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Science Made Stupid: How to Discomprehend the World Around Us
Takes a humorous look at astronomy, physics, geology, evolution, and biology, and includes parodies of geological charts and the periodic table
80 pages, Paperback
First published March 3, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 24, 2007
This is one of top three favorite books of all time. It's not an exaggeration to say that this book changed my life, because reading it in college was the first time I ever saw "my brand of humor" in concentrated form. It kind of served as a social shibboleth in college; if you didn't think the book was very funny, then we probably weren't going to hit it off as friends. It helped inspire me, then a math and science nerd, to begin writing satirically (and no, I'm not being satirical there). And it still makes me laugh out loud, even after first read it over a decade ago.
May 2, 2011
I read Science Made Stupid because Mathematics Made Difficult was proving to be too far over my head and I needed something a little, well, stupider. Science Made Stupid is full of lots of pictures and is sort of a Monty Python take on science, with diagrams of things like theories of the solar system, such as geocentric (Earth in the middle), heliocentric (sun in the middle), ethnocentric (USA in the middle and China, Europe, the moon, and the sun in orbit around it), and egocentric (person in the center with the sun, Jupiter, and the moon orbiting around him). It's very punny, and while some of the jokes require a certain familiarity with scientific theorems and names, it's not particularly technical and you don't have to have a science background to pick up on the humor. Good for a laugh.
February 9, 2019
Once... the comman man had no hope of mastering the arcane complexities of the secrets of science. Years of study in musty classrooms were prerequisite to obtaining even a dim, incoherent knowledge of science.
Today all that has changed: a dim, incoherent knowledge of science is available to anyone.
The decline of modern physics began with the particle accelerator. The accelerator is a device that turns your taxes into a small beam of subatomic particles.
Couple of solid jokes and lots of great drawings. Some of its shtick was later redone by Brass Eye and Look Around You, but that is no real objection.
September 25, 2007
I picked this book up at a gift shop in the Smithsonian Institution in eighth grade, a rather long time ago.
I have honestly revisted it at least yearly since then, as I have taken more and more science courses and come to understand more and more of the humor, most of which was completely beyond me in Junior High. This is a must-read for science teachers, professors, and anyone with a sense of humor... I particularly recommend the "chapter" on the Evolution/Intelligent Design debate.
I have honestly revisted it at least yearly since then, as I have taken more and more science courses and come to understand more and more of the humor, most of which was completely beyond me in Junior High. This is a must-read for science teachers, professors, and anyone with a sense of humor... I particularly recommend the "chapter" on the Evolution/Intelligent Design debate.
January 31, 2008
The funniest book I have ever seen in my entire life, without a doubt. This book damn near killed me because I couldn't breathe.
They go for a fortune now, but once I find my copy, I still wouldn't sell it.
They go for a fortune now, but once I find my copy, I still wouldn't sell it.
September 24, 2007
For science nerds, this is a truly funny book. I love it so much I even gave a copy to my favorite Archaeology professor. Even those not all that interested in science will probably find the humor here and enjoy the book.
April 20, 2009
Our planet's answer to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the actual guide, if it existed). A must-read reference.
October 6, 2023
Nothing to add here that hasn't already been said in the other 5-star reviews. I agree with every single one of them.
November 16, 2020
This books was hilarious in 7th grade. Now, it is mostly clever. My 5 year old enjoyed it once I explained the jokes.
May 30, 2018
This book is still hilarious every time I pull it out. Too bad it's out of print. The pic of the stupid dinosaurs kills me every time.
Why, Tom Weller, why aren't you still writing/illustrating? Oh well. Anyway, your zucchini recipes are the best.
Edit in Sept 2018: I just love reading other peoples' reviews of this book. It is almost universally beloved. One of my all-time favorites. I think I'll create an all-time favorites tag just so I can include it.
Why, Tom Weller, why aren't you still writing/illustrating? Oh well. Anyway, your zucchini recipes are the best.
Edit in Sept 2018: I just love reading other peoples' reviews of this book. It is almost universally beloved. One of my all-time favorites. I think I'll create an all-time favorites tag just so I can include it.
November 8, 2022
Hands down, the funniest book I have ever read. When I found this in a college bookstore years ago I was embarrassed at how hard I was laughing just standing there in public by myself.
This is comedy gold. Especially if you recognize the style from the ubiquitous school age science materials from the 50s through the 70s.
This is comedy gold. Especially if you recognize the style from the ubiquitous school age science materials from the 50s through the 70s.
July 24, 2007
hysterical
May 28, 2008
best science book in the whole world.
unfortunately, it's out of print. but I have a copy, ha!
unfortunately, it's out of print. but I have a copy, ha!
Read
January 5, 2009This is a very silly book! Anyone who has a basic understanding of high-school level natural and physical sciences will have a good laugh at some of the satire in this “textbook”.
June 14, 2022
Excellent book. I think it either duplicated the artwork of the old "How and Why" books or got some of the original artists. I admit that I read it a long time ago, and if I find my copy I will read it again. Hilarious, or at least that is how I remember it.
August 6, 2023
This is the other book I buy used versions of this regularly to hand out to friends, I think it's that good.
May 31, 2016
Occasionally—and with luck, more frequently than that—even the silliest satire has its moments. Science Made Stupid by Tom Weller had more than just a few moments; it also had some real biting material interjected within.
Often a throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach doesn't work for humor, much less satire, but Weller makes it work on both levels in Science Made Stupid, and I get the impression that part of the reason is that he does indeed have sufficient scientific background to make it work. Another reviewer mentioned that Science Made Stupid had some Pythonesque elements, and she gets it on the dot; Science Made Stupid is goofy, more than a bit silly, and every so often has a nice point to make, more often than not about certain political groups' lack of scientific acumen, and even antipathy to real science. (The satiric references to creationism versus Darwinian evolution are especially poignant and prescient.) It's these moments that make Science Made Stupid worth keeping in a library, rather than read once and put on the shelf; nowhere is this more evident than in Weller's end piece, in which he lists several dozen new technologies, inventions, and developments that we'll have in "the future" (Weller wrote Science Made Stupid in 1985, and it's long out of print). To that effect, it's an interesting exercise to see what Weller accurately predicted (quite a lot, actually), and what he didn't (flying cars, anyone?), to the point where a member of my home science fiction convention even proposed a panel with Weller's list as a stepping stone.
Science Made Stupid is done with love, which makes it all the better, and is a worthy companion on a bookshelf to, say, The Ig Nobel Prizes: The Annals of Improbable Research by Marc Abrahams.
Often a throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach doesn't work for humor, much less satire, but Weller makes it work on both levels in Science Made Stupid, and I get the impression that part of the reason is that he does indeed have sufficient scientific background to make it work. Another reviewer mentioned that Science Made Stupid had some Pythonesque elements, and she gets it on the dot; Science Made Stupid is goofy, more than a bit silly, and every so often has a nice point to make, more often than not about certain political groups' lack of scientific acumen, and even antipathy to real science. (The satiric references to creationism versus Darwinian evolution are especially poignant and prescient.) It's these moments that make Science Made Stupid worth keeping in a library, rather than read once and put on the shelf; nowhere is this more evident than in Weller's end piece, in which he lists several dozen new technologies, inventions, and developments that we'll have in "the future" (Weller wrote Science Made Stupid in 1985, and it's long out of print). To that effect, it's an interesting exercise to see what Weller accurately predicted (quite a lot, actually), and what he didn't (flying cars, anyone?), to the point where a member of my home science fiction convention even proposed a panel with Weller's list as a stepping stone.
Science Made Stupid is done with love, which makes it all the better, and is a worthy companion on a bookshelf to, say, The Ig Nobel Prizes: The Annals of Improbable Research by Marc Abrahams.
January 11, 2023
I re-read my copy recently, and I'm sorry to say that a lot of the jokes fell flat that time. Not precisely the Suck Fairy, but this is a former 5-star book for me, OK? So your mileage may vary! Even if you liked it a few years ago . .
January 15, 2008
Learn a plethora of scientific data, such as the elements of the periodic table: nylon, teflon, velcro, xerox, marzipan, alimony, irony, lanolin, zinfandel, drano, linoleum, etc.
June 10, 2008
I've loved this book since I was a kid.
January 3, 2009
Absolutely hysterical. Once at a teaching conference some of us science teachers who have copies of the book decided it should be THE text for all science classes.
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January 13, 2018A hilarious look at all the sciences. Tom also wrote the equally funny Culture Made Stupid.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews