Customer Reviews

The Onion Ad Nauseam: Complete News Archives Volume 14

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

My daughter just gave me this hysterical collection as a birthday present, and all I can say is that I must have raised her right. This is a very, very funny collection. Yes, as one reviewer below stated, it is like the other collections. Is this a problem? Of course not! Is it somehow supposed to be unlike the other collections? How is it a criticism of The Onion to resemble The Onion? As far as the other reviewer who said that the previous volume was funnier, I don't know what to say. I found a great deal to laugh at, just as I found a great deal to laugh at in the past. I can't detect any decline in either the humor or the sharpness of it.

In an age that does not especially satire (one would need to read a great deal of historical material from various periods to see how this is an art that has somewhat died out), The Onion is arguably the richest source of political and social satire since the heyday of the weekend news on Saturday Night Live when Al Franken was providing much of the material.

The headlines are consistently priceless. "Bush on Economy: We Need to Get Saddam Now." "Judge Orders God to Break Up Into Smaller Deities." "Anti-Spam Legislation Opposed by Powerful Penis-Enlargement Lobby." As a Yo La Tenga fan (a very highly regarded indie rock band from NYC whom I have seen around 15 times live, for the uninitiated), I especially loved "37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tenga Concert Disaster." Sometimes the humor can be merely funny, but sometimes cutting, such as the one that shows a photo of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua beside the headline: "Starving Third World Masses Warned Against the Evils of Contraception."

Hopefully the Onion will be with us for a very, very long time, and I pray that their humor stays as sharp

Another fantastic year brings another fantastic Onion collection. This book contains the following features:
-Less profanity
-Less adult material
-Far more "passerby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood" comments (such as "I hope we can still be friends who never see each other," "That was a great Black History Month, "Are socks in fashion this season?" and many, many more)
-More, longer opinion/community voice pieces
-Plenty of articles with hilarious titles

Trust me, The Onion: Ad Nauseam 14 is a vast expansion of what made you laugh before.

Have you ever picked up a newspaper or turned on the nightly news, read the headline, and then thought to yourself, "Damn, who pays these guys?" If you have, then you have probably been craving all of your life a news source that will intrigue you. Yes, you want a paper that will intrigue, excite, titillate, and arouse you. Well I have some news for you, my friend: Your old paper isn't going to give you any of this, so throw it away. You read correctly. Don't even think twice about it; throw it right in the trash. Now that you've completed the most crucial step in this process, you must continue onto step two.
"What's step two?" You are probably dying to know by now. Well, I will tell you what step two is! Step two is going to Amazon.com and buying The Onion: Ad Nauseam (edited by Robert Seigal). That's just how good this book is. It will destroy any current event going on in the daily news, smash it to pieces, and then replace it with satirical stories of old news.

If you haven't noticed already, this Ad Nauseam is a compilation of news stories written by the greatest newspaper in the world: The Onion. If you've never heard of The Onion before, it's a satire newspaper that takes current events and actually makes them interesting! An excellent example of this is an article on page 145 entitled, "Pope Forgives Molested Children." This article illustrates the fact that Catholic priests messed up big time, while still keeping the reader interested.
But oh no, it doesn't just make it interesting by making fun of it. The writers actually use their brains to create these masterful articles! From cats being stuck in trees to the titanic hitting the iceberg, these brilliant writers systematically make fun of everything going on in the world.
If you aren't already booting up your computer to logon to Amazon.com immediately, I'd recommend you do so now. Also, after you get back, you should go to theonion.com and purchase a year's subscription to their newspaper. Any money you have left, you can proceed to PayPal it to me for writing such a life-changing article about the greatest newspaper article compilation in history.

Why do I love "The Onion" compilations? Because I can begin browsing through an edition in a bookstore with the intent of obtaining a chuckle or two, only to find that I am doubled over laughing at articles so insensitive and oh-so very wrong! The Onion produces, in individuals, priceless moments when we laugh hysterically while begging ourselves "Stop laughing, this is vile, and NOT FUNNY!"

For those of you who have yet to encounter The Onion, it is a satirical newspaper that attacks virtually everyone ---people both real and imaginary--- and mocks their most cherished political, religious, and domestic beliefs. Everybody and their brothers are humorously assaulted here: neither the liberal nor conservatives, rich nor poor, powerful nor pitiful are spared. The Onion is the rare case of an orchestrated Guajardian paper-raid. If The Onion were a newspaper delivered by the old-school bike-peddling paper boy, he might as well be chucking grenades upon the neighborhood doorsteps!

This particular edition is my personal favorite dishing of The Onion's inappropriate humor, with the crowning glory appearing on page 49 under the headline "Developmentally Disabled Senator Wants To Be Treated Like Any Other Lawmaker." You will probably not go to Heaven after reading that story. Articles that come close to this humor ratio include "Man Dies After Long And Painful Battle With Life" on page 21, and "Children, Creepy Middle-Aged Weirdos Swept Up In Harry Potter Craze" on page 25.

There are plenty of other great targets in this edition, from Smurf collectors to Bar-Trivia Champs to celebrity stalkers to celebrities.

Every compilation The Onion has issued is excellent, but "Ad Nauseam" is their finest publication!

I bought a used copy of Ad Nauseam: Vol. 14 for my husband's birthday, and we have laughed endlessly at the classic Onion humor from a decade ago. Edgy and smart, these articles are a snapshot of pop culture, politics, and world events, portrayed with the sarcasm and sense of irony that has defined our generation.

Funny as hell, like all the Onion books. The paper is funny too, but has way more ads and other real news.

If you like the humor of the National Lampoon or Saturday Night Live you will love this book. I laughed out loud at several pages.

For any humor book there are some duds but they are few and far between with this excellent book.

This is the type of book you will want to read aloud to friends.

Some poor taste and not PC which is what makes it great.

Enjoy!

The Onion is one of the most consistently hilarious publications ever made. With a combination of cynicism and erudition and a seemingly endless creative ability the writers of the Onion constantly churn out stories that make fun of our country, leaders, way of life, beliefs and more for the truly best of intentions: To make us laugh.

The latest installment includes a year's worth of comic gold. One of my favorite articles is the one about America's King returning from exile. Great stuff. For anyone who likes high-minded humor that one doesn't necessarily need to be 'high-minded' to love, I would recommend this and all the other Onion books. Regardless of your politics, religion, race, etc. you will surely find some great stories in here.

This Onion book is okay, but I found Vol. 13 to be much funnier...the best story I've found in this book so far is the one about the Mexican-Canadian overpass...

This latest collection from The Onion is just like all the other collections. Just not as funny.