Review: 1,001 Facts that Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader

Review: 1,001 Facts that Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader

1,001 Facts that Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader
by Cary McNeal
published by Adams Media
original publication: 2010
size: 928KB (312 pages)
categories: humor & entertainment; fun facts; trivia
lending: enabled
simultaneous device licenses: 6
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: yes
text-to-speech: yes
real page numbers: no
x-ray: yes

Laughter is a signal that there is apparent danger but no real danger.

To find something funny, you have to simultaneously perceive some threat (the threat can be social), and realize that the threat isn’t real.

For me, the comments that were intended to be funny in this book were, for the most part, unsuccessful.

I would say that, to enjoy this, you would have to be able to do one of two things: not think of other people suffering and dying as real; or be able to constantly maintain the idea that the author is simply putting on a character.

While I am intellectually sure that Cary McNeal isn’t the type of person suggested by the jokes, it doesn’t strike me that way emotionally when I read one of these “scary facts” and then the snarky comment that follows.

It’s interesting, because I don’t have the problem with, say, Don Rickles. That may have to do with being able to see the person.

I think, also, that so many of the jokes are similar, and simple, that they aren’t self-inherently clever writing. I think that may make the sentiment more convincing.

The jokes are racially-based (including ethnic slurs), but carefully (I think) only against Caucasians. They are gender-based. They are regional (a lot of jokes about incest).  There are a few jokes about celebrities. The jokes are often at the expense of people who were injured or died. Some of them also contain obscenities. I guess I could have expected that from the title, but they did “bleep” it there.

As to the facts…some of them were interesting, although I was familiar with the vast majority of them.

Adams Media is a company with a long history, and I was surprised to find as many proof-reading errors as I did. The letter “i” was substituted for the number “1” on several occasions, for example.

I did find a few of the jokes amusing.

Overall, as you can tell, I wouldn’t recommend this. I have to say, I was quite surprised to see that the author was an Emmy winner, so I did a little research.

It appears the award was for Outstanding Achievement
Television Spot Announcements Excellence and shared with three other people.

That’s still laudable, of course. I was just seeing the “Emmy-winning” at the same time I was seeing comedy writing, and was thinking they went together. The spot may have been funny, certainly…my mind just went  to “sitcom” when  I saw that juxtaposition.

Clearly, some people enjoyed the book: nearly half of the fifty-five reviews are 5-star, which is pretty good. Let me suggest that you get a sample before buying or borrowing the book…you might like it, and my guess is you’ll get the sense of it yes or no by doing that. If what I’ve told you makes you think you’d be offended, though, I’d be careful about doing even that.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.