Customer Reviews

Hilarity Ensues

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

 

 

I'll give him this: Tucker entertains. His stories are for the most part well written, and his third book is a fun and easy, albeit frivolous read. As usual, a good chunk of the book is just emails to and from his friends, some dating back years. That, coupled with multiple pages dedicated to his "sexting" with his core fan base, i.e. immature and insecure teenage girls, sort of undermines his claim of being a prolific writer.

Tucker is at his best when he writes about his friends' various idiosyncrasies. The chapter about his friend Hate was by far the funniest, containing some exemplary wit.

He is absolutely at his worst when he gives life advice. The "wisdom" he imparts is shallow, hackneyed, and hardly conducive to forming good character. At one point in the book, he suggests that kids shouldn't listen to anything their parents say, that they should just follow their own rules and the hell with the norm. So, when your dad preaches the importance of virtues such as loyalty, honor, fortitude, and honesty, just ignore the old man. Very rebellious, Tucker! This is painfully cliched and unenlightened advice.

By far the most disturbing chapter is on Miss Vermont.

It reveals a vindictive, pathologically narcissistic, and petty side of Tucker. He takes extreme pride in destroying a young, innocent girl for absolutely no good reason. He comes off as border-line sadistic in challenging Miss Vermont to write her version of events. Miss Vermont didn't want stories about her private sexual encounters published on the internet (who would?), yet Tucker takes delight in revealing intimate details about their relationship. Worse, he hides under the first amendment to justify his actions. Tucker fancies himself as a champion of free speech, when the real story is Tucker's cowardice in continuing to taunt a girl, whose privacy he had already shamelessly violated. Tucker feigns indignation at Miss Vermont's hypocrisy--her preaching chastity on the one hand, and not living up to it on the other. And that is apparently good enough reason for Tucker to go after her with a religious like fervor. He almost exudes moral righteousness that comes off as incredibly petty, creepy and vengeful. In short, the Miss Vermont story makes him look really small, vindictive and cowardly.

Hilarity Ensues is a fun read--with the salient exception of the Miss Vermont chapter--but it belies Tucker's delusion that he has grown or that he is an exceptional writer. He is still petty, at times bitter, and never particularly insightful.

Vacuous, juvenile, narcisstic babble. Target audience is teenage virgins with zero life experiences. Judging from the blogger scribbling attempts at plot development, dynamics, or even the most basic coherency...one would assume that is who wrote it.

Here's a synopsis of a typical groundbreaking "hilarious" story. Author goes somewhere with loser friends. Like a catty girl, he makes snarky comments about them constantly, while bragging about himself. Story is a yawnfest, so he exaggerates it into an epic legend. Insert love interest; an overweight, ugly girl. He insults her with lines he thought of over the last six months, while writing the book. Add a token gross event, or a lame fart joke. Scene ends. Soon thereafter, he sends dirty sex/insult texts to another girl; probably large, and with no self-esteem. Then he offers scholarly advice on life. I kid you not.

Oh. One glaring little problem. It's not funny. No hilarity ensues. No token knee slap. Not even a grin. It's as if the book itself is the joke, if not the unintentionally hilarious, misplaced arrogance. I mean really, really bad.

no thriller. Nothing that hilarious, I think the word is out and the jig is up. Made up stories pretending to be real are hilarious. Until people realize they're made up stories. His first book was funny though.

It is pretty well established by now that tucker max makes up and/or buys stories from other people. This should not be viewed as anything but fiction. There are multiple interviews of this joker that expose him as a fraud. His 15 minutes is more than up, and it is time for him to grow up and stop tainting the collective conscious with his tales of douchebaggery.

I have to say from the top, that I had never read any of Tucker's books before. I laughed until I cried the whole way through, and maybe that's because I wasn't familiar yet with his sense of humor.

In a big picture sense though, Hilarity Ensues says a lot about Tucker as a writer and a lot about our culture. Tucker's similies and analogies are on par with those that belong to CS Lewis, and his scene-setting is better than the James Patterson type garbage that pollutes most of our bookstores.

You'll enjoy this book if you have a sense of humor and you'll hate it if you don't. Of course it's in the humor section, but this is really a collection of stories about capitalism, friendship, living in the moment, counting your blessings, and knowing your strengths and weaknesses.

And that brings us to the biggest truth that "Hilarity Ensues" illustrates: There are four kinds of people in this world. Tuckers, Hates, Miss Vermonts, and Bunnys.

You may disagree with that assessment, and you may be right. The problem is, it's the Tuckers of the world that tell the best stories. Those that tell the best stories are the ones that document history. The world will be remembered according to their accounts.

It appears this book is the book with the leftover stories. I wish Tucker would've put stories in chronological order because the stories jump all over time during the last decade. First two books I felt had a subtle message being sent with the book, but this one does not have one. On a postive note I got some laughs out of the book.

I mean, this is just writing at it's best. It's honest, hilarious, and I dare say: MOVING. I really felt moved by some of the stories of how he stuck to his guns and really never gave up on what he wanted. Here's the KEY as to why this guy is amazing: his first two books written pretty much at a time where he was becoming famous, not totally famous yet and they were amazing. This one, is written I assume during 2011, when he was famous and HE NEVER LOST THE TOUCH of an amazing writer, in fact, he has improved. I would describe this as a "Self Help" book for anyone who needs to realize it is time to live life and enjoy it. Fantastic book, absolutely hilarious. I literally lost it reading the "Bear Mace" story. It doesn't get much better. And now, I am even watching "Deadliest Catch"....you will understand once you read the book. Congratulations Tucker. I will read anything you publish. Really a fantastic book. Your complete domination of Kathleen, Sr. was incredible. You stood up for what was right! Go Tucker!

If you haven't read Tucker Max, don't start with this book. Go to the beginning or you will hate this book. For Tucker fans, this one is a bit different than his first two efforts. This book doesn't have the graphic bedroom scenes that contained some of his best material. Instead, it really focuses more on meeting women and insulting them relentlessly. There are some funny stories, just not quite the same.

Another thing different about this book is the way Tucker rationalizes his behavior. He spends a lot of time using psychology to categorize every woman into about 5 different groups and justifies his behavior accordingly. Not bad, but I probably wouldn't take his advice too much on judging people. To be honest, I'm not sure I even take him seriously but it does make for some very funny stories though.

The downsides start with price. I just don't think this is a $13 (price corrected) e-book. I bought it so that is my fault. But, I'd wait on the actual paperback. Another thing is it wastes a lot of space (to fill the book). The sexting parts were mostly funny (and very odd) but the graphics made about 1 page of text take up more than 20. The middle of the book covers the Miss Vermont episode in detail. Completely out of place for things he is known for and probably better suited for an auto-biography.

Overall, very well written. The stories are funny, though there are a lot fewer than previous books. A good read for sure, just not sure it is worth the price tag.

Saving the best for last, this part is an excellent addition to this trilogy. This book promises drunken debauchery and ridiculous antics and surely does not disappoint. With questionable behavior, situations, and material you will be transported to earlier and more exciting time in your life. Trust me, I literally had flashbacks and déjà vu concerning my college career--I now remember why that time was the time of my life! This book truly goes above and beyond the two previous, and it definitely makes a statement by itself. You would think this book would be mediocre in terms of writing, however, it is eloquently and ingeniously written, making the most boring situation hilarious and entertaining! However, as a disclaimer, I will say this is not for the saint or faint at heart (this definitely contains some mature content, however, it certainly does not subtract from the storyline one bit). With that being said, every time I open this book, I laugh by butt off. Seriously, even I want to learn CPR now! I literally can not believe he did half the things, however, they are amazing stories. The pictures also add a certain personal and special touch to the story. Trust me the hilarity truly ensues after the first two, and continues to echo this novel! 5/5 stars!

What works with Max's third installment of drunken misadventures from his 20's is that we finally begin to see Max really begin to grow as a writer. He writes through reflection and what I think he really tries to accomplish here is an effective segue into a writing career not solely based on entertaining readers with drinking stories. Even though he calls himself out on delving into things readers may not be interested in by asking readers to skip whole sections if they "don't want to read it", I enjoyed his reflection and reading about his thoughts in the present tense about things that had happened to him in the past, most notably a near-debilitating libel lawsuit.

But yes, of course, "Hilarity Ensues" is absolutely hilarious. While searching to move beyond writing these stories, Max still quenches the appetite of those who still read his books for what his first two provided: outrageous drinking stories shrouded in sarcasm, misogyny, and sexual endeavors. And of course, these will appeal to his target audience.

Ultimately though, I appreciate Tucker's newly discovered reflective side. It's obvious that he isn't the same person who did all of the things he writes about in his book anymore. I look forward to see what he comes out with next.