Review: Addicting, smart humor.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 14, 2013
There is a line at the very beginning of the book, "When you exclude the improbable, whatever is left, is not as hilarious," but it's not true. Let's Conquer Paris and Other Funny Stories by Oleg Medvedkov is filled with so much off beat humor, sly observations, absurd stories and just plain funny stuff that no matter how you slice it, there is plenty of "hilarious!" Let's Conquer Paris is the second book I've read from this author and it makes you wish you could get invited to a party where he would also be a guest. There are at least five earlier books in the Lunch Break Funnies, Humor Book series, but they can be enjoyed in any order and one without the other.The stories within this collection play like inside jokes with one another. "Time Machine," is worth the whole book - it starts - "I'll be the first to admit-mistakes were made. When we found the time machine, we all thought it would be awesome. The things we could do. Even Frankie "Five Fingers" was on board, if I remember. His exact phrase was "Fellers, I want to push dis button. Can I?" Good times. Now let's trace back the timeline and see what went wrong."This collection gets its title fromone of my favorite stories in the book and I hope this quote isn't a spoiler but it keeps making me laugh, "If any of you tweeps have other ideas on why we should take Paris, please keep them to yourselves. I like things to be simple."The thing that makes Medvedkov's books so addicting is how quirky and unusual the stories are. I've never read anything quite like his style. Parts of it remind me of something out of MAD Magazine, blended with Monty Python, but smarter, wittier and a bit more askew. It's great fun! And in the middle of the laughs, one discovers actual characters who aren't as simple as they may first appear. "Seriously, a guy with horns gets no respect." With those wonderful characters and all the humor, I wasn't surprised to find satire and thought provoking depth, because, as I said, I've read Medvedkov's work before. Now, I'm going to pick up another book from his Lunch Break Funnies, Humor Book series, because as I noted earlier, they are addicting.5-stars