Reviewception
(2/10)
By Admiral Fartmore
(book submitted by some reader)
The book bills itself as “laugh-out-loud funny,” which for Glenn means swearing and making the same jokes over and over. His written voice kind of reminds me of a lazy, knock-off Maddox, but more specifically, it reminds me of something I saw my friend’s mother post on Facebook:
When every second word you use is some swear word, they start to lose their impact very quickly. Glenn seems unaware of this, as the word “fuck” alone appears over 500 times across this book’s meagre 220 pages. In the correct context, exclaiming “fuck” in reaction to something can be a very meaningful and evocative – it can say more than perhaps any other single word in our language. That’s the purpose of vulgarity. But if you are being lazy and just using swear words as filler, you start to bore your reader very quickly. I’ve drawn up a quick graph to demonstrate this phenomenon:
Unfortunately, this repetitive, boring effect is only enhanced by the structure of the book. Grouping star ratings together was a bad idea, because it means that there is no variety in tone within any given section of the book. You have to plow through 20 some-odd very similar 1-star reviews, then 20 or so very similar 2-star reviews, and so on. This isn’t helped by Glenn’s proclivity for repeating jokes and turns of phrase:
After finishing the book, I’m just left wondering what the point is. Aside from the whole trying-his-absolute-hardest-to-be-offensive shtick, Glenn promises that his reviews are brutally honest. And I have to give him that – he is honest about what he likes and what he doesn’t like. I suppose that’s admirable. But it isn’t particularly unique, either. Actually, I daresay it’s pretty fucking common. And while Glenn’s blog can be amusing in small doses, his bit is just too thin to stretch across 200 pages.
LMAO. This is fucking awesome. Thanks for the great review. 🙂