos match the period. Find an old newspaper. Hold it up to the "equivalent year" in The Onion. It is a match. Conservatives are blasted. Liberals are skewered. Apoliticals are tarred and feathered. Everyone gets their due in this volume. Worse yet, you might even get an education reading this book. If nothing else you'll probably have to go look something up to just understand some of the jokes. I know I did...
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Summary: Well worth the read
Review: From reading some of the poor reviews of this book, I think that some people just fail to realize the writer's intentions. Of course it's not historically accurate, that's the point. We make fun of Bill Clinton by exaggerating the extent of his adulterous deeds. Sure he didn't have sex with every intern in the whitehouse, but that doesn't mean we don't find the concept funny. Some may think that I am being sophmoric in my tastes, but remember that one of the great satyrical writers in history, Jonathan Swift, suggested that babies should be eaten in order to reduce the overpopulation and famine in Ireland. Did he really want to eat children? I seriously doubt it, but the idea is so shocking that it gets your attention and free of the oppression of the potato famine, we can now see the humor in the writing. The articles are far from racist, sexist or of any other prejudice. They simply present an offensive front in order to expose the idea as rediculous. Not a single ethnic, social or religious group is spared and I doubt that the writers of The Onion could have been so biased. If you have a fair knowledge of history and can appreciate exaggeration as a comic device, then this book will provide hours of laughter.
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Summary: Awesome, Funny, Hilarious!
Review: This is a great coffee table book. The writers for The Onion have outdone themselves with this one - turning every major event (and some minor ones) in the 20th century into a hilarious story, pun or anecdote. From man walking on the moon, to funny takes on World War II and the Clinton impeachment, "Our Dumb Century" has it all. Onion aficionados and people new to this franchise's satiric wit will not be disappointed. Buy it and laugh again and again.
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Summary: "Giant poster of Mao seizes power in China"
Review: This may sound, slightly strange to you, yet in relation to a picture of his followers holding his picture on a poster, It begins to make sense. The Onion takes pop culture, politics, and history, then slaps it in the face with a dueling glove.
With a hilariously irreverent view twoards the 20th century, mixed with suprisingly appropriatly placed bad language ("Holy ___, Tranquility. You are walking on the ____ moon."), this book is a keeper.
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