National Lampoon's Big Book of Love
A mix of old gags pulled from two decades' worth of the National Lampoon and a crop of new material from today's "sophomoric talents," this big, colorful collection runs the gamut from amusing to tiresome all the way to offensive. There's the essay "My Penis," about a girl who wakes up with one, and her subsequent (presumably) titillating activities; this is coupled with  "My Vagina," a parallel tale in which a boy wakes up with said genitalia and eventually is gang raped ("the worst thing that happened was that I had to use up most of my money I was saving...to get an abortion"). It's almost impossible to imagine who might find that funny. The "Foto Funnies" throughout the book are real dinosaurs, a sort of Love American Style-meets-comic-book, with lots and lots of naked breasts-in other words, they're silly and harmless. There's "Nancy Reagan's Guide to Dating Dos and Don'ts" ("if you are going on an unchaperoned date, an additional girdle or two can be a welcome "something extra" when the full moon rises and that "all-American becomes "all hands"!); a fake catalogue of lingerie for toddlers, an engagement guide (as women age, the author counsels, "Everything gets bigger, hairier and close to the ground"). But why include pieces like "First Blow Job," which contains a forced fellatio scene, or "Rape Mysteries," a phony advertisement for books with titles like "To Rape a Mockingbird" and "Dial R for Rape"? There's always the argument that the whole thing is tongue-in-cheek, meant to offend, etc.-but the book lacks the self-awareness of, say, the Onion, which smartly and uproariously pulls off deeply un-PC humor. For readers nostalgic for the Lampoon's glory days, this may be a treat; others should reach for a copy of the Onion. It's funnier-and it's free. (Feb.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.