DIY Dentistry… And Other Alarming Inventions
by Andy Riley
published Marsh 31, 2009 (paperback)
This is not my sense of humor, which makes me wonder. What is a “good” sense of humor?
The book is DIY Dentistry… And Other Alarming Inventions. Funny title. Andy Riley draws rickety cartoons with wicked one-liners underneath.
There’s the Toaster Lap-Top for convenient surfing and snacking. The side panel hosts a slot for a piece of bread, instead of a CD.
Moebius strip maps for hikers who enjoy an intellectual challenge.
I have a problem with mean, so the two upside-down unicorns poked through a wooden table with the caption Unicorn Storage Rack is disturbing. Likewise, the guaranteed weight loss clinic — the client hops out on just one leg. And, the DIY Dentistry itself? Done with a real drill, the family dog tied to a tooth, and a box of white chalk and superglue.
A sucker for fairy tales, I do like Little Red Riding Hood’s new kit. It’s the Wolf/Grandmother Facial Recognition Software.
The sketches remind me of Charles Addams. The Addams Family. Unnerving.
We could watch The Addams Family when I was a kid, but not The Flintstones. My mother said that was “an adult cartoon” and besides, it came on at 7:30, which was my bedtime until I turned eleven and babysat at night. We couldn’t watch The Three Stooges either. My mother said they were too violent.
The irony did not escape me. We couldn’t watch violence on TV, but my stepfather regularly hit my younger brother in the head, saying the made-up word “PLOK-it-tah.” At night, the sound of breaking glass — after my mother had had too much to drink — would keep me shaking. And I would freeze, paralyzed in terror, when I heard the thwack sound of my stepfather’s belt flying through the hoops of his pants. When she was asleep, he would creep into my room. More violence. The Flintstones and The Three Stooges would have done less damage.
Bullies don’t make me laugh. My son asked me to watch The Family Guy with him, to keep him company. I got really upset when one guy stabbed another to death. “Mom!” he yelled, “It’s acartoon!”
I don’t “get” a lot of jokes. And, I don’t love slapstick, sophomoric and potty humor. I can’t remember a punch line — or the set-up — to save my life, but I love people who can. I love quick wittedness. I wonder if I need to go into a humor retraining program.
Okay, one more from DIY Dentistry. On the page marked ”Sports Made Easy”, there’s a golfer on the 16th hole, and the caption is “Big Hole Golf.” The hole is a giant pit.
