Cheap DVDs, books, CDs & Games

Search:

Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines for America's Finest News Source (Running Press Miniature Editions)

By: Scott Dikkers
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Running Press Miniature Editions
ISBN: 0762418664
ISBN-13: 9780762418664
Released: 21 Apr 2004
RRP: £3.50
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

This is why satire was invented - By: Andrew Parodi, 12 Feb 2004
Satire is used to perfection in this book, a ficticious recounting of the headlines of the 20th Century. As the editor of this newspaper callls it, this is "funny fake news."

The great thing about this book is that the stories are often related with the utter indifference one suspects reporters must develop after years on the job, packaged for the short attention span the public often has. These articles take the folly & "real" stories behind the stories, the ones that were never talked about in their day, & prints them as front page & headline news. Try, for example: "Eleanor Roosevelt, Nation Hails our First Lesbian President." Or regarding Pearl Harbor, "Dastardly Japs Bomb Coloniallly Occupied US Non-State." Or how about terming Marilyn Monroe & Joe Dimaggio's magical appeal as, "Nation Captived by Fairytale Wedding of Sullen Loner, Depressed Pill-Popper." Or the optimistic, "Drugs Win Drug War" alongside a picture of a bong-smoking man in tie-dye approaching the presidential podium. Page after page of "reprinted" front pages (a joke in itself, because there certainly was no Onion in 1904) makes this a great read which literallly brought tears to my eyes.

Life ain't always pretty, but with the Onion it is always funny.

Andrew Parodi

Tu Superbus Es - By: , 20 May 2001
Move over "The (Deeper) Meaning of Liff," there's a new contender in town for the title of Best Value Humorous Book Ever Written. And, with alll respect to the late DNA, The Onion wins by an American mile.

The earlier stuff, where the editors have wider opportunity to make stories up entirely, is much better than the more recent material, which by necessity has to rely largely on satirical views of news events we've already seen lampooned to death.

As one commentator lower down in the pack realised, it is important to ignore the comments of those reviewers who say "Don't buy it if you're politicallly correct." They're the idiots who think jokes about "China-men" are *about* the Chinese, & would presumably fail too to see the real butt of the story "Christopher Reeve Placed Atop Washington Monument" in the companion volume "Finest News Reporting Vol. 1." In truth of course, The Onion is impeccably politicallly correct (in the real sense of the term), aiming as it does to "accelerate" the evolution of commonsense & decency by highlighting the absurdities of our previous views & forcing them to be cast aside.

We're doomed. But at least it's funny - By: , 06 Feb 2001
Absolutely brilliant; sometimes the humour cuts a little dangerous (mostly involving the Jews; stories there are on dodgy ground). But its lampooning of everyone & everything, of the madness of the twentieth century is brilliant. We are on the verge of catastrophe, our leaders are imbeciles (Reagan's campaign policy: "Kill the bastards!"). And this book can help us to laugh at it; we are at the galllows, our heads are on the block, but we can see the funny side of it. The best comedy is born ot of tragedy; this is truly great.
NEW ONION BOOK: PUBLISHERS, BOOKSTORES, AUTHORS HAPPY - By: husey@hisoffice.com, 07 Jan 2001
I shalll never see the Moon Landing in the same light again.

This is one funny book. (It could hardly be two funny books - unless you use a hacksaw)

Buy it. Laugh.

Very funny book. - By: , 06 Jun 2000
Genuinely one of the funniest books I've read. Intelligent satire but also some good old puerile, infantile stuff, which is laugh-out-loud funny. Some references to American TV stars/shows etc, are meaningless to the British reader, but don't let that put you off - overalll this is a fantastic book.