Category Archives: Comedy

The Last Testament by David Javerbaum

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Read: 18 March, 2013

This is an extended, 364-page joke in which God has been convinced by his publisher to write a new testament, his first since the Quran, in which he finally answers all those questions people have been asking about Him and His work. 

Despite really being a single joke wrought out into a full length novel, The Last Testament did mostly hold my interest. It was very funny, funny enough to have me laughing out loud in several places, even if many of the jokes have been done before (“Actually, it really was Adam and Steve…”).

The book is written in a King James-ish style, full of thees and thous and -ests, and it’s broken up into chapters and verses. This works for the larger joke and, in several places, really added to the humour of what was being said, but it made for difficult and tiresome reading. It ended up taking me a long time to get through the book because I could only read in short bursts or I’d just get bored with the writing style.

I’m probably the worst person to judge, but I found the jokes to be more or less unheretical. I mean, obviously, he’s poking fun at the Trinity and all that, but at no point did I get the sense that he was deliberately trying to offend anyone. If anything, the jokes were mostly in the same vein that I heard in Church and Meeting growing up.

Since I’m working on reading through his first Testament, so I really enjoyed the first part of the book where Javerbaum gives a “behind the scenes tell all.” While the rest of the book can be read and appreciated by anyone with a reasonably good pop culture knowledge, the first part is definitely much (MUCH!) funnier with a good overall knowledge of the Old Testament.

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Discworld #7: Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

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Read: 26 April, 2012

I felt that it was about time for me to return to Discworld!

In Pyramids, we follow Teppic – the heir of Djelibeybi – as he goes to Ankh-Morpork to study with the assassin’s guild. He’s called home just after passing his final exam because his father has died and it’s now his turn to be king.

Like the rest of the Discworld series, Pyramids is laugh-out-loud-and-then-realize-you’re-on-the-bus-and-die-a-little-inside-with-shame funny. The plot is a little flimsy, but that’s not what I’m coming to Pratchett for anyway. I did also find that Pyramids didn’t have any characters that really stood out. Dios and Ptraci (Tracey?) both had potential, but neither was really sufficiently explored. And, like most Discworld novels, the climactic end is written too visually and doesn’t come across very well – I often find myself skipping through the last 10-20 pages of Pratchett’s novels.

And, of course, I love how dense Discworld novels are with thinking food. Pratchett is a master at bringing up complex issues and ideas in a very simple (and funny!) way.

I don’t think that this would make a good started novel for someone new to the Discworld universe, but it’s an excellent addition for old fans!

There’s a whole lot more Discworld novels that I haven’t read yet. Help me afford to expand my collection by buying Pyramids (Discworld Book 7) from Amazon! Continue reading →

Bridget Jones’ Diary 2: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

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Read: 2005

I am often typecast by friends and family as “the one who likes books.” To non-readers, a book is a book is a book, so I often end up getting some really weird books that I would never pick up for myself. This is how I ended up in possession of The Edge of Reason, Helen Fielding’s second Bridget Jones novel.

In this novel, Bridget stumbles through her day-to-day life, surviving one ridiculous mishap after another, until she is finally reunited with her love.

The writing is designed to imitate a form of shorthand that might be used to keep a diary. It reminded be somewhat of Flowers for Algernon in the sense that the form was an important part of the content (something that we (should) see often in poetry, but that is quite a bit rarer in novels). It was interesting and it gave the story quite a bit of verisimilitude. The short sentences kept me reading at a faster pace than I do normally, which was rather interesting. And even though I read this about four years ago, I still use the “v.” (or “vee,” if I’m speaking) as a shorthand for “very.”

Bridget Jones herself is a hilariously inept character, bouncing from one situation to another with little agency of her own. I have a soft spot for such characters, so long as they aren’t annoying about it, so I rather enjoyed her as well. The situations themselves were so ridiculous (particularly the one involving a naked boy and a bunny – yes, really) that they had me laughing quite a bit as I read through.

This is the ice-cream of the reading world – it’s enjoyable, not particularly nutritious, but it won’t rot your brain out either (provided it’s consumed only sparingly and interspersed with meatier fare).

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Discworld #12: Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

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Read: 26 April, 2009

A beautiful young servant girl is destined to marry a handsome prince, thanks to her fairy godmother. The ball has been arranged, the gown made, and everything prepared so that Ella can meet her prince charming and live happily ever after.

But there’s a catch. Three witches have come to put a stop to this fairy tale and make sure that Ella never marries the prince. Ella couldn’t be happier!

Terry Pratchett’s twelfth Discworld novel returns to Bad Ass and to the adventures of Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat.

There isn’t much to be said about this novel that can’t be said for pretty much any of the other Discworld books. As usually, Pratchett his hilariously funny. I love Granny and Nanny and how they play off each other. The inversion of the classic fairy tale is quite clever as well.

But this isn’t just about fairy tales. A large portion of the novel could better be called a mock-travel narrative, which was very interesting.

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Discworld #13: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

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Read: 23 February, 2009

Things just can’t seem to go right for Brutha, Novice to the Great God Om. First a tortoise starts talking to him, then the head of the Inquisition notices that he exists, and that’s just the start! Terry Pratchett delivers yet another wacky, zany, hilariously funny, and delightfully philosophical episode in the Discworld Series.

POSITIVE: Funny. Really funny. Laugh out loud while in public and make others think you’re adled funny. In Small Gods, Pratchett’s focus is on religion – monotheistic religion in particular. He handles his topic with great care, so that it is irreverent and funny, and yet somehow manages never to come off as insulting. The morals and philosophies of the story are also a treat and the ending, in particular, is absolutely perfect in every way.

NEGATIVES: None. Pratchett frequently falls a little short on his plots and endings, but this book is a shining exception. I don’t get to say this often, but I think that this novel might just be perfect in every way.

Overall, this is a fabulous book and a joy to read from start to finish. I think that Atheists and scientists would most enjoy this read. Fundamentalists and religious conservatives may see themselves too accurately reflected and dislike the book as a result. Even so, I think that a good sense of humour will make this book an enjoyable read regardless of your religious beliefs.

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

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Read: 17 June, 2008

The edition I have has The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, and So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish all bundled up into one book, so I just read that straight through and I’ll be reviewing all four together.

Firstly, I loved Hitchhiker’s. It was by far the best of the four. It was the most solid in the sense that I could just relax and go with the story without ever having to put the book down and think “okay, now how does that make sense?” I know it seems strange when reading Douglas Adams, but Hitchhiker’s had good internal logic or verisimilitude, something the other three novels didn’t quite achieve to the same degree. I also found this first novel to be the most densely packed with humour.

I found The Restaurant at the End of the Universe to be a little dull, honestly. There were good moments, but the whole bit that followed Zaphod as the main character just didn’t work for me. I love Zaphod, he’s a great character, but most of his appeal comes from how he appears to others. Taken alone, he lost much of his individuality because we saw him having to do non-Zaphody things out of necessity. This was made all the worse because I had an image of who Zaphod was that the real Zaphod, with the story seen from his perspective, couldn’t live up to. I found him dull and tiresome.

Life, the Universe and Everything and So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish were better, but didn’t have that “embarass myself by laughing out loud in public” quality that Hitchhiker’s had. Taken separately from the first novel, I liked them quite a bit (loved the ending, by the way). I just didn’t feel that they measured up to the first novel.

I think that most of what put me off the three novels after Hitchhiker’s is that they spent a lot of their time trying to explain or expand upon the jokes made in the first novel. These were jokes that had worked beautifully on their own. It felt like, when at a party, you tell a joke and some guy comes along while everyone else is laughing and tries to explain the punchline. He might do it in a funny way, but it’s still a little annoying. Don’t get me wrong, I did like all four novels. My complaints are more about saying how wonderful Hitchhiker’s was, rather than saying that the other three weren’t.

Arthur Dent was by far my favourite character. He was just fabulous. I found Trillian well handled – she’s not a major part of the story and she isn’t described in any great detail, but what is said aboput her hints at a character with a lot of depth. Zaphod was great, but, as I said earlier, works best when seen through others as an extravagant character rather than as an actual human with his own mundane life. I felt that Ford Prefect was rather unmemorable. All the details the narrator tells us about him were interesting and funny, I just didn’t find that he jumped off the pages when he spoke or acted in the same way that the other characters did. And why does everyone call him Ford when that’s just the name he used while on earth? That bugged be a bit! Marvin was good. He was funny and, thankfully, wasn’t around enough to get annoying.

All in all, a good read that I would highly recommend.

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How To Tell Your Friends From The Apes by Will Cuppy

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Read: 2 February, 2008

A series of two page profiles for a number of animals (including a section devoted to other humanoids). Cuppy displays a great deal of research and uses it well to make his profiles quite funny. The style of comedy is very subtle, making it easy to miss if the reference isn’t known.

I wasn’t wildly impressed with this book. I did enjoy it and it truly is very funny, but it left me feeling a bit empty; it’s like a meal that just isn’t as filling as expected. Finishing, I couldn’t help but to feel that I could have much better spent my time with a different selection. That being said, however, it truly is quite funny and I certainly wouldn’t say that it’s a bad book.

Just to give a sense of what to expect, here is a passage:
“When standing beside a mimosa the Giraffe is indistinguishable from the tree except that he has four legs and a head and a tail. Some hunters will stalk a mimosa tree for days without getting results.”

Ultimately, I found that the introduction by P.G. Wodehouse was the best part of the whole book (not only because Wodehouse is awesome, but also because all the best passages from the book to follow are quoted there).

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Lamb by Christopher Moore

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Thank you, Zeba, for the recommendation.

Read: 11 January, 2008

The story is written from the perspective of Biff, Jesus’s best friend. In the modern day, an angel raises Biff from the dead so that he can write a new gospel. It follows Jesus from the time Biff met him as a child up until their deaths. It shows us Jesus’s early training as a stonemason, his travels into the East, and his eventual ministry.

Lamb is an absolutely hilarious comedy about Jesus that, surprisingly, manages to remain almost completely inoffensive. I loved reading it. It was very funny with a writing style similar to Carl Hiaasen’s, but lacked Hiaasen’s flaws (like the awfully disappointing endings). It was clever where it needed to be, sensitive where it needed to be, and funny where it needed to be. The characterizations of Jesus, Biff, and Mary Magdalene were stunningly constructed.

There were two portions that I felt a little let down by. The first is when Biff and Jesus get to Calcutta and see a ritual dedicated to the goddess Kali. The scene was important to the story, but it felt dry. It was too descriptive, like an anthropological study. I do understand that it’s supposed to be horrifying, so the humour of the rest of the story would have been out of place. But it needed something different. Reading the Afterward, Moore mentions that he had learned about the ritual from Joseph Campbell, which goes a way to explain the tone of the passage. Unable to use his normal humour, Moor had resorted to Campbell’s more academic writing style.

I was also a little disappointed that the story skipped over much of Jesus’ ministry. The reason given in the book is that the real gospels already tell that story, but I would have liked to have heard Biff’s perspective. I understand that it would have been more difficult to write about that portion without offending people and without getting preachy, but the pacing just didn’t match up with the rest of the story. It felt like the last few chapters ended the book with a bit of a “plegh.”

These two complaints are very minor, though. The book was awesome and I highly recommend it for pretty much anyone. Having studied the New Testament a bit, I found a lot of references to theories about Jesus and a lot of jokes that asked for a certain familiarity with the Bible to get and my previous knowledge enriched my reading. But friends who had no previous interest or understanding found no difficulty in following the story. I also think that reasonable Christians won’t find it at odds with their faith. There’s something for everyone.

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Discworld #8: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

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Read: June 2007

Constable Carrot, Captain Vimes, and the rest of the Nightwatch must save Ankh-Morpork from a “noble dragon” that’s taken over the city.

Another great book from the Discworld series. I absolutely loved Captain Vimes. He’s just such a great character and would work perfectly well in a story of his own sans the comedy. The humour is, as usual with Pratchett, laugh-out-loud hilarious.

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The Warden by Anthony Trollope

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Read: 2006

Hiram’s Hospital was a small alms house that functioned without much public notice under the guidance of the warden, Mr. Harding. When the young reformer, John Bold, notices the disparity between the lifestyles of those in the care of the hospital and the warden, he appeals to England’s presses to correct the issue, despite being a friend of Mr. Harding’s and a suitor to his daughter. When the case comes under the notice of some popular journals and authors (including a Mr. Popular Sentiment – a hilarious caricature of Charles Dickens), Harding falls under very public attack.

The story is well-written and interesting. Though the beginning is rather heavy with facts and figures (the first ten or so pages devoted to the total earnings and holdings and allocations of the hospital), the story quickly picks up and, for me at least, was functionally glued to my hands. The drama was well handled and the characters, particularly Harding and Bold, had enough depth for me to feel sorry for both. One of my favourite aspects of the book is that it took both sides of the issue and dealt with both sympathetically enough that I would have been saddened by any possible outcome.

The moments of humour were also well handled, particularly those passages that poked fun of Dickens.

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