Free-range Chickens (2008)
Humor / Form / Essays, - Humor / Form / Parodies, - Humor / Topic / Adult -
NOT_MATURE -
Simon Rich
Overview
In his riotous debut collection, <i>Ant Farm</i>, Simon Rich found humor in some of life’s most desperate situations. Now this former editor of <i>The Harvard Lampoon </i>and current writer for <i>Saturday Night Liv</i>e has returned to mine more comedy from our hopelessly terrifying world.<br><br>In the nostalgic opening chapter, Rich recalls his fear of the Tooth Fairy (“Is there a face fairy?”) and his initial reaction to the “Got-your-nose” game (“Please just kill me. Better to die than to live the rest of my life as a monster”). He goes on to present Count Dracula’s desperate Match.com profile (“I am normal human looking for human woman to come to castle. I am normal, regular human”). Later, he gets inside the heads of two firehouse Dalmatians who can’t understand their masters’ compulsion to drive off to horrible fires every day.<i> </i>And in the final chapter, he tackles some of life’s biggest questions: Does God really have a plan for us? Yes,<i> </i>it turns out. Now if only He could remember what it was. . . .<br><br><br><br><b>Praise for Simon Rich’s <i>Ant Farm</i></b><br><br>“<i>Ant Farm</i> has an imaginative power that can trigger snort-fests. . . . Ferociously creative, this book is for readers craving both smart humor and belly laughs.”<br>–<i>People</i> (four stars)<br><br>“Savagely funny.”<br><i>–The New York Times</i><br><br>“Hilarious. Open this book anywhere, begin reading, and you will laugh.”<br>–Jon Stewart<br><br>“<i>Ant Farm</i> is what all humor books should be: full of brief, high-concept musings that you wish you’d thought of yourself.”<br><i>–Time Out New York</i><br><br>“A satirical salmagundi that bites back . . . Imaginative premises abound. . . . As unpredictable as YouTube, as in your face as MySpace.”<br><i>–Publishers Weekly</i>