36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you like the marketing, you will probably like it, August 27, 2008
This review is from: Brocabulary: The New Man-i-festo of Dude Talk (Paperback)
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Brocabulary promises a dictionary of all the words a steriotypical "bro" man needs but doesn't have. If that's what you're looking for, then that's what you'll get. Subjects tend to involve beer and women, with the odd foray into smoking pot or activities associated with a restroom.
I found discussions of words for women's clothing to be accurate in their own way. Yep, when a skirt is short enough that I can see the [...] cleavage, it is appropriate to call it a "squirt skirt."
Mixed in are cartoon drawings of women, always curvy with cleavage showing and large lips, and men, kind of scruffy and shaped like their clothes. The pics are drawn well for what they are.
This is a well done version of the concept. If the marketing and the idea of a book of short terms describing women as objects, humorous bodily functions, and drinking with the guys, then you will probably enjoy this.
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38 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best to Hide From Mom, July 15, 2008
This review is from: Brocabulary: The New Man-i-festo of Dude Talk (Paperback)
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What it is is a very clever list of expressions that might be used by a dudeamaniac. It is not a dictionary. The words are nonce-words, not exotic expressions with which you need to be familiarized. For example: a fanimal is a fan who is so hardcore that he's on the verge of being a wild animal. The vulgar expressions are more juvenile and usually more clever, as are the sexual expressions. The book is somewhere between a Jeff Foxworthy humor book and a succession of dirty jokes. It might be put on the jokes-for-the-john hook in an Animal House-type fraternity or it could be the perfect airplane read, so long as you're not sitting next to a person who could be offended by the illustrations. Most of all, it's probably the sort of book that a group of 12 year-olds might pass around as they sip their first beers. That's not to say that it isn't clever. It's very clever, just not very tasteful.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Crude and Rude, but Meant to Understand The Dude, July 16, 2008
This review is from: Brocabulary: The New Man-i-festo of Dude Talk (Paperback)
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I have to admit I came into 'Brocabulary' with the wrong impression. Nearly twenty-five years have passed since I entered the classroom as a teacher, and by trial and error, I came to intermittently speak inner city lingo. Sometimes it promoted understanding, at others laughter. While I've tried to promote formal, consistent English in those situations where farming children use "ain't" and city children use words like "homie" and "dog," it has always been my task to understand all students and their language.
Although 'Brocabulary' is not really a dictionary (no I won't repeat his spelling), it does often give the social context for his own made up words. More of a comedy book, 'New York' magazine's Daniel Maurer proves himself a resourceful and multi-faceted author and comedian. The result is a book that resembles more of an R-rated version of Tim Allen's 'Don't Stand Next to a Naked Man' or an extended Chris Rock stand up routine.
Starting irreverently (in both senses of the word), Maurer takes on history with 4,000 B.C. "Meso-BRO-tamia" and "Egyptian GUY-roglyphics". From there the Dude-speak (Did I make that one up?) comes out in flying colors. There are chapters about "BRO-mmunication," drinking "Barticulation," and recreation or "Chilloquialisms".
In the wrong hands the book is bound to offend, for political correctness gets no hearing with lines from Lincoln stated as "Four whores and seven beers ago." Most will have no trouble laughing at "neanderbrawl," to paraphrase a drunken fight by stupid men. But much of the material is about genital size and treating women as sex objects. The latter isn't quite as bad as it sounds because he partly pokes fun of the male-centric world he recreates. Some of the best material comes from the tables. For male and female bonding there's (forgive me) "Breastination" and "Testosterzone". One set reads, "You and your friends are getting your nails painted," for the former, and "You and your friends are nailing each other with paint guns," for the latter.
While witty, I wonder why he put so much effort into this project. At times tiresome, at others blurt out funny, Mauerer still delivers, if not exhausts, all the informal takes on male bonding and obsessions. Is Daniel Maurer the next Dave Barry? If he channels his resources in the right direction, probably so.
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