The Borowitz Report : The Big Book of Shockers

Rating:
Summary: Laughing: Better Than Crying
Review: A while ago I realized that watching the news on TV or reading it in the newspaper was a surefire route to depression. Thank God the Borowitz Report came along. Andy Borowitz's twisted take on the world of politics and pop culture is a lot easier to take than the "straight" news version for one very simple reason -- laughing is always better than crying. Ann Coulter, Bush, John Kerry, Madonna, they're all in here and they have never, ever been satirized in a funnier way. Equally hilarious is the blog by Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, who turns out to be a lot hipper than we probably thought. All in all, an A-plus effort -- looking forward to the sequel!

Rating:
Summary: Borowitz for President
Review: Forget Bush and Kerry -- Andy Borowitz should be the next president of the United States. He can't possibly do a worse job than those two clowns, and unlike them, he is a genuine clown who would make us laugh every day. At least that's what I've concluded after reading this deliciously funny new book. I started laughing when I read the story about the Taliban shutting down its operations "to focus on its website," kept laughing as Alan Greenspan announced that the number of Americans "pretending to work" surged in the month just past, and howled at everything Kim Jong-Il had to say in his extremely opinionated weblog. This book is a laugh-out-loud masterpiece. I am planning to give it to everyone on my Christmas list because -- maybe most amazing of all -- it's the kind of book Democrats and Republicans both will find hilarious. Andy Borowitz: comedian in chief!

Rating:
Summary: Laugh Out Loud On Every Page
Review: I had never heard of The Borowitz Report until a couple of days ago, when a girl in my dorm showed me this book. I opened it up to a random page and saw the headline "Bush May Lack Gene For Human Speech." I started giggling as I read the piece and by the end of it I was laughing hysterically. This happened again and again as I flipped through the book until I realized I was laughing out loud on every page. No book has ever made me done that before. (As for my TV viewing habits, I am a huge fan of The Daily Show and this book is right up there with it.)

The book is based on a daily e-newsletter called The Borowitz Report which I have now signed up to receive every day. If the guy can manage to write columns each day that are as funny as the ones in this book, I don't know how he does it. This book is at the very top of my list of recommendations. You won't be sorry you got it.

Rating:
Summary: Lock Up Your Copy!
Review: I just purchased this book and love it - that's the good news. The bad news is that my college-age son saw me laughing my head off while reading it in the kitchen. Now he's stolen the book from me and I can't seem to get it back. After years of disagreeing about what's funny or not (he thinks all the comedians I like are hopelessly lame) we have finally found one person we both think is truly hilarious - Andy Borowitz. This is the rarest of humor books - one that goes for old-fashioned belly-laughs but is at the same time completely up to date and cutting-edge. It also offers a unique history of the events of the past three years (the "war on terror" and Iraq in particular) that seems oddly truer than "serious" books on the same topics. (The story about the weapons inspectors asking Saddam if someone will be home in Iraq between the hours of 8 and 12 is priceless; so are the articles ridiculing Tom Ridge, a favorite Borowitz target.)

With the precious gift of comedy, Andy Borowitz has created a world that seems to make more sense than the world we see on CNN every day. I for one would rather live in his world. And so I would wholeheartedly recommend The Borowitz Report: The Big Book of Shockers, but if you have a family I would suggest getting more than one copy.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: I laughed at every page of Andy Borowitz's book. He is truly a comic genius! It's a refreshing light-hearted look at the sad state of politics in the world today. After reading the funny satirical articles, I could go to sleep with a smile on my face instead of a furrow in my brow. The articles in the book read like newspaper articles with hysterical twists and turns - you'll laugh out loud and want to share the book with friends and family.

Rating:
Summary: If you loved Team America...
Review: If you have seen Team America and loved it (I did) but wondered, where can I get more of evil Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, look no further: this is the book for you. Kim's evil face is smiling right there on the cover, and for a good reason: he "wrote" the introduction and an "exclusive" blog for this extremely funny book. The South Park guys have nothing on Andy Borowitz, who turns out to be an evil genius in his own right. I have never laughed so hard as I did at Kim's list of favorite records he would bring with him to as desert island if the world is destroyed (by him).

Above and beyond the Kim stuff, which is worth the price of this book alone are truly hilarious news stories about everything from Bush, Kerry, Saddam and David Blaine... this is a really highly recommended purchase.

Rating:
Summary: LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!!! The BEST at this art!!
Review: One of my favorite kinds of satire is the fake newspaper story -- one that uses the structure of REAL stories as a device to spark real roars of laughter due to the often brutal jokes that take on a special meaning in a once-serious context. I've actually dabbled in these myself, in my early years as a journalist, on my website's previous (now defunct) satire section and now on my existing wenblog.

NO ONE does this form of satire better than Andy Borowitz. PERIOD. I never met him. I never exchanged an email with him. But I'm going to buy all of his books (used if I can, to save a bit of $). Before I had my blog I'd email his stuff with a link; now I occasionally link them.

The Big Book of Shockers is Borowitz at his best (with perhaps one overdone device; see below). You wreck the book if you go into detail, but I can share you a few of my favorite pieces: Ann Coulter's spontaneous combustion; Bill Bennett losing his wife in a poker game...and so many more. Best headline (with a great accompanying satire): CHENEY'S BRIEF APPEARANCE, RETURN TO SECURE LOCATION MAY MEAN SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER and BUSH REBUFFED BY MODEL UN.

This book is a GREAT Christmas gift. Why? Borowitz, like the super topical satire group The Capital Steps, isn't doing one-sided partisan satire. He lampoons EVERYONE. And his professional comedy writing experience shines through in each gem of a satire because he's the very best of his genre: each satire has a beginning, middle and an end, and there are no wasted words. Just laughs. You can gift this book to anyone who follows the news or politics -- it doesn't matter if its a Bush supporter or a Kerry supporter (or a Nader supporter).

The only device that doesn't quite work is a running gag -- a perhaps due to the fact that I have a blog and read so many outrageous blogs that it didn't seem all that outrageous to me. You may react differently. This "blog" is also the only one that breaks the format of this book's pieces -- satires of news stories.

Prediction: if you read this, you'll order more of his books. And that's no joke.

Rating:
Summary: Satirical Weapons of Mass Destruction
Review: THE BOROWITZ REPORT is perfect for anyone looking for a good, hearty bellylaugh (as the other reviewers point out) but I think it's a lot more than that. After reading this book (and then buying four more copies for friends), I asked myself what separates Andy Borowitz's comedy from so many other purveyors of "satire" on the scene today. I think it's this -- Borowitz blows away his targets in a way that is never mean but always hilarious. He completely avoids the kind of partisan attacks that simply preach to the converted and instead reaches for the deeper truth. And he never tells us what we already know and have heard too many times. Somehow he manages to do this while making us scream with laughter. Amazing.

I can't single out one column in this book that is my favorite, but it might be this one: CHENEY'S BRIEF APPEARANCE, RETURN TO SECURE LOCATION MAY MEAN SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER. That is worth the entire $9.95 and then some.

Rating:
Summary: Go to Bed With Jon Stewart, Wake up With Andy Borowitz
Review: When people ask me how I get the news, this is what I tell them: I go to bed with Jon Stewart and I wake up with Andy Borowitz.

Borowitz's daily emails from BorowitzReport.com are unfailingly laugh-out-loud hilarious, but more than that, they provide me with my only link to sanity. And tremendous insight into the increasingly surreal world in which we live.

The minute this book came out I ordered it, and having read it five times already, I can assure you it does not disappoint. On every page is one of Borowitz's classic columns, out-Onioning the Onion, plus a trove of material I had never seen anywhere before. Perhaps best of all, in a world of partisan bickering, Andy Borowitz takes his shots at Democrats and Republicans alike, not to mention Ralph Nader, Bono and David Blaine.

A few years ago, before he got huge, Jon Stewart was the comedy world's best kept secret. Today, that man is Andy Borowitz, and with this breakout book he is destined to be recognized as one of the funniest men in America.