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The Onion Book of Known Knowledge: Mankind's Final Encyclopedia From America's Finest News Source
by
The Onion
Are you a witless cretin with no reason to live? Would you like to know more about every piece of knowledge ever? Do you have cash? Then congratulations, because just in time for the death of the print industry as we know it comes the final book ever published, and the only one you will ever need: The Onion's compendium of all things known.
Replete with an astonishing assem...more
Replete with an astonishing assem...more
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published
October 23rd 2012
by Little, Brown and Company
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The Onion has perfected satire, but their best work is always accented by touches of absurdity. This encyclopedia sits squarely in that territory, where a lemon is defined as a "sour-tasting egg laid by a citrus duck." There is plenty of satire here too, and it's as satisfying as ever. But this book is most digestible in smaller morsels. Put it on the back of your toilet or, like me, enjoy it as some light reading over breakfast. Two or three story lines do develop throughout the book--I particu...more
The Onion's writers are masters of tone. From the newspaper to radio spots to the videos to the books, they hit every note perfectly and pierce the heart of every subject. the Onion Book of Known Knowledge is no exception.
Describing this book's hilarity would be a waste of time. I'll excerpt some entries to give you the flavor.
Art: Range of human communication and expression designed to affect the senses, emotions, or intellect, and one of the thousands of methods that insular cliques of people...more
Describing this book's hilarity would be a waste of time. I'll excerpt some entries to give you the flavor.
Art: Range of human communication and expression designed to affect the senses, emotions, or intellect, and one of the thousands of methods that insular cliques of people...more
I enjoyed this. I found it hard to read many pages in one sitting: the novelty started to wear off. But reading it in 15-minute segments seemed to work well. Since this is an encyclopedia, everyone and everything is ridiculed or satirized equally. A couple samples:
--HEARSE: vehicle for transporting a coffin halfway to a funeral home and then, in a panic, back to the emergency room.
--PIP: man doomed to walk the earth without the guiding force of Gladys Knight to lead him.
--PHOTOSYNTHESIS: proc...more
--HEARSE: vehicle for transporting a coffin halfway to a funeral home and then, in a panic, back to the emergency room.
--PIP: man doomed to walk the earth without the guiding force of Gladys Knight to lead him.
--PHOTOSYNTHESIS: proc...more
“A Definitive Encyclopedia of Existing Information”
“Are you a witless cretin with no reason to live? Would you like to know more about every piece of knowledge ever? Do you have cash? Then congratulations, because just in time for the death of the print industry as we know it comes the final book ever published, and the only one you will ever need: The Onion's compendium of all things known.
Replete with an astonishing assemblage of facts, illustrations, maps, charts, threats, blood, and additio...more
“Are you a witless cretin with no reason to live? Would you like to know more about every piece of knowledge ever? Do you have cash? Then congratulations, because just in time for the death of the print industry as we know it comes the final book ever published, and the only one you will ever need: The Onion's compendium of all things known.
Replete with an astonishing assemblage of facts, illustrations, maps, charts, threats, blood, and additio...more
An earful of this should be fun...
Over 18 hours! It'll be a dip in dip out encounter...
Restart at Four Kinds of Trucks next time.
It seems odd that the Onion - a humor vehicle completely of the moment - would choose to parody an encyclopedia, a thing that completely lost relevance several years ago. Perhaps that's part of the joke I didn't get. Otherwise, it is just what you'd expect of the Onion - uneven, whimsical, occasionally scatological, full of inside jokes, running gags, and misinformational graphics. It's varied enough that most people who think the Onion is sort-of funny will get a genuine laugh about every 5th e...more
I already had the Onion's version of the atlas titled "Our Dumb World", so I figured I would add this one to my collection of humorous text books. I'd have to say that I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the atlas. Maybe it was the sheer amount of content, but I felt like there were many more misses in terms of jokes compared to truly laugh out loud moments. There's plenty of gems, but there's plenty of entries where you'll read the opening gag, realize the joke and just rush through it to...more
Generally speaking, I enjoy The Onion. Some of their stuff is hit-or-miss for me, but usually a hit, though I freely admit I don't read it with any kind of regularity. I have read some absolutely hilarious articles (the one about dolphins developing opposable thumbs stands as my favourite) and some that fell flat with me. I was expecting much the same here, and I got it, only in reverse proportions. While a few entries were very, very funny, mostly it was just kind-of "meh" for me. I heard an in...more
I can't believe the Onion wrote a non-funny book! I LOVE the Onion, and have read their other books, but boy, they really phoned this one in. I'm totally cheating by even putting this on my list because I only read a small part of it, but, I've read enough. I hope they go back to being funny!
I read the audiobook version. This is non-fiction, but it was a fun book to hear. I haven't read the print version, but I do highly recommend the audio book. I do have a work of caution though: Do not listen with little ears in the room/car. There is cursing, but done in a humorous way.
Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, YES. Amazing, comical, funny, hilarious. I love the entries.
Some favorite to note are:
Republicans.
Democrats.
God.
Jesus (Christ).
Nipple.
Libaries (*Note the spelling, a pet peeve.)
And lots of other entries.
Some favorite to note are:
Republicans.
Democrats.
God.
Jesus (Christ).
Nipple.
Libaries (*Note the spelling, a pet peeve.)
And lots of other entries.
The Onion makes me happy--intelligent humor can be hard to find. If you read it straight through, there are running jokes. Otherwise, it's just as easy to pick it up & put it down a entry at a time. I only wish they would clean it up at times so I could share some of the entries with my students.
This book could not be more politically incorrect! If you even consider read this book then I think you should be warned that this is the funniest mover I ever read. Enjoy it as much as I do.
Faux reference book as comedy; neither particularly funny, nor referential. Probably much better served as a coffee table book than a book taken out from the library to read through, as I did.
A hilarious rendition on the encyclopedia with the standard off-color humor you expect from The Onion. A fun read. Lots of information, a great book for coffee table laughs.
hilarious satire encyclopaedia. Right up my ally. "Chinese food: a popular type of American cuisine"
read abridged audiobook but would love to get hardcover.
read abridged audiobook but would love to get hardcover.
HI-larious. The entries are funny and this is a book to read a little at a time. If you love satire, this book is for you.
Jan 01, 2013
Trevor
added it
At times hilarious, I have experienced so much laughter viewing The Onion website that I was happy to spend $32.00 on this sarcastic coffee table book.
I thought it was very classic onion. Which mostly is a good thing, but partly means it's kind of cliche and at many points not very funny. That being said, I still love owning it and it is SO AWESOME that I won it from goodreads, my most favorite of websites!
The best description of the book was how they made fun of the Beatles. It's definitely going to be my new bathroom reader.
The best description of the book was how they made fun of the Beatles. It's definitely going to be my new bathroom reader.
Despite being a little hit and miss, at regular intervals this book is in equal parts laugh out loud, tear inducing and hurt inside funny.
It's just so dense. One-off gags, running storylines... there is so much packed in here.
This was super fun to read XD Hilarious. But slightly offensive at times. Still awesome!
The "Psychology Experiment" entry singlehandedly earns this book all five stars.
Worth the three hours it took. Very funny in parts.
Good stuff...I especially liked the bit on Castro.
Classic Onion. A great coffee table book provided your company isn't easily offended. The book reads like a normal encyclopedia and while physical books are going by the wayside, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge actually addresses it and makes light of its own situation. What's great is that you can easily skip around to read entries, but there are also callback jokes in later entries if you've read the ones at the beginning. Fans of the Onion or similar fake news like the Daily Show or Colbert...more
The entry on Ronald Reagan alone makes this a must read.
Funny but kind of useless.
Irreverent and funny.
Love the Onion!
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The satirical newspaper The Onion was founded in 1988 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Originally a weekly humor print publication targeting a local student population, The Onion is today a booming news organization known as America’s Finest News Source.
The launch of TheOnion.com in 1996 expanded its signature brand of satire to a national and international audience. Online expansion opene...more
More about The Onion...
The launch of TheOnion.com in 1996 expanded its signature brand of satire to a national and international audience. Online expansion opene...more
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