Customer Reviews

Guilty by Reason of Stupidity

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

 

 

A noted Amazon reviewer once said, "Stupidity Sells!" No publisher has embraced that mantra more than Andrews McMeel Publishing, whose imprint seems to be on most of the titles on the subject. GUILTY BY REASON OF STUPIDITY is their latest offering, author Joel Seidemann presenting 125 examples of dumb-dumb-dumbness involving the U.S. legal system.

Judging by Seidmann's book, stupidity is an equal-opportunity employer, striking lawyers, judges, plantiffs and defendants alike. So, we get the straight skinny on: the California city employee who sued the city when one of its dump trucks backed into his car (minor point here: he was driving the truck!); the D.C. policeman who ticketed a man for jaywalking (as he lay bleeding and unconscious on the road!); the New York judge who asked a defendant if he was a gambling man (and then flipped a coin to decide the guy's sentence!); the Southern California lawyer who sued GTE for listing him under "Reptiles" in its Yellow Pages (no comment!); and so on.

As with similar McMeel titles, GUILTY BY REASON OF STUPIDITY is good, clean, inexpensive fun. OK, maybe half the time you're shaking your head in disbelief but overall it's still a fun book.

Truth is more entertaining than fiction, because fiction needs to be realistic. Okay, so I stole the quote. Here's some original advice to make up for it. This book went missing the day I got it. It was instantly grabbed up by my four teenagers and then by my wife. So if you share a living space, be sure to buy two copies. Now back to the book review. This book is from the author who brought us "In the Interest of Justice", a compilation of the most serious and erudite rants of our jurisprudence. But as for me, when I'm tired of ranting and too cynical to rave, I could use a good laugh. Did I mention that you should read this book?

If you're a fan of 'dumb crook news' or 'the Darwin Awards', then you'll definitely want to add "Guilty by Reason of Stupidity" by Joel J. Seidemann to your reading list. Seidemann is a DA who put together this collection of funny, strange, and downright weird legal suits, judgements, and outright shenanigans!

From the infamous Wendy's chili finger to cases involving what I would term deviant acts with livestock, they're all here and commented on with acerbic wit and a keen eye for the ridiculous. At just under 200 pages, "Guilty by Reason of Stupidity" is a very quick overall read, but the stories are separated and sized so you can easily read just a few a day to keep that smile on your face. The size is perfect for sneaking into your (or your boss', if he has a sense of humor) briefcase or purse so you can share the hilarity with your fellow workers. I hope Joel J. Seidemann can be persuaded to search his archives and provide some more legalistic humor--if for no other purpose than to hopefully fend off more lawsuits like the ones he profiles in "Guilty by Reason of Stupidity"!

Guilty by Reason of Stupidity by Joel Seidemann is one of those books that you can pick up and read a few anecdotes when you have only a moment or you can sit and read from cover to cover in one sitting. Yet no matter how you read it, when you put it down, you walk away with a smile on your face and a shake of your head just not believing that people can really be as dumb as they are in the stories. To copy a quote from Tru TV - "you just can't make these things up." The best part is stupidity doesn't seem to know any boundaries. It doesn't seem to matter which side of the law you are on, whether you a judge or a criminal. You can be a man or a woman, of any race or nationality or from any country.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a little or a lot of time who just likes to have a little chuckle or a big laugh once in a while and, hopefully, you won't see yourself in the book!

It's a pretty fast read, but I was expecting something a bit more humorous. Not all the cases were particularly noteworthy and the author's editorializing falls flat. I was hoping for something more along the lines of the courtroom chapters of Richard Lederer's books. This would make a decent bathroom book since it can be consumed in short segments.

Disappointing. It wasn't so much the various legal situations but rather a lack of closure. After describing the events ... nothing. Many cases had no resolution.

I thought this book was going to be in the same lines as the Darwin Books that are about 'thinning the heard'. Those books are laugh out loud hilarious. With this book you will get a couple of chuckles here and there but this isn't a book I would run out and purchase.