Customer Reviews

SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy from a Plane

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've seen Kasper Hauser live numerous times over the past 6 years. I've seen them play to sold-out standing-ovation houses. I've even cried during their shows. But this book is hands-down their most hysterical achievement in a long long line of hysterical achievements. Buy this book. Buy it for friends. Buy it for strangers. Just buy it. And then read it. Or make your friends read it. Or your strangers. Then come back here and tell me how right I am. I like to know that I'm right. Cuz with this book, I'm right. Selections from this book will be shown to guests at my house for years to come.

I don't know who these guys are, but this is a really, really funny book. Are they with Saturday Night Live or something? The Onion? The products in their book, SkyMaul, are so twisted and unexpected and funny. I couldn't put this thing down. I read it all in one sitting. The Hitler/Werewolf night light! Who thinks of that? Whatever their next book, I'm in line to buy 12 of them. Very, very funny!

If you're a fan of any of the above: The Onion, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Monty Python, Kids in the Hall, Strangers with Candy, Rosemary's Baby, the films of Todd Solondz, They Might Be Giants or Ween, you will LOVE THIS BOOK! It is the most original, ingenius piece of comedy I've seen in years. Just saying the word "Banana-Ganizer" sends me into a fit of feel- good hysterics. And I have my Christmas shopping done! Thank you Kasper Hauser!

The surrealist comedy troupe Kasper Hauser puts their unique spin on airborne shopping with this wonderful spoof of the utterly ludicrous offerings of SkyMall catalogs. I was especially entertained by the narrative of "A Message From SkyMaul's CEO..." extolling how shopping saved his life (in Las Vegas, of course) and kept his family ("lovely wife, Pfepfer," "two children, Horace and Candy," and "Labrador buddy, Melchus") together. With that premise firmly ingrained, the catalog moves from the twisted and bizarre, to the surreal and other-worldly.

It's impossible for me to pick my favorite product in the catalog, though I think the Llamacycle would be near the top of the list. I also loved the concept of the "'Cut Above' Electronic Hair-Salon-Naming Computer," ("Hairly Legal," "Shave Me, I'm Drowning," "Banged 'n' Feathered," "From Hair to Eternity," etc.), which with additional modules can also help name your scone cart, coffee shop, or crepe restaurant. The scientific part of my brain loved the "Air Straightener," while the animal lover in me liked the "'Moby Dick' Hamster Coffin." Perhaps my favorite concept in the book is the collection of "motivational posters" from "Probletunity Knocks." I utterly loathe motivational posters, so mocking them was a certain hit with me. For the extremely deranged there's the "Hitler-Turning-into-Werewolf Nightlight," sure to be useful because it's "new monitor function allows the wolf's eyes to follow you or your baby around the room and emits a 'safety growl' anytime someone moves toward it."

Although the type of humor in the catalog is occasionally a bit base, the book is funny across the board and is the definitive skewering of the excremental products in the actual SkyMall catalog.

The only bad thing about this book is that it isn't a real catalog. Sit back in your favorite chair, close your eyes, and imagine a world without camel toe.

It's true! I probably wasn't lying. I mean I bought the book, I read the book, I even showed it to my friends and family. You're just gonna have to trust me. It's really funny. The pictures are great the words are fantastic and the authors handsome. It's everything that you would expect in separate packages, due to the size and scope of hilarity, in one package! A big package... a big, cheap, funny, fantastic... handsome package. Buy it for Christmas if you must but really why not just get it now? Maybe 2 so you can read 2 different pages at once. Like putting a tv on top of another tv. You can buy a hundred of them and replace the bibles with them at your church. You can put one in a time capsule and then when future people open it up they won't catch the humor and think we were real loons (stupid future people). You can even just prop it open above your two TVs and look at the pictures during commercials.

Anyways, and in conclusion I really wish you would buy this book, and I really don't care what you do with it.

I cannot stop going on about this book. It is hilairous! All I have done since reading it is try to quote it to everyone I see. Get the book so you don't have to hear my badly rephrased version. Kasper Hauser, who wrote this book, are some of the most brilliant writers and sketch comics of our time. If you have a chance, see them. Regardless you can buy this book and bask in their comedic genius. P.S. I am not related to them.

There are times when parody transcends rote imitation and becomes social satire. In the past 30 years or so, we've had "The National Lampoon's High School Yearbook" and The Daily Show's "America: The Book." SkyMaul belongs next to those seminal works.

I bought the book because I found the concept amusing, and I'd heard great things about Kasper Hauser -- but when I actually cracked it open, I was stunned. This book isn't a bunch of one-note gags -- each product, no matter how silly (The Banana-Ganizer) or dark (Hitler Becoming Werewolf Nightlight) has a lovingly crafted description that multiplies the laughs tenfold.

I think we've got a vital new voice in American satire, here. SkyMaul is something special.

I have gotten so much mileage from this gem of a book. It has had me in tears on my morning commute, and at home from laughing so hard I kind of freaked out my dog. It has been the ultimate gift for anyone I deem "worthy" enough to appreciate the brilliant and twisted wit of Kasper Hauser. Mark my words: this book will catapult KH to superstardom. A must-read!!!!

I saw these guys at the Co Co County fair in 1997. AWESOME! They had entered a Dutch Belted Milker (honorable mention) AND killed at the Tuesday night open mic. Now this?? Sixty year timer? Some golf clubs? If only there was a real place to get all of this hilarious stuff!!