Unintentionally Hilarious
592591
The Room is an unintentionally hilarious film filled with the worst acting in the world, absurd dialogue, and subplots that have no purpose. It's mesmerizing how bad this film is but it's really what gives the film it's charm. You can tell that Tommy Wiseau was trying to make a good film, but failed so spectacularly, although you can't really fault Wiseau for his efforts. He was certainly passionate about the film he was making but it ended up failing in every conceivable way and even though Tommy intended for the film to be a serious melodrama, it's pure wretchedness has taken on a life of it's own and has made his film and himself now infamous in film history.
1896607
This book already has a multitude of reviews, so I can't pretend to have anything terribly original to say. In a nutshell, A.J. Jacobs, husband father, and secular Jew, spends a year following the Bible "literally". As such, it belongs to a certain genre of literature / media entertainment, where a journalist makes himself the story, ie, the guy who eats nothing but fast food for thirty days, or the girl who wears a fat suit and a hidden camera.

A.J. Jacobs is a talented, smart, and hilarious writer. I challenge anyone to read this book without laughing out loud. That alone makes it worth a look, but I learned a lot of interesting tidbits along the way, like why there are Christian snake handlers. As a former New Yorker, I particularly enjoyed Jacobs' attempts to perform acts of kindness for his fellow citizens, and how suspicious people were, even of something as small as a cup of coffee.

I can't give this book five stars because this book's elements do not blend perfectly. If it were a soup, it would need a few more days in the refrigerator. The primary problem is that Jacobs appears to be fundamentally irreverent guy, and gets incredibly self-conscious when he tries to go somewhere more serious. There's sort of an "aw, shucks, I want epiphany, is that stupid? I feel stupid" kind of shtick going on throughout the book. It would have been a stronger piece if Jacobs had written a straight humor piece, and left out his own blushing attempts at spirituality.

Don't misunderstand me - I get the impression that Jacobs really loves people, and it was really nice to see how respectfully he treated all of his interviewees. He also writes touchingly about his family, particularly his son. As the same time, it was jarring when he clearly went out of his way to find weird/extreme religious sects, and then repeatedly had "revelations" that oh, this bizarre rule or tenant can be interpreted in this particular way and it actually makes sense. It's like he's selling us tickets to a freak show, but then spends an hour talking about the bearded lady's courageous battle with cancer. Are we supposed to point and laugh, or believe that obeying traffic laws got him closer to God?

I mainly wanted to write this review because of a minor nitpick that has been bugging me since I read this book 12 weeks ago. Jacobs specifically says that he follows the directive to take no graven images, and describes an awkward scene at a birthday party where he refuses to hold a camera. But the first page in my book is a time series of Jacobs growing out his beard! For some reason, this just really tweaks me. He has this huge section on how he became painstakingly honest and how difficult it was... but he must be lying about the graven images to get the beard pictures, right?

Anyway. Criticisms notwithstanding, the book is both enjoyable and informative, and I encourage you to check it out.
3802195
Looking for that crude, raunchy, extremely funny comedy to fill the void that is your life?  Well, look no further, pard!  While I missed this in the theaters (probably because it was so unmercifully panned), I was really pleased to find out my money wasn't wasted on purchasing this DVD.

Norm MacDonald stars as Mitch Weaver, a guy who just can't seem to find his calling in life.  After losing yet another menial job, his girlfriend kicks him out, throwing all his stuff out of the apartment window into the street.  Mitch goes to stay with his best friend Sam (Artie Lange) and we soon learn that Sam's dad, played by Jack Warden, has a bad heart and unless Sam can come up with $50,000 in a relatively short amount of time, his dad will die.  Mitch agrees to help Sam, as not only is Sam his friend, but Sam's dad was like a father to Mitch while he was growing up, due to the fact that his real father wasn't around.  After some hilarious attempts to raise cash, Mitch stumbles on an idea for a business by accident.  Seems Mitch has a real flair for getting back at people who step on him, so he decides to open a revenge for hire business, Dirty Work, to help those who can't help themselves, for a fee, of course.  The scene where they're hire to deal with a noisy neighbor had my friends and I rolling on the floor.  The business isn't going well, until they get commissioned by Travis Cole (Christopher McDonald) to trash a property in order to condemn it, to which they'll get a large sum of money.  Thing is, they do the work, but find out that Cole misrepresented his reasons for wanting the property condemned, and they soon find out they made a big mistake, and now Cole stiffs them on the payment.  This sets up the ultimate revenge plan, leading to a great payoff.

Look for Chevy Chase, Don Rickles, and Gary Coleman in small but funny roles.  Also in this movie is the late Chris Farley, who is about as funny as I've ever seen him.  I was surprised to learn that this movie was directed by Bob Saget, you know, the guy from that Full House TV show?  If you liked movies like Kingpin, Dumb and Dumber, or Happy Gilmore, then you'll get a kick out of this one.
994887
House is a uniquely unpredictably droll haunted house flick that chronicles an ailing creatively challenged horror author's artistic rediscovery as he investigates his recently late-aunt's haunted house. As the novelist's perception of reality becomes increasingly blurred, inanely blemished by unreality, and dispersedly interconnected with the subject matter of his new autobiographical book about the Vietnam War, the author finds himself killing off his estranged wife who's unpredictably been morphing into a monster, capturing monstrosities randomly annoying him from the guest room's closet, or hearing the espondent cries from his dead son. Despite the extremely morbid sounding nature of the House's plot, the film is actually a quite hilarious horror-comedy as it totally exploits your interest in it by erratically buoying its mood between terror and camp so effectively and confidently you can't keep track as to what's going on or how you're feeling as you're watching it. The House is such an awesome curiously innovative little film that contradicts ALL of you're expectations ,while delivering one heck of a revitalizing romp through horror irrelevance. You can't help but be assimilated into its capricious glee.
As for the House 2, it's definitely geared more directly towards self-conscious camp and giddy B-Movie conventions by telling a tale of dueling late 19th century corpses bidding for a magical skull. Regardless of its lack of horror, House 2 continues it's predecessor's preoccupation with exuberant unpredictably and immensely amusing comic delirium in the finest tradition of the Evil Dead series.
As for the limited 20,000 copies edition, it does contain commentaries and a few interesting editions. However, it's these amazingly fresh horror-camp classics that you should be buying them for. Heavily recommended for anyone who adores any movie with hilarious undead in it.
1663202
I like to laugh, and I like to read books that make me laugh. However, far too often I have picked up books that were advertised as "funny" or "humorous" that fell way short of the comedic bar. Not only did I not laugh, but I wasn't even driven to smile in the slightest. The only emotion that I felt was disappointment. Be that as it may, I am happy to announce that "Life is a Circus Run by a Platypus" is deftly hilarious - sometimes tragically so. On a few occasions I found myself thinking, "Oh my goodness, this poor girl."
Some of the stories border on the absurd, and I was thankful that things like this never occurred in my world, but other stories had me saying, "Oh, man, I thought stuff like that only happened to me!"
As a writer of comedic stories myself, I found that Allison Hawn's flare for weaving whimsically amusing tales was far superior to anything I had read lately in this genre. It's the kind of book that you will not think twice about recommending to your familly and friends, and you will almost certainly want to read it a second or a third time. It is simply amazing work.

~Dr. Ephraim Bates - authour of the comedic thriller "Boom!!...Killers."
1510240
I was just re-reading parts of The Cosmopolitans. What really struck me is that while I remember the book being funny, to the point where I laughed out loud a lot (and laughed until I cried more than once), the truth is that just about every single individual sentence in the entire novel is funny all by itself. Which is an amazing feat. And I don't mean funny as in trying really hard or being full of jokes--the writing just has an effortlessly insightful and sharply observant quality that makes for good humor.

I'll leave it to other folks to summarize the plot and structure and themes. For me, th book served as a very delightful, entertaining and thoughtful catalogue of human frailties: the thousand and one ways that clever and well-intentioned people make themselves ridiculous. In almost every scene, these characters are making goofy efforts to prop themselves up and fit into the world, and they never quite succeed. But the book never degenerates into snarkiness. Kalman's portrayals are sympathetic and tender. And while none of these characters do anything grand or heroic, in the end you sort of end up admiring them for their persistence and determination.

I loved this book, it is mucho recommended.
973967
This one just sneaked up on me ... I kept laughing at the ridiculous situations our hero and his crew encountered. This is for readers who like slapstick, parody, stories that center on the eternal philosophical question, "How the heck did I get into this situation? And where's the door out?"
I have a low tolerance for proofreading mistakes, and there are a couple ... maybe three ... in the text. It is a mark of how much I enjoyed the characters that I read right through them and didn't really care. Will be following this series.
1185819
As I was roaming for comedy books on amazon I came across this book and I loved it. It's ridiculously funny. Looking forward to read more funny in the other books.
4353471
This brightens my day in so many ways. I can absolutely see everything actually happening as written in this book, while my jaw drops in only partially feigned horror that people are behaving in this manner...until the gut-busting laughter takes over. Thankfully, our author gives us a humorous and highly entertaining peek into his interesting neighbors. I mean, we've all had them at some point in our lives....but were yours ever this farcical? A great read!
4692965
This comic novel might seem upon first taking cognizance of its existence as unique or experimental, it is not. It is a jolly hilarious farce in the tradition of great English comedic mystery send- ups. It is not profound not filled with exquisitely subtle historical or literary allusions.  There are some clever analogies to pop BBC TV icons and if you have seen any popular British shows on American TV, you will recognize them.

 Almost anything that can be said about the plot would spoil the story so I shall not go into detail only to say that each character is unique and although their rational for doing what they do is a times a little obvious, their actions and results will keep you entertained. A little editing would have polished the pace of the book and the discerning reader will recognize those paragraphs, not pages, that could be skimmed over and this may be the reason for so many complaints about the length of the book and the reason for my rating it as I did.

All that said, this book is far and away better than many of the books of its kind.
251314
So I went into watching the first season of this series with a bit of trepidation. I'll admit that I wasn't in the mood to watch it and that I didn't expect much. I mean haven't we already had enough idiocy after watching numerous years of JACKASS? Did we really need another show that had guys doing stupid guy things that were funny when we were in high school or college?

Imagine my surprise to discover myself laughing as each episode played. Seriously, there were moments when I had to pause the disc so that I wouldn't miss what was said or done next I was laughing so hard. Now, that isn't to say that everything you will see here is hilarious or that it might not be offensive to some, but for the most part it is really funny.

If you've never watched the show we have four friends (Sal, Joe, Q and Murr) who challenge each other with new tasks each week. As a matter of fact they try out several tasks with each episode. As each one either succeeds or fails their task they accumulate points until the end of the show when one is designated the loser who must then perform a task given them by the winner, almost always something totally embarrassing for most people. All tasks are done out in public and as with most shows of this kind you can either get a sympathetic ear from some folks or a belt from others. It's a risk they take but one they do with the hopes of getting laughs and thus viewers each week.

The "dares" that each one of these friends comes up with involve some setting up and in some cases the participation of various businesses that will allow them to pretend to be working there. For instance one event takes place in a White Castle where each member must pretend to be a waiter at the counter. The problem is that while doing so they wear an ear bud that the other three are talking into, giving them instructions as to what to say or to do. They can either choose to follow those instructions or ignore them completely thus losing that round. More often than not they follow through.

Another event had them shopping out of other people's carts in a grocery store. One of them goes so far as to take a shopper's entire cart when they aren't looking. They take food off of other people's plates at a buffet, teach a karate class, try to raise money for some odd charities and many other antics. As I said, not all work but most do and the end result is hilarious at times.

So is this series one that you'll want to buy and keep on the shelf? If you had asked me before watching it I would have said no. If you had asked me while I was watching it I'd have said maybe but let me watch some more. At the moment though I think this is a series I'd hold on to. Maybe you'll come home one night, down in the dumps and ready to just kick back. Pop this one in the DVD player and my guess is you'll be smiling shortly after the credits kick in. It will provide some stupid laughs that won't require you to think much or to be too involved. Give it a try.
3488193
Though I have an extensive DVD library and I own several of his movies, I'm not particularly a Mike Myers fan; I think he ought to be hung by the neck for what he did in "The Love Guru". But I must congratulate him over what he achieved in this one: managing to mix his patented bawdy humor with the innocent and chaotic tale of destruction that "The Cat in the Hat" is.
And he succeeds wonderfully; Myers only misses a beat twice in the movie. One, is when he overacts as a "couch mechanic" (you ought to see it) and wrestles with an elephant trunk. It's curious, since it's the sort of weird humor I enjoy and write about, but he only managed to make me frown in that scene.
Which killed Mr. Myers' comedic pacing a little. Good thing he recovers quickly and more zany fun ensues. His second misstep is with the S.L.O.W. vehicle; it'd usually lend itself to more silly mischief, but I guess that's a prop he didn't know how to milk properly.
My favorite scene, though, was the one where he pokes fun at stupid infomercials; he's absolutely at his best there.
Overall, and in spite of these tiny flaws, I really enjoyed this movie. I recommend it heartily, but I also advise you to rent this movie first, before plunging your cash into it. You know how that warning goes: "your sense of humor may vary". Mine is utterly twisted and loved it.
1449961
I'm not used to reading these types of books, so I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. But I can honestly say it was hilarious and I'll definitely be on the lookout for the next installment!
4258041
I purchased a copy of this book when it was first published and laughed myself silly over and over again...what makes it so funny?  It perfectly captures the absurdity of yearbooks of an era long gone by: group class pictures taken at such a distance as to render the faces tiny specks with names like "Lotta Zits"; pictures of teachers in their classroom situations: the shop teacher smiling widely at the camera next to a student whose face wears a very surprised look because lower down in the picture his fingers have been separated from his hand by the band saw they are ignoring while the picture is taken! The fun goes on and on--a description of the class trip to D.C. wherein the author takes every opportunity to use the adjectives and adverbs based on the school's mascot the kangaroo. And who could forget the mottoes accompanying the Senior Pictures:  the leering face of the school "bad girl" over the phrase "I guess I missed that period!"  I haven't seen this book since I loaned it to a friend in the early 1980's yet the material is fresh in my mind.  Please, please bring the book back into print so that we fans can share it with a new generation.
184787
Undercurrent of absurdity that spikes with moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity. Perfect. Can't imagine any way to improve this.
3086251
Hilarious.  Slightly distorted speaker, but funny.
2532812
If you love to laugh, then -- boy -- do I have a book for you! WILL@EPICQWEST.COM is quite simply one of the most hilarious novels (er, excuse me, "memoirs") I've read in a long time. The back cover mentions Candide and Dr. Stangelove, but the Marx Brothers and Monty Python's Flying Circus also come to mind. This is top-flight satire that's freewheeling and wild -- not to mention, incredibly smart. WILL@EPICQWEST.COM is written in the form of website entries (like an online diary); the website is of course the book's title (which, if you do a web search on WILL@EPICQWEST.COM is also an actual website). The "epic" adventures of the perennial screw-up/protagonist "Will" -- an "over-medicated" college freshman -- involves a hallucinatory "quest" to slay an evil scientist responsible for the creation of a deadly virus called IS ("Information Sickness"), a virus that kills anyone it comes in contact with via a kind of information overload...kind of like what one experiences on the "misinformation superhighway" of the internet (50 million websites and not a single straight answer to anything). Like a junior Don Quixote (perhaps no less self-deluded), hapless Will sets off with a sidekick, his self-aware, chatterbox laptop named "Spunk," who serves a guide and mentor one moment and foil and comic relief the next. Problem is: does the virus IS -- and the evil scientist -- even exist? Or is all this -- these extraordinary misadventures -- simply a side effect of the massive Prozac dosage our hero has been prescribed? Chapters open within chapters, like trapdoors, and the hero proceeds on his adventure often with the self-consciousness of a dreamer who is fully aware he is in a dream: nothing is real, while all seeming somehow hyper real. This self-awareness parodies post-post modern fiction or what's often called "meta-fiction:" but for me it's just unpredictably hilarious and zany. Truly this is one of best-informed, most witty novels I've read in a very long time. And the glowing praise for this book by authors like Tim O'Brien, Dennis Johnson, and Thom Jones -- as well as its underground reputation -- doesn't surprise me at all. A comic tour de force! Don't miss out!