The Exploding Toilet

by David Holt

Hey, did you hear the one about the man who dropped a lit cigarette into the toilet with some gasoline-soaked rags? Of course you did, it happened to your gym teacher's cousin. Or was it your cousin's gym teacher?

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

While many of the featured selections of David Holt's The Exploding Toilet: Modern Urban Legends are indeed both interesting and often also rather wickedly amusing and entertaining, personally and from a folkloristic point of departure, I would actually consider only a very very select few of them as true and bonafide urban legends.

Now the vast majority of urban legends I have read in similar such collections, like in the excellent and academically informative, enlightening Die Spinne in der Yucca-Palme: Sagenhafte Geschichten von heute and its sequels (urban legends collected, edited and academically interpreted, analysed by German folklore professor Rolf Wilhelm Brednich) are short anecdotal snippets, and almost always anonymous (and while they might sometimes mention a geographic place, personal names, identities, except perhaps if a celebrity is involved, are as a rule omitted). However, the examples shown and presented by David Holt in his The Exploding Toilet: Modern Urban Legends, they not only often tend to feature specific personal names, many of them are also overly long, reading more like humorous short fiction anecdotes than true to form urban legends. And yes, while I did and do find many of them an amusing and diverting break from my usual reading choices, I would more than likely have given a considerably higher rating than just one sad star, if the author had not so categorically insisted on labelling his collection as modern urban legends (as a very much sizeable majority of the tales contained in The Exploding Toilet: Modern Urban Legends simply do not correspond to what my and actually and more importantly also to what the generally accepted academic and folkloric definition of an urban legend is).

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. The introduction explains what modern urban legends are and sets up some of the different kinds found here. And then come the legends themselves—what an interesting set of tales! These are all allegedly true* stories that are so ridiculous that they couldn’t possibly be real. (Don’t worry. They aren’t.) But they’re a fun diversion, and more than that, they illuminate much that is funny (or scary) in our modern lives. One can learn so much about a culture by the stories it produces, and some of these tales, bizarre as they are, speak to life in America. For example, there are a handful of tales about the September 11 attacks; their presence here shows the different ways that this tragedy has become part of the fabric of our society. This book is full of stories about danger, freak accidents, injustice, karma, and yes, even potty humor. An eclectic mix, for sure: Interesting, poignant, or just really, really, strange.

*Not really true. Although, to be fair, at least one of them is. I was able to verify one of these legends as real, based on information found on a government website that corroborated this tale and provided further information.

Just a quick note about the content. I am deeply saddened to see negative reviews for this book on the basis that these aren't real urban legends. These ARE urban legends, plain and simple. According to a study of urban legends as published in the journal Innovative Higher Education, urban legends are defined thus: "an urban legend is a specific type of folklore that centers on an event involving ordinary people in recent times; circulates widely, often by email; and purports to be true, whether or not the events described in the tale actually occurred." This peer-reviewed journal article did not invent the definition; on the contrary, they retrieved it from snopes.com, a website dedicated to investigating urban legends and discovering the truth. So the academic world and the practical, experienced professionals all agree on what an urban legend is. And that's exactly what these stories are: ordinary people, circulated widely, and allegedly true. This is an excellent collection, and if urban legends aren't your thing, that's fine. But I hate to see this book judged so harshly for being exactly what it claims to be. Its very introduction lays out clearly what it is and what it hopes to achieve. And it's an incredible journey.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A modern urban legend is a recent "true" story (and I use this term loosely) that could have actually happened and was either funny enough or creepy enough to pass on. (This book is in our library system as a non-fiction book.)

Here is a great example of one of the short stories in this book:

Harry passed though a speed trap that automatically photographed his car and indicated that he had been exceeding the speed limit by twenty-two miles per hour. He didn't know this, however, until a few days later when he opened his mail and found a ticket for $60 and a photo of his car. Instead of writing a check for the fine, he sent the police a photograph of $60. The next week, Harry got another letter from the police. When he opened it, he found two pictures—photographs of handcuffs and an empty jail cell. (p.12 - 13)


Some great places to read this book are in bed before you go to sleep, in the doctor's office, or on the toilet. Times that are not good to read this book are while you're flying a plane, while you're trying to defuse a bomb, while you're trying to put a baby to sleep, or while you're at the library behind the front desk when you're supposed to be helping people but you can't because you're laughing so hard tears start coming out and are in no condition to help anyone.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to laugh really hard!

[Mayda · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot of humor in this small book. It’s likely intended for older children, but adults will certainly appreciate the collection of short vignettes. At least one is true, as verified by fcc.gov, but I would take the rest with a grain of salt . . better make that a tablespoon! Still, it’s funny and entertaining, a quick read when you need a lift. And I bet you’ll be telling your friends about what you’ve read.

[Angel U · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun book. Would rate a 6/5 if I could. It is a really fun read, I finished the book in less than a day. It dosent have a main idea it just has sections of fun reads, like scary sections sections and other ones. My favorite read was the one where a person sent a bomb to a president full of scooped brains, 1 day later it got stamped "BACK TO THE SENDER" the person forgot what he put into it. The moment he opend it, he was blown into smithereens. Very nice book to read with a friend and laugh together.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very strange book and that is why I loved it the humor was so bad that it was funny and the jokes were just bad it was so funny but when I think about this book you have to be like 14 and bellow to enjoy this book because kids would love this book because of the humor and things that happen in it but if you were a adult you might find this book dum or not interesting.Any way all of the urban legends that are told are hilarious such as the exploding toilet

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some new additions to the contemporary urban legends out there, but none were super memorable. Most are short - a couple of paragraphs or a few sentences, even, as if they were pulled straight off the internet. Some not so appropriate for the school setting. The "scary" ones aren't scary. These lack the story aspect of Brunvand's classics. I wanted more.

[David Ward · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Exploding Toilet: Modern Urban Legends by David Holt and Bill Mooney (August House 2004) (398.20973). This book does not cite any news sources. This is simply a collection of stories that the authors have deemed "urban legends"(i.e., “Hey, did you hear…”). DNF. My rating: 1.5/10, finished 2005.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love urban legends, and this is a good compilation of them.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found myself laughing out loud several times while reading this book.

[Shanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny laughed a lot