Customer Reviews

Abuse This Word--

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is the funniest book I've ever read. It is the only book that I almost force people to read when they are in my home. It was a classic for humor in 1980 when I bought it, and it is still a classic for humor today. Cosgrove had to think hard about ways to abuse words, and he managed to succeed with flying colors. A "must" for anyone who has a sense of humor.

The artful and clever pun can be the best possible joke. To appreciate it, you must understand the language and be able to think beyond the literal meaning of the words. Perverse is a good word to describe the puns in this collection and a cartoon that provides additional context to the phrase accompanies each pun. Some examples are:

*) Gourmet - phrase "I'm afraid the gourmet scare you" where the image it that of a poster for a horror movie.
*) Artifacts - phrase "These artifacts of life" where the image is that of an elderly teacher with images that depict simplistic sex education.
*) Meteor - phrase "Aren't you going to introduce meteor aunt?" where the image is of a boy, girl and an older woman identical to the girl

As you can see from these examples, this is a book of "groaner" type jokes. Funny and painful, yet in the tolerable and humorous sense

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. Now I don't now if it's because I know it's my English teacher who wrote it or because it's just a good book. I think both.

I just have to say that Cosgrove is one fantastic writer! He has interesting insights on life and literature. For instance, his ideas on Puritan ideology are particularly thought-provoking. Not that any of these ideas are found in this book. I'm sure it's lovely. But the important thing is that Mr. Cosgrove is really cool and it would make him ever so happy if you would purchase his book. Take it from the other guy who wrote the other review. Mr. C also has a travel guide to Sacramento. I don't know why you would want to come to Sacramento, but if you do, please consult his fantastic guide.