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Christmas funny books

Bevis Hillier

Wednesday, 28th November 2007

Stocking fillers

Much the same principle applies to reviewers of humorous (and would-be humorous) books. It is no use my telling you that X’s book made me ‘laugh out loud’ because your sense of humour may diverge exponentially (wonderful bluffer-critic word) from mine. But once I give you a taster of the book you can decide whether your funny-bone has been hit hard enough to land you in A and E.

I use the word ‘taster’, partly because ‘sample’ sounds like a hospital specimen, and partly because a sense of humour is very like taste (in art, interior decoration and so on): we all think we have it, but there is no way I can prove mine is better than yours. In this review I am going to quote rather a lot. From the defensive apologia you have just read, you will kindly accept that I’m not just being lazy, a Constance Spry of Other Men’s Flowers. I’m hoping that some of the jokes that made me laugh will wring the odd guffaw from you.

Every year, one funny book seems to stand out from all the others. This year, it’s Do Ants Have Arseholes? — and 101 Other Bloody Ridiculous Questions by Jon Butler and Bruno Vincent (Sphere, £7.99). This is a rip-roaring parody of the New Scientist/Profile book Does Anything Eat Wasps? — and 101 Other Questions (2005). (If you’re wondering what the answer to that question is, it is: Yes: dragonflies, big wasps, beetles, moths, skunks, badgers, weasels, bears, bats and very stupid birds.)

The questions, alone, that Butler and Vincent have dreamt up are comic enough: ‘If a deaf man goes to court, is it still called a hearing?’ ‘How easy is it to fall off a log?’ ‘Why is only half the clock used in Countdown?’ ‘What do NASA scientists say instead of “It’s not rocket science, you know”?’ ‘If one synchronised swimmer drowns, do they all have to drown?’ ‘Why did Hitler have such a silly moustache?’ ‘My housemate claims to be indifferent to Marmite. Is he weird?’ ‘How long is a “yonk”?’ and ‘Why is there only one Monopoly Commission?’ (Actually, boys, it was the Monopolies and Mergers Commission; which is now the Competition Commission.)

But some of their answers are inspired, among them, the answer to the title question:

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