By Sharon Hori
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Nine out of 10 book critics will agree that “Chicken Soup
for the Soul,” the still-growing collection of feel-good
stories that promise sunshine on any rainy day, will leave you with
a warm-hearted, squishy feeling inside. On the other hand, author
David Fisher may just assume that you sat in something.
Cynics who wonder where the fat and grease left out of the
virtuous “Chicken Soup” series will snicker at
Fisher’s latest concoction, a 149-page parody which refreshes
the doubt in all disbelievers of hope and happy endings.
With 50 overripened anecdotes and a splash of vinegar to bring
out the sarcasm in everyone, “Chicken Poop For the Soul
II” marks Fisher’s second strike at appealing to the
sick-minded hypochondriac who refuses to digest “Chicken
Soup” ““ even with a spoonful of sugar.
That’s right — “Chicken Poop II” is the
sequel to the sarcastic surge that began with the original
“Chicken Poop for the Soul: Stories to Harden Your Heart and
Dampen Your Soul.” And if you’re still searching for
the final touch to your toilet-side library collection, then
“Chicken Poop” has found its rightful home.
The parody, filled to the brim with sarcasm, may not appeal to
nutritionists who deem chicken soup the cure. But Fisher implies
that others may develop a taste for his style.
“Chicken Poop” is a people book that focuses on the
misfortunes and ironies that occur to everyday people with everyday
bad luck. Readers will establish heroes like Jack Kevorkian, whose
fantastic fascination with life (or the lack thereof) was seemingly
sparked by his early science fair project, “The Effects of
Electricity on Goldfish.”
One of the more profound excerpts, “Amazing But True! The
Incredible Similarities Between Abraham Lincoln and Jim
Carrey,” is truly as remarkable as it is factual.
Who ever would have thought that “Both Abraham Lincoln and
Jim Carrey were born to both a mother and a father!” or that
“Neither Abraham Lincoln nor Jim Carrey ever served a single
day in the U.S. Senate or won an Academy Award!”
And that’s about the extent of “Chicken
Poop’s” educational value, unless you count the wisdom
of high school history teacher Jessica Reichler in “The Good
Teacher.” According to Reichler, whose development of
knowledge-based learning brought a new teaching style to the
classroom, “the best way to teach history is to use what
teenagers already know about.” Try a three-question pop
quiz:
“The Declaration of Independence was signed 223 years
before the release of the Backstreet Boys album titled
“˜Millennium.’ When was the Declaration of Independence
signed?”
Question number two: “In 1803 the United States purchased
600 million acres of land from France, doubling the size of the
nation, for $15 million. Named for the state that would eventually
be the birthplace of Britney Spears, this was known as the
Purchase.”
And finally: “Who am I? My first name is the same as that
of the actor who plays Dawson on “˜Dawson’s
Creek.’ My last name is the same as that of the actress who
plays Andie on the same show. I’m the fifth president of the
United States. Call me.”
The humor is cheap and stale, like the kind of jokes told in
forwarded e-mail messages that have already been recycled, mangled
and mass-mailed two hundred times too many. In perspective,
it’s one step above a Pauly Shore movie and a flight of
stairs below old Saturday Night Live reruns.
And although the stories are a breezy two to three pages long,
the breeze off of Fisher’s cynical twist is not that of a
lovely waft over the city sewage department, perfect for the
satirists who are fed up with feeding chicken broth to their souls.
And in the cynic’s mind, three words will sum that up: Mmm
mmm good.