Review: These Humors Don't Come From Whiskey...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 1, 2012
I am a "Saturday Night Live" fan going back to the late 1970s: Father Guido Sarducci; Roseanne Roseannadanna; Emily Litella; etc. The minute I chose to review Stephen Williams's "Funny Pick Up Lines: Hilarious Ways to Boost Your Dating Skills," I immediately thought of Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd doing their Festrunk Brothers shtick.For those of you who are not familiar with the Festrunk brothers, they were recent immigrants to America from Czechoslovakia(!) who called themselves "two wild and cuh-raaaazee guys!" They dressed in garish disco-era clothes, wore copious amounts of gold chains, walked with exaggerated swaggers, mangled their English (but not for lack of trying), and were utterly guileless in their self-assessments of their sexual prowess and their (attempted) ability to pick up American women.What made the brothers so damn funny was their effortless attempts at being suave and debonair. What seemed to them as hip and sexy was, to the people around them, hopelessly lowbrow and exaggerated to the point of virtual idiocy, as the "sayx-ee Hah-mahree-cahn wee-min" did everything in their power to avoid them, wherever and whenever possible.Fortunately, in this particular case, "Lines" does not stoop to pathetic Czech attempts at humor; rather, Williams provides the reader a smorgasbord of aphorisms and anecdotes ranging from the witty to the cornball. He also demonstrates a sensitivity to, and acceptance of, social awkwardness through gentle self-deprecation---a trait that, when used in the appropriate forum, can be a panacea for self-consciousness via acknowledging said social malady."Lines" readily incorporates as many different social settings as possible. If a particular scenario is not mentioned, it is very simple to configure the pick-up line to fit one's individual taste.Taste is, of course, subjective. What satisfies one person's aesthetics will not necessarily apply to another. Thus it is highly improbable that all people will react identically to a particular situation. This parsing of perspectives can be extrapolated to fit the concept of humor (a subset of comedy addressed in an earlier review). Hence the Festrunkian sense of humor, like their taste (and like individual perspective), is unique and applicable to their Weltanschauung (German for "world-view")---not everyone will truly understand nor appreciate it.So it is with "Lines." The book is not designed to be read in a conventional style (although it certainly could, if one wanted to do so). Rather, the pick-up lines can be cherry-picked and memorized so that, should the right occasion surface, the reader can draw upon what he remembers so as to burnish his witty repartee credentials.Williams seemingly writes with experience borne from years of trial and error in the realm of romantic relationships. He does not guarantee a positive outcome for the reader every time one or more of these pick-up lines are utilized; however, he does underscore the importance of what ISN'T stated: perseverence and a positive outlook help to bring a guy closer to his goal of initiating conversation with and picking up a woman.Additionally, the adage of "practice makes perfect" is certainly applicable here. The only sure way of moving closer to reaching the goal as designated in "Lines"---picking up a woman---is to commit a few of the lines provided in the book to memory, and initiating social contact with the opposite sex at every opportunity. While humor is certainly sexy, confidence is the trump card, and women are drawn to guys who ooze self-assurance and self-control.Williams has provided the reader a literary springboard from which to dive headlong into the world of dating and relationships. Many of the author's lines are amusing, a few elicited a guffaw or two, and, yes, some were just not applicable to my individual style and persona. Nevertheless, "Lines" is certainly worth a look.