Customer Reviews

Who Cut The Cheese? - An A-Mazing Parody about Change (and How We Can Get Our Hands on Yours)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a big fan of office humor books (Dilbert is my patron saint) but nothing I've read until now prepared me for the relentless flurry of hilarious jokes in Dr. Jarlsberg's "Who Cut the Cheese?" If you're eating, you'll choke. If you're drinking coffee, you'll shoot it out your nose. If you're wearing good clothes, you'll wet yourself. If you're reading the book in church, you'll go to Hell. It's THAT funny! I experienced real pain at being forced to read the original (and distinctly UN-funny) "Who Moved My Cheese?" at work. Now I'm glad I did, if only to enhance my appreciation of this little hand grenade of a parody. I'm buying a handful to give as office gifts for the holidays (okay, so I'm cheap). Hint - there are jokes hidden everywhere in this book, so don't overlook the fine print. On the copyright page, in microtype, it says "printed on acid free paper because the stuff with acid burned our fingers." Hey, you've GOT to love a book like this!

Someone had to do it. The legions of working people who have to put up with a boss or a HR manager who takes to heart the asinine and prosaic teachings of Ken Blanchard (One Minute Manager) and his ilk needed someone to write a book like this to verify that they have not gone mad and that some management books really have gotten dumbed-down to the point that "Who Moved My Cheese" can become a serious bestseller. This book is amusing, and it takes all of fifteen minutes to read, but it really deserves to be purchased; and then anonymously mailed to every clueless boss who thinks grown people should be treated like children.

Whoa! Don't be fooled by the "parody" label: this is a profound and expertly crafted book. The casual reader should not overlook the subtle hidden messages of this volume. I found that the themes and symbols of the work did not become clear until I had re-read the book several times, and purchased additional copies as gifts for my friends and acquaintances. The anagrams, palindromes, and crytograms scattered willy-milly throughout the text are worth the price of admission. Some of the wordplay is so obscure that James Joyce or Lewis Carroll would weep (with pleasure!). A truly great mind and potent personality is tantalizing us behind the nom de brilliance, "Stilton Jarlsberg." Expect great things from this volume...the author is truly a Master of Life.

For those out there who have felt forced, or coerced by management, to have to read the book, "Who moved my cheese", you will immediately see the immense humor of this parody by Jarlsberg. Sadly, you will also see the truth. In page layout, writing style and book size, "Who Cut the Cheese" is an incredibly funny, yet all too true, twisted retelling of the small, best-selling management book.

Do not feel that you have to read "Who Moved My Cheese" in order to appreciate the humor of this book. It stands alone...and is a much better read, frankly. And if you must waste money on yet another business management book, why not have some fun with it? Change IS good after all!

One can only wonder if the sole purpose behind reading the other book, "Who moved my cheese" is just to make long-time, loyal employees pack their bags and leave their companies in search of real cheese elsewhere...and some respect. To seek out employment in a place where the people you work for might appreciate the fact that you do indeed have a brain. Because there is nothing in that book that most employees don't already know about managing change.

Jarlsberg's book, however, cleverly uncovers what's really going on in workplaces today. He shows how employees find their own unique, if not sometimes underhanded or downright evil, ways of coping with change, and that change can be good. And the authors didn't even pay me a dime to say all that, although they are laughing their way to the bank, I'd imagine. So, too, are the authors of that other cheese book...I think, buying this one instead, is money better spent.

Stilton Jarlsberg has taken all of the most inane elements of Spencer Johnson's "Who Moved My Cheese?" and wrapped them up into one big hilarious "cheese ball." This little book packs its pages with wickedly on-target spoofs of all the fads currently afflicting corporate America: simplistic mottos, incompetent bosses, and "change for change's sake." Highly recommended!

If you read _Who Moved my Cheese?_, you will definitely appreciate the wit and humor behind this book. Snitch and Scamper are two rats that you have to watch out for. Hi and Ho are the little people that are trying to survive in this cutthroat maze we call the business world. The four friends' story that bookend the Maze Story is much more real to life than the story in the original book. If I were to pick which of the characters I am, I would have to be the little person (I got Hi and Ho mixed up) that tried to make it on his own by searching the maze and writing the phrases on the wall. A great laugh!

Do not, under any circumstance, read this book in a team-building meeting. You might get fired or worse, promoted. It is "laugh-out-loud," funny, witty, wry, saracastic and fairly helpful. I mean, now I know why I didn't get the jobs I should have gotten. Drats, had I just read this book who knows where I'd be today. All paradody's are not created equal. The orginal Cheese book was "ripe" for satire because, it actually took itself seriously. Hello? And its outstanding sales are a scary commentary on our sound bite generation of business cheesewhiz kids. Who Cut the Cheese, cuts the mustard as far as lampoons go. Just carefully choose who you share it with. One guy I read aloud to started to tear up. Seems the orginal cheese book affected him quite deeply and he was not amused at the jabs. Ah well.

Actually, the cheese that is being grilled is Spencer Johnson's "Who Moved My Cheese?" This book is, in my not so humble opinion, a perfect parody - the look, the feel, the whole mental state. The big difference is that "Who Cut the Cheese?" is gut rippingly funny! If you measure humor in laughs-per-page, this book is the value of the Millenium. If you're stressed out from work, or from self-help books, Dr. Jarlsberg definitely has the cure. Highest ratings!!

The author certainly knows the ins, outs, and general insanity of corporate groupthink and does a great job of turning it into comedy. To really appreciate the book you need to read "Who Moved My Cheese?" first. Which is maybe the only reason I can think of that you'd actually WANT to read that book. "Who Cut The Cheese?" delivers big laughs in a small package.

Thank heaven for humour and humourists!!-Here I was, literally forced to read "Who moved my cheese" (the serious one!)which was given to me as an Xmas gift. While all the points made good common sense(stating the entirely obvious at a high price) I didn't think mice were entirely appropriate to illustrate the "game of life " or "law of the jungle". When Stilton Jarlsberg came along with the "RATS", that all changed. This parody tells it like it is, with a good many twisted jokes tossed in for good measure. Essentially, this book takes the "goody-two shoes" terms of the Spencer Johnson M.D. book and applies them to real life where things are as as they actually exist, not as you wish them to be. This book is essential to succeed in modern day management and to hone your street survival skills in our modern and turbulent world.
Enjoy!! Reread!! Absorb!! If worst comes to worst, you can always burn it!!