When I was a burgeoning writer in high school, my mentor told me that usually truth is funnier than fiction, especially when it comes to writing, duh, non-fiction. I have a slight feeling this is lost on the authors of THE RIDICULOUS RACE, a supposedly true story that is ridiculously lame, ridiculously long and, most of all, ridiculously laugh-devoid.
But, then again, look at who the authors are. Steve Hely is a writer for AMERICAN DAD, perhaps the unfunniest cartoon since GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, and Vali Chandrasekaran is a writer for MY NAME IS EARL, a once-funny show that, with last season’s coma nonsense, has pretty much jumped the shark. (I wonder if that was his doing?) Together, these two combine their forces to create a textbook in mediocre humor that will be studied by sitcom writers for years to come.
The idea behind THE RIDICULOUS RACE is that these two guys make a bet that they will circle the earth using no airplanes — I repeat, no airplanes — and the first one back to the starting point receives a fine bottle of Scotch. Now, this in itself is a great idea. You’d think that it would be ripe for laughs at the expense of other cultures, as well as the whole relatable headaches that is traveling, from renting cars to eating in roadside diners. The observations could have been priceless.
But instead, in the first few pages, one of the guys supposedly handcuffs the other guy, placing a sticker that says “pedophile” on his back in order to get a headstart. Sorry, but to me, that sounds way too sitcommy to have really happened. To add insult to injury, they carry on about it for so many pages, thinking that it was so clever, that it only enforces the idea it was the only possible way they knew how to start the book. Show me some pics, guys!
But even that was miniscule in comparison to the thing that had me closing the book in disgust at having wasted my time: Chandrasekaran, about 100 pages in, uses an airplane. What? Barely 100 pages in and they have already negated the whole purpose of the book. Why agree to do a project like this if you are just going to completely disregard the rules you set up in the first few pages? At that point, you don’t care who wins. I know I don’t.
The problem lies with Hely and Chandrasekaran. They think they are clever and creative — as most people who, like these guys, have written for MCSWEENEY’S and the HARVARD LAMPOON — but they spend most of their time lecherously fawning over their female guides or suffering from bouts of vomit at famous landmarks, like, say, the Peking Opera. Riiiiiight. Sure makes the story more interesting, huh?
What’s really ridiculous is that these guys got a book deal. I want to read a book like this, with a great idea like this, in the hands of guys who are actually funny. Maybe the dudes who write for FAMILY GUY and SCRUBS are available?* —Louis Fowler
*That’s a joke, by the way, as those shows are horrible as well.
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Wow. Family Guy and American Dad are horrible, yet the idea for this book (a nonfiction rip-off of Around the World in Eighty Days) is good? I can understand not laughing at all the jokes in Family Guy and American Dad. There’s a lot of hit and miss, funny bits followed by clunkers. But to not find any of them funny? To think the shows are overall horrible? Don’t get it. Now King of the Hill, that’s horrible.*
* That’s not a joke, by the way.