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Spoof
Guy Piran wrote 2,000 letters over a period of three years. It became an obsession, to say the least. When he completed the 2,000th letter he set out across East Sussex with two friends and a van, and posted them in every pillar-box and post office he could find. Then he sat back and waited for the replies . . . the result is Spoof. Whether assuming the voice of a batty old lady hearing voices from her plug sockets or that of an agent representing an avant-garde artist with designs on Nelson’s Column, Guy Piran set out to see how seriously he could be taken by the great, the good and the middle managers of Britain.
Putting more than a toe in to the realm of the absurd, both the automaton responses to the plainly bizarre and the replies that enter into Piran’s weird worlds are sure to have you reading again and again.
Putting more than a toe in to the realm of the absurd, both the automaton responses to the plainly bizarre and the replies that enter into Piran’s weird worlds are sure to have you reading again and again.
- GenresHumor
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 9, 2016
A clever and very funny book: a compellingly readable huge collection of farcical letters of enquiry to British companies and organisations, many well-known. How far can a clever ‘nutcase’ in Brighton & Hove (where the author lives) be humoured? The answer is a surprisingly long way.
Where to begin? An enquiry sent to Madame Tussaud’s seeks to commission the production of a waxwork from a mummified body. The company replies with two quotes. A beneficiary is notified of a highly unusual bequest of twelve pairs of testicles, whose first owners were eighteenth-century Italian Castrati (the items are very nicely presented in an antique oak box).
The breadth of imaginative content is invigorating. A 78 year old lady calmly seeks advice on how to do the Timewarp (Rocky Horror); we meet a most unusual sports club seeking to hire a number of wolves to be dressed up as sheep to be placed in a field of sheep …! Then there’s the conceptual art of counting pebbles on the beach at Hove; which sounds normal.
I held my breath (and more) for the rib-tickling 35 stone aspiring ballet dancer, alas (politely, but firmly) deemed unfit to be permitted to dance on the sprung wooden floors of the Royal Ballet. Sigh. There’s more. Very much more. Definitely best not read by anyone who takes life too seriously.
It is the sheer breadth of variety and manner of (largely) middle-management response to Guy Piran’s highly imaginative / at times downright nutty, off-piste, and frequently totally impractical/unsafe enquiries that are so achingly funny. The few who do spot Mr Piran for what he is join in with the joke magnificently, whilst the majority, less observant, sit on a scale between nonplussed and perfectly horrified. A worrying number of those who miss the plot completely play an absurd if-it’s-not-illegal-go-along-with-what-the-customer-wants type game.
Having started by saying what a very clever and rib-tickling funny book this is; I can see that much necessarily depends on the reader’s sense of humour of the absurd and the wind-up. So this book is possibly best not bought blind for £ in an e-shopping basket. Look before you buy. Consider your local public library. Or, like me, hit lucky in a charity (thrift) shop, I picked this 2006 hardback book up recently for a tenth of its cover price. Utter chance, but every penny very well spent!
Where to begin? An enquiry sent to Madame Tussaud’s seeks to commission the production of a waxwork from a mummified body. The company replies with two quotes. A beneficiary is notified of a highly unusual bequest of twelve pairs of testicles, whose first owners were eighteenth-century Italian Castrati (the items are very nicely presented in an antique oak box).
The breadth of imaginative content is invigorating. A 78 year old lady calmly seeks advice on how to do the Timewarp (Rocky Horror); we meet a most unusual sports club seeking to hire a number of wolves to be dressed up as sheep to be placed in a field of sheep …! Then there’s the conceptual art of counting pebbles on the beach at Hove; which sounds normal.
I held my breath (and more) for the rib-tickling 35 stone aspiring ballet dancer, alas (politely, but firmly) deemed unfit to be permitted to dance on the sprung wooden floors of the Royal Ballet. Sigh. There’s more. Very much more. Definitely best not read by anyone who takes life too seriously.
It is the sheer breadth of variety and manner of (largely) middle-management response to Guy Piran’s highly imaginative / at times downright nutty, off-piste, and frequently totally impractical/unsafe enquiries that are so achingly funny. The few who do spot Mr Piran for what he is join in with the joke magnificently, whilst the majority, less observant, sit on a scale between nonplussed and perfectly horrified. A worrying number of those who miss the plot completely play an absurd if-it’s-not-illegal-go-along-with-what-the-customer-wants type game.
Having started by saying what a very clever and rib-tickling funny book this is; I can see that much necessarily depends on the reader’s sense of humour of the absurd and the wind-up. So this book is possibly best not bought blind for £ in an e-shopping basket. Look before you buy. Consider your local public library. Or, like me, hit lucky in a charity (thrift) shop, I picked this 2006 hardback book up recently for a tenth of its cover price. Utter chance, but every penny very well spent!
August 28, 2013
With his tongue firmly in his cheek, Guy Piran wrote to countless companies, big and small, with all manner of outlandish queries, requests and complaints. Some of the baffled responses were hilarious as the respondents struggled at times to work out whether Piran was serious or not.
There were some genuine hoots in there, with the letter to Durex as my favourite “OUT” and the GP’s reply as my favourite “IN”. As the book continued though, some of the guises and queries became repetitive and, in some cases, too mild and “normal” to raise a smile either way.
Disappointingly, some of the most crazy letters, the responses to which would have been the best were met with a simple request to “call this number” to discuss your problem further. It was also a shame when some of the better letters were sent to the relevant branch of whichever organisation outwith Piran’s catchment area, such as with the NHS and others.
An enjoyable and light-hearted way to pass the time with some genuinely funny moments, though the finished result could have been improved with a little more variety, research and attention to detail.
There were some genuine hoots in there, with the letter to Durex as my favourite “OUT” and the GP’s reply as my favourite “IN”. As the book continued though, some of the guises and queries became repetitive and, in some cases, too mild and “normal” to raise a smile either way.
Disappointingly, some of the most crazy letters, the responses to which would have been the best were met with a simple request to “call this number” to discuss your problem further. It was also a shame when some of the better letters were sent to the relevant branch of whichever organisation outwith Piran’s catchment area, such as with the NHS and others.
An enjoyable and light-hearted way to pass the time with some genuinely funny moments, though the finished result could have been improved with a little more variety, research and attention to detail.
July 23, 2012
I don't know how the author collected all the letters, but some of them are funny, some interesting, some even educative. What this book lacks is author's voice - would have been nice to see why the letter was included and what the author thought of it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews