The second edition of Peeling The Onion covers the book that did for geography what Our Dumb Century did for history: Our Dumb World. As a kid I was really into geography and although I didn’t maintain the same level of interest when I grew up the subject matter of this book appeals to me.
Anyway, I think this book is really damn funny. It’s jam-packed with jokes and a good percentage of them hit. One reason it’s so good is because, like in Our Dumb Century, the writers did their research, which allowed them to make a wide range of jokes from the obvious to the obscure. They milk the obvious stereotypes for what they’re worth but also make plenty of obscure references. They also make some bizarre comedic conceits like the idea that Cameroon doesn’t exist and is just a mapmaker’s mistake, or that Greenland actually is as big as it looks on the Mercator projection. (No wonder Trump wants to buy it.)
Another thing I like about is that I think(although I bet some will disagree about this) that I think it does a great job pulling off edgy humor without being too callous. They make lots of jokes about the myriad problems plaguing places like Africa in a way that I think doesn’t trivialize their suffering.
Here’s a few notes:
- I’d assumed the book covered every country until I counted and found there were 5 UN members countries they missed(the only country added since the book’s released was South Sudan in 2011): Fiji, Micronesia, Nauru, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.
- “A Note to Barnes & Noble Browsers” was especially funny to me since I actually did read the entire book in a B&N without paying(I got it for Christmas so The Onion got its money’s worth).
- The Onion and MST3K were created just 3 months apart in neighboring states. MST3K took plenty of shots at Wisconsin so I think it’s appropriate that this book’s section on US states aims the most vitriol at Minnesota.
- Ellie Kemper, who was a contributing writer to The Onion, is mentioned on the “special thanks” section of the credits page.