Customer Reviews

You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant : 101 Real Dumb Laws

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

 

 

This collection of dumb laws does provide entertainment. Each page is one dumb law, followed by an explanation of it, and the majority of them are funny. However, there are only 101 laws in this book, and in total it takes about 10 minutes to read. Also, it isn't funny enough to the point where you can keep rereading it.

The question, then, is whether the book is worth buying. Unless you plan on putting it on your coffee table for party amusement, it really doesn't provide the amount of humor you pay for.

The authors have found a couple of really dumb laws, but most of the book features unusual scenarios that the authors create that are technically illegal. The title is an example of this. The law actually states that the fire hydrant should not be blocked by anything- so yes, it would be illegal to tie the alligator to the fire hydrant. But is that really a dumb law? Each page features one law and the authors comments. Not much substance to this book.

Sorry guys, but this is the dumbest book I have read in a long time. I bought it thinking it would be good beach reading and, boy, was I wrong. Being eaten by seagulls would have been less painful than enduring this drivel. A little thought into this project would have proved helpful as many of the laws quoted were instituted for very good reasons such as the law regarding ice cubes in El Paso. Do you want to buy ice cubes that were produced across the border with their stellar health regulations. Most books of this type are quite entertaining, but not this one. It's just plain stupid.

This is a book by two kids. It started off as a school project. The idea is to list laws that seem very strange, dumb or just plain off-the-wall. It could have been a good book but it needs a little more research.

Each page has a catchy phrase about some law. The title of the book is one such phrase. There is then some of the text of the law it refers to. Unfortunately, sometimes the blurb is actually the direct opposite of the law given. I found this to be really unforgivable in such a book. Very often I got the idea that the authors just didn't understand the language used in the laws and sometime I felt they never read them in the first place.

Still, there are some dumb laws that they did get right. But really, there should have been a lot more attention paid before this ever saw print.

This book is actually pretty bad. Many, if not most of the laws listed are actually not stupid. Not to mention that many of the section titles are pretty misleading.

For instance, they say in La Plata, Maryland, it's illegal to drive a cab with only three doors. What the law actually says is that a cab or car for rental has to have four doors. Which is not all that unreasonable! The authors state it as if cars with three doors were the most common thing ever and their prohibition was sheer nonsense! No. Cars come in either two or four doors most of the time. The law was most likely written to prevent cabs with only two doors rather than cabs with three doors!

Another example of the kind of really bad and misleading journalism these guys are doing. "In Texas one needs to pay an annual fee of 25 dollars for a licence to own a dead alligator". Again, they seem to suggest that at some point people keeping a dead alligator all year long was rampant in Texas, so the state decided to regulate the practice by charging a 25 dollar annual fee. I would have been shocked to learn that was the case. The way the law is stated just says that someone would have to pay 25 dollars for a licence to hunt an alligator, which, again, is not unreasonable at all!

I could go on for almost each of the remaining 99 laws but I hope that was enough to make my point.

This book is hilarious! Even funnier is that dumb laws still exist, and in the USA of all places. Talk about "rational ignorance"! And it took high-schoolers to bring the dumbness of it all to attention. The book illustrations are great. This is not superior non-fiction, for sure. It is enjoyable, and I loved, nonetheless. You will too, I bet.

Amavilah, Author

[...]

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The book was written by high school seniors that wanted to focus on strange laws that are on the books. However, they fail to realize that some of the laws make perfect sense, because they don't posess the necessary experience to understand why the laws are necessary.
Also, in a few cases, they completely misinterpret the laws to mean something that has little to nothing to do with the law at hand.

For evidence, the title is incorrect. Not because the law doesn't name alligators (it doesn't), but rather because the way it is written, a person has the option of tying the alligator to the fire hydrant. They should have excluded the italics if they wanted to say that there is a lawa against tying the alligator up.

I would not only recommend that these two young men write another equally witty book, but I would love some pointers on how to become so famous at such a young age! This is a great coffee table book for funlovers of all ages. I enjoyed the dry humor, as well as the topic (which, by the way, came from the authors' equally humorous and successful website dumblaws.com). Its not everyday that one sees such a fresh new idea...I mean how many Dilbert or Dr. Seuss cofffee table books can one have?

hilarious... worth buying and reading over and over again. see down for mirinda's review. it sums up my thoughts exactly.

I thought I was doing the nice folks a favor when I tied my dog Snuckles to the fire hydrant while I went into the 7-ll for a slushy and a ding-dong. However to my horror, when I came out of the store I found an alligator swallowing my dog. He then got his head and teeth stuck around the leash. Before I could do anything a police officer came up to me and asked if that was my alligator tied to the fire hydrant. I told him that I had never seen that alligator before in my life. He then asked me if that was my leash and I told him it was. Unfortunately, just then a fire broke out across the street and the fire trucks soon arrived. However, the fireman couldn't get to the fire hydrant as a vicious alligator was guarding it. The whole building burnt down and I was arrested and charged for tying an alligator to a fire hydrant and blocking a fire hydrant that was needed during a fire resulting in thousands of dollars of damage.

While I was in court, even though I had argued that the alligator was not mine, it was proved by the prosecutors that it was mine since I had confessed to having my leash on it. In the end I was fined $500 dollars and sentenced to 100 hours of community service and forced to read this book.

Without a doubt, had I read this book before, I would not have had to read it now in humiliation after failing to take Jeff's advice. Had I known I could have lied about the leash being mine. Good advice Jeff but a little too late for me!

By the way, the alligator and I are now doing fine and I've adopted him as a pet. Poor Snuckles.