Customer Reviews

The Football Fan's Manifesto

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Football Fan's Manifesto is a humorous take on Football fandom in America, written by one of the co-founders of the irreverent, and therefore absolutely essential Football blog Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Though humorous, the book is a near perfect encapsulation of what it means to be a Football fan, much like Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch was for soccer. This makes it the perfect gift for not only hardcore fans themselves, but also for Football widows seeking to understand their disturbed partner's psyche. Also great for newcomers to the game(where have you been?) and foreign visitors seeking a better understanding of American culture.

One of the best books written on Football in the past 30 years, your football season won't be complete unless you buy a copy!

This book was given to me as a christmas present by a co-worker. I'm a big sports fan and do enjoy reading KSK. This book however was just another in an ever growing family that proves that what works on blogs doesn't translate into print. When I pick up a book or open a newspaper I expect (and hope) to have my senses given a B-12 shot and have the author's words paint a picture in my head, or get me thinking about things I'd never really thought about. I hope to read interesting stories that might give me a greater appreciation for something, I don't need a bunch of cliches and vulgar jokes. Reading this book was like reading a 300 page fark thread. Where as people like Will Leitch & Bill Simmons can write great books and be popular bloggers, Tunison is only a popular blogger with a talent for short form sports humor & insults. He doesn't have a way with words and can't carry books. Aside from co-writing a screen play with Tucker Max, I don't think Tunison should venture off the web. What would have been several good reads on KSK was just a tough book to sit through, and I did get to a point where I was forcing myself to finish it. I'm not saying that all books need to be squeaky clean passion pieces, I in fact found Drew Magary's book very fun to read. I suppose to make a long story short, I don't think Michael Tunison is very good writer, but Christmas Ape is an f'ing awesome blogger.

I keep falling into the same trap: funny bloggers rarely make funny authors. "The Football Fan's Manifesto" by Kissing Suzy Kolber stalwart Mike Tunison is a case in point.

A snarky (what, a blogger who cops a snarky attitude? Get out) take on how to be a fan of an NFL team, Tunison hits the expected notes (pick a team to root for young, never change allegiance ever, hit fans of other teams in the balls with bricks, etc.) and makes sure to shoehorn in the occasional commentary snidely referencing the fact that NFL owners and players give two tugs of a dead dog's dick about their fans so it's all pretty much a waste of time, money and emotional investment anyways.

The book follows the lifetime of an average fan, starting with picking out a favorite team as a child, progressing through learning how to insult fans of other teams, arranging college life around football, how to pick a spouse that won't interfere with being a fan, etc and so on through death (even though, as Al Davis aptly proves, death is no reason to stop being involved with football).

Sections on each team's city and respective fanbases, larded with insults tailored to each are chuckle-worthy, even if the insults are mostly of the "take a word for some genitalia and combine with a meaningless noun to form New Insult #487" stripe. I particularly giggled at the expected gibes against terrible franchises like the Redskins or Raiders. I certainly chuckled out loud a few times here and there.

The problem is, this style of writing makes for an excellent blog post, but not so much for an excellent book. Blog posts tends towards the timely, so taking three minutes to read a complete website post full of sharp jibes about yesterday's game is going to have an impact that reading 300 pages of not-timely slams about an entire league and lifestyle just can't match.

I'd probably have enjoyed this book more if I were the sort of reader who reads multiple books at a time, cherry-picking chapters here and there based on mood. But I'm not; I read one book at a time to make sure I'm as immersed as possible in whatever the author's trying to make me care about. So, by about a third of the way through the book, when the jokes about how bad the Raiders are begin to repeat and Tunison's struggling to find a seventh funny way to describe your average football fan as a drunken, emotionally-stunted manchild with commitment issues towards everything BUT his favorite pigskin squad, well... it grew tiresome.

I'd recommend any of the websites Tunison writes for unreservedly; he's a sharp, funny blogger, at his best when dishing out a few minutes' worth of scathing commentary on current sports happenings. As an author, he needs to find a way to liberate his humor from the specifics of a given football season and go for a more universal theme; after all, calling somebody a "pussybasket" has applications FAR beyond just insulting Packers fans.

I like the style of writing and author is witty and sarcastic. I've found myself smiling or laughing from time to time and it's an easy read. I'm not done yet but so far so good. I recommend it for any football fan.

I've been a fan of Mr. Tunison's irreverent, offensive, and downright hilarious work on the website kissingsuzykolber.com for years. I bought this book in the hopes that Tunison (or Christmas Ape, as he is called on the site) would copy the successful formula he uses on his website. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. This book is BORING, lazy, and totally unfunny. The author clearly has no idea what he's doing in this medium, and the best parts of this book do not equal even the worst parts of his website. I would recommend this only to people who need something to put them to sleep.

Quite a funny book, with the same quality humor expected from Deadspin/KSK. Must have for any true football fan.