5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (and Other Useful Guides)

Last November, I read and reviewed How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You. It was the second collection of off-the-wall web comics by cartoonist Matt Inman based on his website: The Oatmeal. I thought that book was the most brilliant thing since Gary Larson's The Far Side. It had zany, unexpected panels of comedy. There were listicles of how to's about unusual circumstances like you might see in a MAD Magazine. And it was thought provoking and entertaining while using pop culture in an irreverent way similar to Adult Swim's Robot Chicken.

Thus, in early May, when I found another collection from The Oatmeal for only a dollar, I immediately put it in my to buy pile of books. 5 Very Good Reasons is Inman's first collection of bits. I would have to say that the humorist is still trying to polish things in this volume. Compared to Plotting to Kill You, this batch of material was much more crude, with tons of penis and testicle jokes. The F-word was used to near Tarantino levels at times. And quite a few of the strips ended with someone being mauled by a bear. Often for no reason except to end the skit.

As unrefined as I found this book, I still got some laughs and enjoyment. Inman's essays on how to use apostrophes and the correct usage of words were both educational and wacky. His primers on the correct way to use English when writing should be the model for how we teach grammar in school. I felt that Inman's ability to help readers learn by the use of absurd statements was the type of learning that anyone could relate too. In fact, I've actually been able to reflect on some of those tricky grammar rules thanks to what I learned from The Oatmeal as opposed to years of schooling. 

I'm going to chalk the flaws in this book up to inexperience. I think Inman had some great ideas about where he wanted The Oatmeal to go. But at this early stage of things, he hadn't quite perfected his recipe. It's like the first season of NBC's Night Court. The light of the sets was too dim. Some of the actors hired weren't the right fit. Plus Dan Fielding was too much of a gentleman and Bull the Bailiff wasn't enough of a mutant. But once the show added Mac and Christine to the line-up and switched from video to film (or vice versa), the show really gelled in a comedy that is beloved by generations. 

I think that is what is happening with this book. While I don't plan on keeping this one, I will be on the look out for the other 7 editions of material from The Oatmeal. I just hope that those future volumes have an easier way of reading the included bonus posters without having to tear them out of the book!

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You

As a life-long cat lover, when I found this book, I just had to have it. A collection of cat themed digital comics by Matt Inman, also known by web comic fanatics as The Oatmeal.

Most of the comics are about how felines really secretly want to off us. Every comic was 100% accurate and hilarious. I was getting afraid for a moment that this realism might put me off of gatos. But this book actually makes me love them more.

As with any sort of collection of humorous skits, there's always one episode that runs rather long. And just not all that funny. Amazon Women on the Moon has the Funeral Roast skit. The Kentucky Fried Movie has 'A Fistful of Yen'. How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You has 'The Bobcats.'

It's about 2 cats, both named Bob, who work in an office. If you read Dilbert- imagine both Dogbert and Catbert as the office bullies. (oh imagine Catbert has a clone.) Now throw in the Mike Judge opus Office Space and you have this skit. Some segments are funny. Some are just cruel. It makes you wonder how these cats haven't been fired yet. Plus, why did these meanies get hired in the first place? 

The 'Bobcats' was the weakest part of this book. It ran about 30 pages too long. Plus, all of a sudden, there's swear words and 'douche' and 'nards' insults are liberally peppered throughout. It wasn't all that necessary. 

If you are a cat lover with a sense of humor, you'll love the one and two page gags. Every single one is something use servants to those furballs we call precious pusses can relate to. I just hate that the 'Bobcats' threw off the pacing to this rapid fire funny book. That skit was broken down into days of the week. I think if Inman had spread those days out throughout the book instead of smack down right in the middle, I would have enjoyed those parts more and it would have made for a better flow.

A funny book devoted to living with kitties. But in need of some better organization of the content.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars