seattlety's Full Review: Onion - Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the P...
The Onions “Our Dumb World” was something I came across in Barnes and Nobles one day and instantly loved it. Paging through the book it looks like a legitimate Atlas- with maps of each country, a country motto, Country fact-files, a brief history of the country, and pictures.
However, upon closer observation you see that the map is marked with clever made-up points (such as a “Tomb of the Unknown hitman” in Colombia, an “Agnostic Holy Site” in Israel, and the “international House of Crepes” in France). The Country motto are all very (albeit VERY politically incorrect) hilarious; such as “Vatican City: The Catholic Disneyland”, “The Netherlands: Where everything is Legal”, “China: A Human Assembly Line”, and “Uganda: No Child Left Alive”. The Country fact files also are altered to point fun at political leaders, economies, and social customs. Such as listing Sweden’s national pastimes as “Paying taxes,” Russia’s natural resources as “Vast stores of oil, timber and iron buried underneath a permafrost layer of Russians” and Chinas imports as “US Debt”. The pictures are all Onion manipulated photos; such as Hugo Chavez mooning the UN General Assembly, and redheaded, freckled Irish children in Dublin with Guinness Stands instead of Lemonade stands.
The Atlas also includes the United States, broken down into regions. All of the states also are given nicknames and a fact file; “Nebraska: Americas Roadblock,” “California: at Least its Sunny” and “New Hampshire: A Place for Pricks to Come look at Leaves.” They also have maps with funny extras and pictures.
What I found funny about this book was how a lot of the jokes in the book are the type of things you personally have always thought about these places, and seeing that others think the same thing. Obviously, you won’t agree with all the jokes, and yes some of them are a little bit controversial, if not very politically incorrect (poking fun at AIDs, Civil War, and Poverty), but if you are able to admit you are a horrible person for laughing, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. This book is great for people who know very little about the world, and people who love geography, history and politics (the more you know, the more of the jokes you will get, especially the political ones). Go buy it now!!!!
Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of The Planet Earth, 73rd Edition features incorrect statistics on all of the Earth's 168, 182, or 196 independent n...More at HotBookSale
Packed with beautiful full-color maps and framed with inaccurate essays about the world written by the full Onion staff, Our Dumb World: The Onions At...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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