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Title: Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source by The Onion, Scott Dikkers, Mike Loew ISBN: 0609804618 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 23 March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58
Rating: 5
Summary: AMAZON.COM REVIEWER THINKS HIS OPINIONS MATTER
Comment: I see "Our Dumb Century" as the Onion's chronicle of some parallel-dimension 20th century, where 'truth in media' is held as an absolute, and our obsession with consumer/celebrity culture is amplified to the nth degree. It is a great piece of meta-media, with a sense of humour so addictive that you'll need to chew a pack of gum just to get on with your life.
I read the online Onion in short spurts, quickly scanning the headlines and very rarely actually reading whole stories. The reason for this, I guess, is that I find the regular paper falls into familiar patterns in an attempt to satirize the mundane nature of everyday life. When a story begins "Area man...", I usually know where the story is going. But when they train that sharp eye on the hypocrisy of history, The Onion staff really shines.
The headlines here are strong. 'Al Capone's Reign of Tax Evading Terror Comes to an End', 'Pentagon Develops A-Bomb Resistant Desk', 'Holy S--t, Man Walks on F-----g Moon', and 'CNN Deploys Troops to Iraq' are just a few examples of their Haiku-like precision in taking aim at their targets. My favourite has to be from the September 3, 1939 issue, which proclaims in bombastic 144-pt type: 'WA-', and then just underneath 'Headline continued on page 2'.
The great strength of the book, though lies in its stories. They are consistently crisply written parodies of journalistic integrity, and the public's need to be pacified, with the added bonus of using hindsight's ability to reconstruct history. Witness the opening paragraph in the story of the sinking of the Titanic: "Officials of the White Star Line have confirmed the sinking, during her maiden voyage, of the R.M.S. Titanic, the world's largest symbol of man's mortality and vulnerability." Or a story in the September 6, 1997 issue: "Princess Diana is being remembered as a 'wealthy, wealthy woman' following her death in a Paris auto accident last week." Every paragraph contains one of those rare feats: a sentence that makes you think deep thoughts and laugh deep laughs. My favourite kind of writing.
As the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe once said, "God is in the details". Well, the details here are what makes the parody so great. Check out the paper's changing mastheads, from the simple, patriotic icon in the 1910s, to the bombastic Eagle-infested coats-of-arms in the forties and fifties (complete with Latin motto "Tu Stultus Es", which calls attention to the foolishness of the whole modern enterprise), to the late sixties where the Eagle is replaced by a (psychedelic?) flying onion logo! And the company slogans that accompany the mastheads are great as well, my favourite being from a 1951 edition: 'Safeguard the Norm/Supporting Paranoia'. When flipping casually through the book, just don't forget to pay close attention to the marginalia. It's worth it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Even the typeface is funny!
Comment: 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...
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Bathroom Read
Comment: How can you not laugh at most of the stuff in here. My favorite: "Joe Piscapo - Will His Star Ever Stop Rising?"
Always a funny read - and definately worth just having around for laughs.
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Title: Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of the Onion by Robert Siegel, The Onion ISBN: 0609808346 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Onion's Finest News Reporting, Volume 1 by Scott Dikkers, The Onion, Robert Siegel, Mike Loew ISBN: 0609804634 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 04 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Onion Ad Nauseam: Complete News Archives, Volume 13 by Robert Siegel, Carol Kolb, Todd Hanson, John Krewson, Onion Editors ISBN: 1400047242 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 24 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Tenacity of the Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders by Stephen Thompson, The Onion ISBN: 0609809911 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 10 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action by Wendy Northcutt, Wendy Nothcutt ISBN: 0452283442 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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