Carly Hill
News Editor
If you are looking for a book that offers sane advice on rational questions, “You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You” is not the one to choose.
This compilation, presented by The Believer Magazine, a magazine that offers essays, interviews, reviews, and advice, features funny responses from comedians based on ridiculous questions that readers send in.
Looking at the cover, which has a bottle of poison and something that appears to be a washcloth, I was a little bit confused. Is this book going to give me advice on how to poison my best friend? I am not sure, but I think that is a liability.
However, it simply turned into a very light read about nonsense advice.
Comedian contributors include Aziz Ansari, Michael Ian Black, Michael Cera, Mindy Kaling, Patton Oswalt and Sarah Silverman, as well as many others.
While some of the answers actually made me laugh out loud, others made no sense and probably should not have been put into publication.
The introduction by David Cross, which gives an extremely intricate answer to the question of whether or not this book should even be written, is extremely funny. I think he may be funnier than the book as a whole. He writes, “Is this book really necessary? Will it help? Or will it hurt? I mean really hurt, like 10 waterboardings and an Indian burn on your penis and/or vulva?”
Many of the questions are on love and lust, such as, “How long can you spend masturbating to pictures of ex-girlfriends on Facebook before it becomes a problem?” This question is one of importance to many in this technologically advanced world.
The answer? You don’t have a problem until you start masturbating to Twitter updates, Aziz Ansari said.
Wondering if there are illnesses other than glaucoma that can get you a medical marijuana license? Adam McKay has the answer, which includes being bitten by a fruit bat or being dead.
When I finished this book, I realized that the editors should have rethought some of the choices they made on writers.
While Ansari and Ed Helms are hilarious, Cera and Judd Apatow were at best lukewarm. Some answers simply ask why the original question is being proposed in the first place, or whether the asker has any sense at all.
I would recommend this book to readers who don’t have a lot of time, want to read something rather lighthearted or to anyone who just wants an easy read. This book can be finished in a couple hours, and can be put down at any time, because it is structured in a short question-answer format.
“You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You,” is published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Carly Hill can be reached at carly.hill@laverne.edu.
