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John O'Farrell

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Global Village Idiot: Dubya, Dunces, and One Last Word Before You Vote Kindle Edition

by John O'Farrell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 32 ratings

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In this collection of acid-tongued essays, “the U.K.’s answer to Dave Barry” skewers his American cousins (Publishers Weekly).

Winner of the Best Columnist of the Year at the British Liars’ Awards and Britain’s finest satirist, John O’Farrell takes dead aim at cell phones, awards ceremonies, genetic sheep splicers, America’s right-wing cabal of dunces, dunderheads, dimwits, and the Big D himself. “Just when we thought the lawlessness in Iraq was over,” O’Farrell observes, “even more blatant incidents of looting have begun. With handkerchiefs masking their faces, two rioters roughly the height of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld kicked in the gates of the largest oilfield and grabbed the keys of the gasoline trucks. ‘Yee-haw! It’s all ours! Millions of barrels of the stuff,’ they laughed. ‘Yup!’ added the leader, ‘and this mask guarantees my anonymousinity!’ So after all these years there really is such a person as the Thief of Baghdad. Except strangely his accent sounded vaguely Texan.”

A writer for the groundbreaking television show Spitting Image and contributor to the screenplay for the hit movie Chicken Run, O’Farrell meticulously researched his conclusions by spending five minutes on the Internet and then giving up. And while O’Farrell’s sharpest barbs and stingers have often been written to come out of the mouths of grotesque puppets and Claymation chickens, this time around he keeps the best lines for himself: “With the election of the 43rd President of the United States, the global village is complete,” O’Farrell writes. “It has its own global village idiot.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Satirist O'Farrell is the U.K.'s answer to Dave Barry (he was named Best Columnist of the Year at the British Liars' Awards and contributed to the screenplay of Chicken Run). He collected his caustic columns from the Guardian for U.K. publication in 2001 and now offers a "slightly different version" for American readers. The cover shows Bush wearing a dunce cap. ' 'I've had gym teachers smarter than George W. Bush.... When Dubya takes his seat in the Oval Office the global village will finally be complete," O'Farrell wrote three years ago. "At last it will have its own global village idiot." But Bush isn't O'Farrell's only target, and the satirist doesn't deal in idle whimsy. He unleashes devilish darts across the full sociopolitical landscape, covering such topics as fox hunting, in vitro fertilization ("Who was the first baby ever to be produced through IVF? Why, Jesus Christ himself of course"), the high-tech war on terrorism ("Soon NATO forces will be able to blow up the wrong building far more quickly than they have been able to do in the past"), McDonald's and boxing ("Mike Tyson remains a role model for thousands. Where I live in South London far more young working class men have named their pet Rottweillers 'Tyson' than say, 'Chomsky' "). Most readers left of center will appreciate O'Farrell's humor; for them, the hilarity is so thorough that even the closing "Note on the Type" brings chortles.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

John O'Farrell is one of the UK's best-selling authors and has written for all the top British satirical TV shows, including Spitting Image. He contributed to the screenplay of the movie Chicken Run, has written jokes for the speeches of Tony Blair, and is also the author of Global Village Idiot and This Is Your Life. He has weekly columns in both The Guardian and The Independent.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008UX3DN0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press (December 1, 2007)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 1, 2007
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3794 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 290 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,759,868 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #334 in Cultural, Ethnic & Regional Humor (Kindle Store)
- #586 in Cultural, Ethnic & Regional Humor (Books)
- #586 in Political Humor (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 32 ratings

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D. Regis

W-Bashing at its best!

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2009

Verified Purchase

Book in Mint cond. Thnx for sending so promptly. Lucky if I can find it now to wrap up for my hubby who will really love it. I'ts been well-hidden all these weeks since I rec'd it; I think it's under my lounge chair, hope so anyway. Maybe the elves read it after we go to bed. I think I heard some giggling coming from the living room. Thnx again, and Merry Merry! -dr

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2004

This is one amazing book. It is basically a collection of weekly pieces written by John O' Farrell for the Guradian.
John O has been a comic scriptwriter on the Spitting Image series and also has a turn with Chicken Run and his brilliant wit shines through. This book is chock-a-block with laugh out loud moments and you just keep going back to the passages to be tickled again. His writing is very low-key and the humour is subtle but it is so sharp the victims bleed!
Not knowing who John O was, I picked up the book during my adventorous phase in reading and was aware that I had stumbled on a treasure. He is a Labour (Current party headed by Tony Blair) supporter and indeed a small time politico himself. His sharpest barbs are reserved for the Tory's (the only opposition in Britain) and all their leaders past and present. And these are howlingly funny. Altough the politics of the British nation might be alien to most readers, this should prove no impediment to understanding, what at the core, is a savagely humorous book.
What also shines through is the innate humanism of the author especially in pieces like the one where he talks of the culture of charity in the country and his stand on racism. Also, his subtle character sketches of people like Jeffrey Archer are worth their weight is gold.
This is a must read for anyone attempting to understand the British political and cultural landscape and anyone who hasn't laughed out loud in a while. Go get it !!

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Top reviews from other countries

sugarmouse

Such a funny bloke

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2022

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Having already enjoyed Things can only get better and Things can only get worse by O’Farrell I knew I would like this and his subsequent two books of his columns. I am just yet to read the third one. But they take you down memory lane. Fun commentaries on the things that were going on at the time.

I have yet to read his fiction yet but all his non-fiction I have really enjoyed. I will be trying his fiction soon.

mrs joyce kemp

arrived on time

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2021

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very interesting

Elljaygee

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

Very funny