Sunday, April 22, 2012

Unicorn Being a Jerk by C.W. Moss

So this does not actually require a lot of thought or analysis, OK? There's this unicorn, and each two-page spread shows him being a jerk -- got it? One page with a line of text, the facing page with an illustration.

That's what Unicorn Being a Jerk is -- see, you already pretty much got that from the title, didn't you?

You're probably saying "this is probably based on a website," and you're right.

You might also be saying "this kind of cheap, tacky book never existed before the Internet," which means you're either really young, really forgetful, or really stupid -- I'll let you decide which is most flattering to you. Look, we got 101 Uses for a Dead Cat over thirty years ago, and a whole series of Truly Tasteless Jokes books later that decade -- I focus on the '80s, since that was my own prime buying-cheap-tacky-books time, but there was similar stuff in the '70s, '60s, and probably even earlier. And later, of course, there were more books, many of which you might even still own, or remember fondly.

This is not a deep book, or one for the ages: it's quick, and generally funny, and perhaps even more interesting -- read against Totally Tasteless Jokes and Dead Cat and The Book of Bunny Suicides and others -- to examine what we find unacceptable behavior today that would have been unexceptional or unexplainable thirty years ago. (For example, "painting his horn white to avoid the gay crowd.")

It won't change your life, but it just might entertain you for a while -- and maybe your friends as well, if you leave it off on top of your coffee table or toilet tank. And that's plenty.

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