Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans : The Best of McSweeney's, Humor Category: 1998-2003

Rating:
Summary: The site in hardcover book form.
Review: This is an amusing collection, most of which can be found on the official McSweeney's website, McSweeneys.net (this isn't a link, so don't try clicking it). Much of the stuff here is funny and what isn't funny is over quickly. However, there were some items, Pirate Riddles for Sophisticates Unused Audio Commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky recorded Summer 2002 for the Lord of the Rings DVD, A Letter from a Famous Painter on the Moon, and No Justice No Foul (an unpleasant exposition about the role of Basketball in the Supreme Court) to name a few, that were very unpleasant and quite long. An apt analogy concerning these bad parts: they're like the long wedding scene in the beginning Deer Hunter in the sense that they make the final product worse that it could have been. Overall, both Deer Hunter and this book are quite pleasant.

I recommend visiting the official website of McSweeney's because it's sometimes entertaining and most of the stuff in this book, definitely all of the lists, are on that site. So, since the most of the content is available online and some of the material is weak, I'm going to give it three stars, but those are three well-deserved stars.


Rating:
Summary: Smart, Funny and Has a Cute Cover
Review: As observed by Amazon, customers who are interested in buying and reading this book will almost certainly be into Meeting Sexy Local Singles. Well done, Amazon. That is precisely why you should read it. Give yourself something to talk about with said sexies. Your wit and good taste will be rewarded tenfold with kisses in the netherregions.

"Created in Darkness" is smart, funny, and has a cute cover--just how you like 'em.

Rating:
Summary: Modernize your Bathroom
Review: Great piecemeal read. Not meant for anything but a bit at a time.

McSweeney recycles and I for one am quite happy about it. Comfortably nestled in between an old tattered Mad "Worst of" and a classic "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog" 70's Nat. Lampoon cover, this is unquestionably superior bathroom fare.

Everything is short, simple, intelligent stupidity that will either get you to laugh or induce peristalsis. Either way you win. Treasure like this doesn't come along all that often.

Only complaint is they left out one my favorite McSweeny's bits of nonsense, The Rollercoaster Ride, which years ago I gave away to some Swiss girl on a beach in the South Pacific. Kinda worth it.

I know its just plain stupid. But its just plain 'I wish I had thought of that and gotten published with it' stupid.

Like I said, intelligent stupidity, often absurd, and it has a great C. Burns cover. Genius.

Rating:
Summary: unparalleled toilet reading
Review: I have a laptop with a wireless connection, yes, but taking it into the bathroom with me earns me creeped-out looks from my prude roommmate. So for the last years I've been reading the silly tidbits of McSweeney's.net respectably at my desk, and limiting my toilet reading to dull fare like Johann Aloys Schlosser's biography of Beethoven. Until at last "Created in Darkness..." came to the rescue. I can now read McSweeney's' great humor wherever I want to. The pieces in the book are reprints of stuff from the web site, all mostly very short and ideally suited for bathroom perusal.

(McSweeney's has a sort of very-clever, distinctive kind of humorous but not sidesplitting writing that appeals to me terrifically. Check out mcsweeneys.net and see if you like that. If you do you will like this book. If not, consider buying it as a gift for a friend.)

So yeah, problem solved. My roommate loves the book too so I don't even have to explain to him why I am laughing in the bathroom.

Rating:
Summary: A reader from the U.P. (it's in Michigan)
Review: I'm giving this five stars instead of four because this is Amazon.com -- where, if you really like something and have the relatively reasonable expectation that your like should effect the overall perception of the book, then you have to say "five stars" to make up for those who are jerks. Anyway, I liked this book, a lot. For those of you familiar with Mcsweeney's, it's a great collection. For those of you who are not -- you are missing out, by the way -- it's a great introduction. It's always funny and smart and sometimes very funny and very smart. Everyone who is not my mother will laugh out loud.

One more thing, while it's great to read in the bathroom, be careful. I was serious about the laughing out loud. Your housemates will think you're weird.

Rating:
Summary: The Best?
Review: Just completed this. Hmmm. Well, if this is truly "the Best", I'm not sure I'd want to wade through whatever didn't make the cut. As for the editorial on this site, I doubt that I would characterize anything in the book as "side-splitting hilarious" and, yes, I did "get" the jokes so it wasn't a matter of my finding the references "too obscure". If Eggers intent is to create an anthology that is "funny without being humorous" [see editorial], why is this titled the Best of McSweeney's, Humor Category? Pretentious, n'est-ce pas? Neal Pollack is somewhat amusing and the lists for me would probably be the highlight of the book although I've likely had funnier lists forwarded to me by email on many occasions. The fact that this content is available on-line provides reason enough not to purchase the book...I'd feel differently if I felt the book was a convenient gathering of all the real choice bits out there to have all together in your hands at one time, but...alas...no. Dust jacket art is nice.

Rating:
Summary: The best outshines the rest
Review: Like any humor collection, not everything in "Created In Darkness" is a guarenteed laugh riot. Then again, McSweeneys has a reputation for aiming more for the brain than the funny bone, so that shouldn't be a surprise. What IS a surprise is that the amount of really good pieces outweighs the fair to not-very-good pieces.

Among the stand-outs: the two Ezra Pound pieces (I was vaguely familiar with Pound's WWII activities, so that helps to get it), the Diary of a Cobra Recruit (haven't we all wondered if they were taught how to shoot at everything but the G.I. Joes?), The Letters to Mr. Vandwoude(sic), who refuses to be scammed out of his cash by a faux "orphan" charity, Michael Ian Black's look at why people hate him, and Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky's commentary for LOTR: The Fellowship of The Ring (no matter how you lean politically, you'll laugh your ass off).

There are many more that, if I hadn't just gotten up, I would be able to rattle off for inclusion in the "stand-outs" section, but maybe you should go ahead and buy the book and see for yourself...

Anyway, I read this book over a weekend, and enjoyed just about every minute of it. The one fault I give it is the section of lists at the end. That got old real quick, page after page, but there were plenty of hilarious ones to make it worthwhile.

So do yourself a favor and pick this up. It's a nice selection of humor pieces from one of the few really good humor sites out there.

Rating:
Summary: Woud the Death Star have a trash compactor?
Review: This hardcover is a surprisingly good value for your buck. All of the entries here (which, according to a previous reviewer, can be found at McSweeney's.com) are short and sweet - coming in at about 800 words each. They vary in quality from the so-so to the really funny. My favorite so far is a piece entitled "On the Implausibility of the Death Star's Trash Compactor." All in all, it is a great guide to the state of written humor today.

Rating:
Summary: Anne Rice Eat Your Heart Out
Review: This is a fine book, and I encourage you to buy it. Buy it now. Buy the book already. Stop with the equivocating. Be strong. It's a great book. You won't regret it.

But could we stop talking about how we like to read this book in the bathroom? I am merely one tiny contributor among many to the book, one miniscule contributor among a multitude to the website. I can't speak for everyone. Still, the idea that you are reading something of mine in your bathroom sort of creeps me out. Unless you are Angelina Jolie, and even then I have to think about it. I just don't like the idea that the hand you are using the turn the page on "Lessons Learned from My Study of Literature" was, a moment before -- GROSS! Stop it. Just stop it right now.

True, my entry in this compendium is quite small, putting the odds against you actually reading my words in your bathroom. You probably enjoyed my entry on your back porch during a gorgeous sunset, or on an afternoon spin in your convertible, your best friend reading aloud from the passenger seat, her long hair swirling up furiously, as if a miniature tornado were chasing your Miata, your golden retriever in the back seat smiling that goofy golden retriever smile. Still, there is the remote chance that you are, instead, alone, furtively -- oh God, I can't even think about it.

This book makes a great gift. It's small, and light, and will display your good taste. It will make your best friend happy when she unwraps it, and you more beautiful in her eyes, which is what the holidays are all about. Believe me when I say that you cannot go wrong with this book.

Just try not to take it into the bathroom. Please. For my sake.

Thank you, that is all.