Our Dumb WorldThe Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth

The Onion

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Summary

Our Dumb World

By: The Onion

In order to understand the news, a context of world geography and history is essential. That is why The Onion is publishing a world atlas: to help us. News that now makes no sense will now make sense. Thus begins a new age of enlightenment.

OUR DUMB WORLD contains, among other things:

* News and historic facts from other nations
* Historic timelines for countries
* Rejected flag designs
* The earth broken down and described, from its molten core to the outermost sphere, and the location of heaven
* Demographic, economic and other -ic data about each country's people, industries, and habits

Every country will be categorized in a number of ways, including:

* Ethnic cleanliness
* Level of Bono activity
* Prop comedians per 1,000 live birds
* Yearly income in wide-screen televisions
* The Monkeys they got
* Where it sees itself in five years
* Color boxes for average skin color
* Chart listing benefits of invading said country
* Most annoying handicrafts

OUR DUMB WORLD is the first original Onion audiobook in eight years–a gut-busting send-up in which no nation escapes unscathed.

Sample Audiobook
Audiobook Information
EDITOR'S PICK // New York Times Best Seller
  • Edition: Abridged
  • Author: The Onion (See All Books)
  • Date Released: Apr 28, 2008
  • Publisher: Little, Brown
  • Genre: Politics & Current Events, Humor Nonfiction

Total File Size: 98 MB (3 files) Total Length: 3 Hours, 35 Minutes

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Patrick Rapa

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Patrick Rapa writes about books for eMusic, comedy for Cowbell Magazine and music for Philadelphia City Paper. He lives in Philly with this like giant bug he tr...more »

04.28.08
The Onion, Our Dumb World
2008 | Label: Little, Brown

An imaginary, satirical history of the world in which we live.
In Our Dumb World, the unseen Onion staff strictly obey the inverse law of humor and economics: The poorer the country the richer the comedy. Indeed, it’s the most impoverished and politically upheaved nations that get the cruelest and most inventive lampooning in this exhaustive faux atlas, complete with snarky timelines and trivia. Rwanda, French Guyana, both Congos — these guys get little mercy from our dickhead narrator. Actually, almost nobody gets a free pass. “Columbia: South America’s middleman.” “Ukraine: The bridebasket of Europe.” “Russia: Where Russians are sent to die.” The jokes are easy, if not obvious, and all the race-baiting and real-life tragicomedy can get you down after prolonged exposure. Still, Our Dumb World does work in small doses; sometimes it’s funny to sit back and enjoy the clever ways people can be douchebags to each other, be they power-hungry tyrants or satirists.

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Very funny

SoNotASonata

Some people have complained, in reviews of this book, that there tends to be "one joke" for each country, that is just run into the ground. This is sorta true, but I don't see it as a negative; indeed, "Our Dumb World" is almost a meditation on how many different ways you can wring a laugh from a single basic idea. Guyana is unimportant - let's build 15 jokes off of that. France is full of itself - we can turn that into 20 laughs. Spain is on siesta and is too lazy to be significant. let's find twelve different ways to exploit this for laughs. I find it quite impressive; and while not every joke here is great, they come so constantly and so furiously that it's almost impossible not to be entertained, especially with the great readers here. As long as you're not too uptight, and are willing to laugh at jokes about different cultures (including your own), this audiobook will be utterly delightful to you.