Customer Reviews

Family Guy: Stewie's Guide to World Domination

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a big fan of Stewie, and might go so far as to say I think he is somewhere on the short list of best cartoon characters of all time. however this tome, as Stewie refers to it, leaves me wanting a bit.
I haven't finished the book, as it's been relegated to the bathroom. A perfect spot for it, I think. Not because it stinks, but rather it's only amusing in smaller doses.
Much of Stewie's appeal is in the delivery, his humor doesn't quite make the translation to the written page.
Don't get me wrong it's funny at times, I just haven't cracked up the way I do watching the show.

Overall, this book is nothing to write home about. Don't get me wrong now - I'm a huge Family Guy fan, and I love Stewie. Steve Callaghan - a producer and writer for Family Guy from its very first season - did a great job writing this book as though it was written by Stewie, and at times it's quite amusing. Unfortunately, Stewie's sarcastic and misanthropic wit isn't half as funny on paper as it is coming from Seth McFarlane's mouth and with his brilliant delivery, and most of the jokes here are stale and predictable - quite a lot of them were actually recycled from the show. More than that I was disappointed by the artwork - which is all snatched directly from the Family Guy episodes, hardly any new material was made freshly for the book.

In direct comparison with Bart Simpson's Guide to Life, Stewie's Guide to World Domination is less an original work and more an excuse to suck a few more bucks from the show's fans. Perhaps Family Guy just doesn't have enough years behind it to be as mythological as the Simpsons; or perhaps the book could have been funnier had Seth himself written it, but I doubt that would have made much difference. Stewie just isn't that funny on paper. Mind you, the devoted Family Guy will want to add it to his merchandise collection (I'd like to use this opportunity to point out that I'm wearing my Brian Griffin boxer shorts as I'm writing these very lines) but keep your expectations low. And for anyone else, you'll probably get very little out of it.

I am a big Family Guy fan; I have seasons 1-3 on DVD, tape the new episodes when they air on Sunday nights on Fox, and can't wait for season 4 to be on DVD. However, I have to say that "Stewie's Guide to World Domination" was rather disappointing. It seems as though Steve Callaghan is just trying to get rich from putting the "Family Guy" stamp on this book. Many of the jokes are rehashed from episodes of seasons 1-3. And instead of using this book as an opportunity for fresh new visual gags, there are simply just pictures from various episodes with maybe a few photoshopped words added to them. In the end, I gave it 2 stars becasue there are a few good one liners, but I think that it is "Stewie's" voice that really makes lines like those work and you really can't get that from a book. An audiobook with Seth Macfarlane reading the book with the Stewie voice may have been a better idea.

Even though Stewie Griffin him self is only 1 year old I would recommend readers of this book be at least 12 and older for explicit the content written. Ok. In case the sarcasim was a bit misleading this is classic Family Guy. Filthy language and shocking dialog concentrated from the mouth and mind of the youngest quick witted Griffin family member. Stewie will school you with a perspective sharpened from a dozen months of miscalculated matriarcal assassinations.

Worth a read for family guy fans! It was a birthday gift for my friend and she loved it =)

I never thought that adaptations of TV shows onto books was a good idea, because they lack the full experience that TV brings forward. But this book along with the other Family Guy books deliver that same effect. The book was well written and stayed true to Stewie's character, when reading you can't help but hear Stewie in his English accent reciting it in your head. You can consider this a 90+ page rant about the world, and who better to interpret the world than Stewart Gilligan Griffin? Some good laughs, it is a must buy for any true Family Guy fan. I've purchased every FG book to date and have yet to be disappointed (with the exception of Stewie's: School of Hard Knocks Book, $10 for a book where the consumer would have to write up more than the author did, it sucked, but life goes on) Buy this book.

My whole family loves Family Guy, so I bought this as a gift for my father (who normally doesn't read at all). Come Christmas morning, he couldn't put it down, and the laughs just never ended. Haven't read it yet myself, but I'm sure it must be hilarious...

Oswald Spengler predicted a protracted winter in The Decline of The West. Spengler wasn't alone in his depiction of a distopian society where fashion reigns over utility, luck is dominant, bureaucracy squelches progress and the rich have a firm hold on the reigns of an incipient global culture. Spengler was one of the first to be taken seriously.

Stewie's Guide to WORLD DOMINATION [sic] is a ray of sunshine for a winter day of our decline. In Spengler's seasonal taxonomy of decline, winter is the final phase. Spengler writes that one cue of a culture in winter is an increasingly authoritative government. In an authoritarian government, clearly stating your perception is not a fiscally sustainable option.

"...if I were to confess to knowing that the entire enterprise is a sham, then that delicious stream of cold, hard cash that appears under my pillow following the loss of a tooth gets suddenly cut off, doesn't it?"
--Stewie Griffin
Transcribed by Steve Callaghan

Spengler separates culture from civilization. Yes, the two are intertwined, but culture reflects the people while civilization reflects the aspirations of global domination, requiring increasingly authoritarian leaders who represent power rather than being powerful on their own. A culture of war masks itself in fashion and subverts education into specialized academic philosophy with obvious discrepancies from reality.

Stewie calls out that the basis of American education, the three Rs doesn't represent three Rs: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. Stewie suggests that we might be better served by the acronym W.A.R.

"there's no country that likes `W.A.R. more than our own...blame the Boss Hoggs of the world who got the whole enterprise off on the wrong foot with this `thre Rs' nonsense."
--Stewie Griffin

Spengler predicted a focus on lavish sport entertainment as the final cues of the closing of culture and the domination of civilization, where work looses meaning for the affluent as sports becomes the substitute for meaning in one's life. Stewie deftly reveals both of these cues at once as he discusses a typical civilization workplace.

"you are rotting your brain...find yourself having to alternately ask and then answer the terribly probing and provocative question, `Did you have a nice weekend?' forty-seven different times. And let's face it: Despite the fact that most of the replies should fall along the lines of, `Well, I spent most of Saturday and Sunday trying to ignore the loveless marriage and spoiled brats I've surrounded myself with while being tranquilized by the narcotic of back-to-back-to-back NFL football in order to keep myself from pondering the very real possibility that I might be gay.'"
--Stewie Griffin

Stewie is a ray of light, warming our winter day. Spengler holds that winter is devoid of symbolic art. In a civilization's winter art is replaced by a meaningless fashion dialogue. Stewie staves off the meaninglessness of our encroaching civilization by disseminating symbolic art about our civilization in Stewie's Guide to WORLD DOMINATION, Helped into print by Steve Callaghan; Perennial Currents, 2006.

Cartoons originally intended for children and family entertainment, so most would think. However after viewing the following two cartoons, such as Family Guy and South park parents should definitely be aware all cartoons are not for children and family entertainment. Family Guy depicts sexually explicit scenes, profanity, sexuality portrayed by society, racism and demoralizes the church. South Park has sexuality, innuendos, and explicit profanity. Parents cannot be with their children at all times, but should they have to worry about what cartoons their children are watching? cartoons of this nature can entice the wrong audience, and age group of children. Do shows of this nature have to be shown as a cartoon? Do most parents even realize these cartoons, of this nature exist? Parents should be aware that all cartoons are not designed for children. Society seems to have made a large impact on what sells and what kind of products sell, however looking at the moral and ethical side Family Guy should not be a televised program, or even made in the cartoon form, as this is not a family valued show and should not be given the opportunity to be seem by the wrong audience.

Its a great book but it won't help you take over the world, which was my sole purpose for buying the book.