The Borowitz Report: The Big Book of Shockers

I just purchased this book and love it - that's the good news. The bad news is that my college-age son saw me laughing my head off while reading it in the kitchen. Now he's stolen the book from me and I can't seem to get it back. After years of disagreeing about what's funny or not (he thinks all the comedians I like are hopelessly lame) we have finally found one person we both think is truly hilarious - Andy Borowitz. This is the rarest of humor books - one that goes for old-fashioned belly-laughs but is at the same time completely up to date and cutting-edge. It also offers a unique history of the events of the past three years (the "war on terror" and Iraq in particular) that seems oddly truer than "serious" books on the same topics. (The story about the weapons inspectors asking Saddam if someone will be home in Iraq between the hours of 8 and 12 is priceless; so are the articles ridiculing Tom Ridge, a favorite Borowitz target.) With the precious gift of comedy, Andy Borowitz has created a world that seems to make more sense than the world we see on CNN every day. I for one would rather live in his world. And so I would wholeheartedly recommend The Borowitz Report: The Big Book of Shockers, but if you have a family I would suggest getting more than one copy.

THE BOROWITZ REPORT is perfect for anyone looking for a good, hearty bellylaugh (as the other reviewers point out) but I think it's a lot more than that. After reading this book (and then buying four more copies for friends), I asked myself what separates Andy Borowitz's comedy from so many other purveyors of "satire" on the scene today. I think it's this -- Borowitz blows away his targets in a way that is never mean but always hilarious. He completely avoids the kind of partisan attacks that simply preach to the converted and instead reaches for the deeper truth. And he never tells us what we already know and have heard too many times. Somehow he manages to do this while making us scream with laughter. Amazing. I can't single out one column in this book that is my favorite, but it might be this one: CHENEY'S BRIEF APPEARANCE, RETURN TO SECURE LOCATION MAY MEAN SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER. That is worth the entire $9.95 and then some.

A while ago I realized that watching the news on TV or reading it in the newspaper was a surefire route to depression. Thank God the Borowitz Report came along. Andy Borowitz's twisted take on the world of politics and pop culture is a lot easier to take than the "straight" news version for one very simple reason -- laughing is always better than crying. Ann Coulter, Bush, John Kerry, Madonna, they're all in here and they have never, ever been satirized in a funnier way. Equally hilarious is the blog by Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, who turns out to be a lot hipper than we probably thought. All in all, an A-plus effort -- looking forward to the sequel!

I had never heard of The Borowitz Report until a couple of days ago, when a girl in my dorm showed me this book. I opened it up to a random page and saw the headline "Bush May Lack Gene For Human Speech." I started giggling as I read the piece and by the end of it I was laughing hysterically. This happened again and again as I flipped through the book until I realized I was laughing out loud on every page. No book has ever made me done that before. (As for my TV viewing habits, I am a huge fan of The Daily Show and this book is right up there with it.) The book is based on a daily e-newsletter called The Borowitz Report which I have now signed up to receive every day. If the guy can manage to write columns each day that are as funny as the ones in this book, I don't know how he does it. This book is at the very top of my list of recommendations. You won't be sorry you got it.

When people ask me how I get the news, this is what I tell them: I go to bed with Jon Stewart and I wake up with Andy Borowitz. Borowitz's daily emails from BorowitzReport.com are unfailingly laugh-out-loud hilarious, but more than that, they provide me with my only link to sanity. And tremendous insight into the increasingly surreal world in which we live. The minute this book came out I ordered it, and having read it five times already, I can assure you it does not disappoint. On every page is one of Borowitz's classic columns, out-Onioning the Onion, plus a trove of material I had never seen anywhere before. Perhaps best of all, in a world of partisan bickering, Andy Borowitz takes his shots at Democrats and Republicans alike, not to mention Ralph Nader, Bono and David Blaine. A few years ago, before he got huge, Jon Stewart was the comedy world's best kept secret. Today, that man is Andy Borowitz, and with this breakout book he is destined to be recognized as one of the funniest men in America.