Witty and well-designed, this book both educates and entertains.
Pietrasik presents a guide to understanding historical and current illogical behavior in its many forms.
Humankind’s idiotic behavior is wide-ranging and persistent: In the 16th century, the Aztecs made wheeled children’s toys but never thought of using the wheel as a means of transportation. Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s 1958 campaign to exterminate sparrows caused the bird’s prey, such as locusts, to proliferate. The locusts ate up the crops, which led to a countrywide famine for the human population. In the United States, there are now more than 120 guns for every 100 people despite an unrelenting death toll. Per the author, our stupidity is, in part, biological—the brain itself is to blame. The amygdala, which enables split-second decisions, was useful during dangerous eras when humans lived as hunter/gatherers, but in today’s world, it merely makes us vulnerable to flashy advertising campaigns and savvy politicians. Testosterone is another problem; not coincidentally, Pietrasik asserts, “It is men in their 20s who typically create the most trouble in the world.” Psychological factors, such as different types of biases, sociological urges to conform, and faith in entrenched institutions (the military, religions, and government) also contribute to our ongoing idiocy, according to the author. To soften his insulting thesis, Pietrasik uses a light, entertaining tone and relies heavily on humor; for example, he explains that some current state laws preventing non-procreational sex were made by embarrassed and “not-that-well-informed dudes from the 19th century.” The author also indicts himself. Relaying the story of Japanese tourists who drove their rental car into Australia’s Moreton Bay because they were following GPS directions, Pietrasik states, “We are all brothers and sisters in stupidity.” The book is tidily divided into sections explaining how we are idiots, why we are idiots, and, more positively, a conclusion providing mitigating measures, such as specific types of education. The pictures in the book add interest (portraying subjects as diverse as a woman with bound feet and Donald Trump’s signature on a stimulus check), and the many charts and graphs support and amplify the author’s observations.
Witty and well-designed, this book both educates and entertains.Pub Date: June 23, 2025
ISBN: 9798992410815
Page Count: 336
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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