The Borowitz Report

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 9/08/2004

Humorist Borowitz (Who Moved My Soap?; Governor Arnold) skewers the usual suspects in this amusing collection of short satirical pieces from his eponymous Web site. He adopts the classic humor format of the fake newspaper article, in which the earnest, literal-minded style of mainstream journalism plays straight man to the satirical content. Subjects include vague terror alerts ("U.S. Issues List of 5,000 Bad Things That Might Happen Someday"), politics ("Poll: Soccer Moms Feel Taken for Granted by NASCAR Dads"), corporate hypocrisy ("Philip Morris Changes Name to Altria; Changes Name of Cigarettes to 'Health Stix' "), science ("Increasingly, Aliens Are Creating Half-Assed Crop Circles"), over-exposed celebrities ("David Blaine to Go 44 Days Without Publicity Boldest Stunt Yet for Master Magician") and, of course, President George W. Bush ("Bush Wins Nobel War Prize"; "Cheney, Briefly Assuming Bush's Duties, Says He Enjoyed the Downtime"). An ongoing blog imagines North Korean dictator Kim Jong-II writing in the voice of a laid-back frat-boy obsessed with amassing fissionable material. A few bits are a little broad ("Queen Elizabeth Caught Smoking Pot"), but almost all the pieces are as funny as a decent Tonight Show monologue, while many attain the level of inspired Onion spoof. B&w photos throughout.