Customer Reviews

Citizen Lazlo!: The Lazlo Letters, Volume 2

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

 

 

The original book ('The Lazlo Letters') was set in the mid-70s and was essentially a tremedously funny, well-executed goof on Watergate and its participants. 'Citizen Lazlo' is wider in its timeframe (1977 - 1992) and focus (all over the map).

For flat out hilarity, nothing can beat (as mentioned by an earlier reviewer) the "Fit For a President Microwave TV Dinner" idea that 'Toth' pitches to the Campbell Soup Company. [Sample: Nixon-Mao Frozen Chinese Banquet...eat the meal that ended 23 years of hostility.]

My favorite has got to be his pitch to Kinney Shoes for a new advertising campaign based on "The Wind Beneath My Wings," entitled "The Feet Within My Shoes":

Did I ever tell you you're my hero?

Tho' you're the farthest parts of me

I can run faster than a beagle

You are the feet beneath my knees

The cadence of these letters continues the unique, hilarious style perfected by Novello/Toth in his first book. Check out a sample greeting to Nicolae Ceausescu in 1988: "Belated Happy Birthday! Stand up! You deserve it!"

Truly laugh-out-loud funny stuff.

One note of interest: since this is the second volume, some of the respondents are in on the joke. Those that are respond with a matching level of humor.

I hadn't looked at my copy of the book for a couple of years, and happened to find it in the bookshelf in the garage while getting ready for a garage sale. While I sat watching people turn their noses up at my junk, I laughed myself silly at Lazlo's amazing letters. His suggestions for "Historical" TV Dinners (Jimmy Carter's Camp David Accord Chicken and Grits) finally led Swansons (aka Campbell Soups) to just ignore him -- rather than send him more coupons for soup. It's a great look into the inner working of the Public Relations departments of large corporations and governments. Whenever you're throwing a garage sale, this book is a must read. Any other time, too.

As interesting as it is to see Novello expand upon his letter writing, there's something disappointing about this second volume. Perhaps it's the introductio of Lazlo into a world in which he's already known. The responses from correspondents who already "get the joke" make one feel as though they're peeking behind the Wizard's curtain.

Still, given the pungence of the concept and the quality of Novello's writing, this couldn't help but be another good read. It just couldn't possibly live up to the original volume.

This book takes off from the first Lazlo with some quite unexpected results: people whom you wouldn't expect are now aware of our dear Mr Toth. The McDonalds and, quite unbelievably, the Bush correspondence are wonderfully hilarious.

Lazlo Toth - Nixon-loving, airline-food-hating, Imelda-lusting, Russian-Federation-anthem-writing local nut and obsessive complainer - is back for another go at the politicians and corporations, Having talked up the first Lazlo book to my sons, I was anxious to share Don Novello's delightful humor with them. So I picked up the Volume 2 and opened it and random and read aloud the first couple of letters I came upon. They landed with a thud. Went over like a lead balloon. Or a fart in a funeral parlor.

Like the original, this volume consists of a series of chatty, off-kilter letters to famous people and organizations, with the purpose of soliciting unintentionally comical responses. To work, the letters must skate the fine edge between plausibility and absurdity. Sadly, Novello misses the edge nearly every time. Neither does he give an interesting or consistent personality to his fictitious writer, Lazlo Toth. Or appear to have any purpose other than to ridicule his targets. He doesn't reach for satire, or for social commentary beyond the rather pedantic realization that many famous public figures respond to most mail with stuffy form letters.

Maybe I'm getting old. More likely, Novello lost the ability to summon up the anarchic fun that made his first book so funny. Not to mention, some of his targets are onto him! When you get knowing responses from George H.W. Bush's secretary and from (yikes!) Ronald MacDonald --AND YOU PUBLISH THEM!! - something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

For the religiously sensitive (now *there's* something I wasn't when I first read Toth!) the book can be sacrilegious. Novello named his hero for the insane person who defaced Michelangelo's `Pieta' back in the 70s. As if that's not insensitive enough, Toth writes to the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to report a phony miracle (something involving chewing gum) through the intercession of California's St. Junipero Serra. This results in a couple of rounds of responses with the cardinal from the Congregation, but goes no further. Had Novello developed Toth's fictitious "St. Junipero Serra Prayer Group" a little more, the accumulated bemused responses might have been slightly humorous. As it is, his miracle correspondence is one of a collection of tossed-off jokes.

The funniest exchanges (and there are a few) provoke shocked responses from the recipients. For instance, Toth's insistence on repopulating the war-depleted Kuwait Zoo with American squirrels and raccoons gets a panicky response from the organization actually involved. And it is surprising how many rather large organizations (GM and Anheiser-Busch) actually seem to read at least some letters and respond to them individually. Most of Toth's letters, though, are just pranks - bearding the lion in its own den.

I wanted to give the book a 2, but for some reason felt the urge to finish it. Maybe I was hoping that the humor would all come together by the end. Alas, it did not. But to give it a 3 implies that it is worth another read. And that, dear reader, is something I cannot imagine.

This is an incredibly funny book! Where else can you find a letter written by Ronald McDonald?

Now that we have imitation Lazlo Toth's - even the Jerkey Boys are derivative, aren't they! - let's not forget that the same guy who puts on the big hat and sunglasses can be someone else when he wants to be.

I just wish he would have lunch with me at Sushi-To-Die-For?

Are you game?