Funny-Hahas

For the first several pages, it’s hard to determine how seriously to take the title: does it actually intend to describe the book’s contents, or is it an ironic joke itself? The smoking elephant on the back cover reading the book and staying, “I don’t get it...”while submerged in a red sea with a baffled look on his face doesn’t exactly lend a lot of confidence that the book will be laugh-out-loud funny, either. Gudlat’s work trades in a brand of stoner humor similar to Simon Hanselmann’s Megahex, but more often than not it falls completely flat. And the punch lines aren’t enhanced by the Microsoft Paint–esque artwork, which is colored with a palette seemingly chosen solely to give the reader a migraine. This plays like the pilot for a rejected late-night Adult Swim show, suitable perhaps for “reading while eating cornflakes or while on the john” (to quote the book), but little else. Or maybe that poor partially submerged pachyderm isn’t the only one who doesn’t get it. (Sept.)