Comments on: Henry Raddick

Henry Raddick

effugas — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 12:56:11 -0800

Henry Raddick's Amazon Reviews are among the most insidiously hilarious works I've seen in some time. From his review of "McDonald Happy Meal Toys From The Nineties: With Price Guide": "An essential guide for the fast food promotional toy collector, this fine book lists each and every one of the toys given away with Happy meals in the 90s. If you choked on it, it's in here. It even had listings and recent auction prices for some of that weird "McCrying Game" merchandising. A must. " Indeed.

By: hughbot

hughbot — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:08:02 -0800

Flamenco is the dust of the bull-ring, the flounce of the gypsy's skirt and the crazy clatter of castanets. Flamenco swaggers. Flamenco pleads. Flamenco is the beating heart of Andalusia. Flamenco is NOT a tanked-up Englishwoman embarrassing her husband in a hotel bar in Seville. I don't quite understand this. It's like the terrible love-child of poor grammar and profound wit.

By: hughbot

hughbot — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:09:09 -0800

I mean the link itself, not the quote. The quote seems structurally sound to me.

By: Frank Grimes

Frank Grimes — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:11:47 -0800

Also mentioned here. I read these last week and I love the fact that he has (most likely invented) a family and a dog that he constantly references in his reviews.

By: hughbot

hughbot — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:21:42 -0800

NO! A DOUBLEPOST! Now no one will ever see my beautiful comments. They were so exquisitely crafted.

By: matteo

matteo — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:22:46 -0800

By: matteo

matteo — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:26:56 -0800

Also, A spokesman for Prince Charles has scotched rumours that the heir to the British throne is the real author of a series of mysterious Amazon.com reader reviews that have perplexed and entertained Internet users over the past eighteen months.

By: blueshammer

blueshammer — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:28:48 -0800

Here's a radio interview with Mr. Raddick (preceded by a radio interview with me).

By: scody

scody — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:34:45 -0800

Fabulous -- thanks effugas. The legendary fake Family Circus reviews, in which Bil Keane's "Family Circus" is subjected to ever-rococo flights of literary theory fancy, are also spectacular (there's a link to the archive in the earlier thread, I believe.) Also, there was recently a series of hysterical reviews posted as if they were written by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, detailing how useful he found various books on cleaning his colon, learning taxidermy now that Starlight Express was no longer playing, etc. It was yanked down after about a day or two... anyone know if it was archived anywhere as well?

By: Frank Grimes

Frank Grimes — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:45:25 -0800

I don't know if it counts as a double post since it was not an FPP the first time. Check out Henry's favorite people on Amazon for similar hijinks.

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:48:41 -0800

Review of The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for women- Not well-received April 30, 2001 Be careful and think long and hard before you give this book to your wife or girlfriend as a gift. As I learnt to my cost, if she looks at it in horror you won't be able to tell her that you are a little drunk and just slipped. Jesus. Thanks for this link.

By: carter

carter — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:59:40 -0800

This is hilarious; but I'm wondering how these manage to get such high 'helpful' ratings from other Amazon users.

By: jeremias

jeremias — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:09:36 -0800

This seems similar to the David Hasselhoff reviews which also all seemed to have 5 star reviews. if the only people who bother to review the reviewer are those who "get it", then voila! Instant top 100 reviewer. Of course it makes you wonder who bothers to review reviewers anyway, people with a *lot* of time on their hands.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:16:07 -0800

There are sites which archive fake or otherwise humorous eBay auctions. Are there any which archive, generally, fake Amazon reviews? (I have seen the Bil Keane archive.) It would be great if there were. Of course, they're not nearly so hilarious when subjected to the panopticon of identification as satire, versus being found in the wild -- but still. Some of this creativity should be preserved.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:25:42 -0800

I don't like this system. If only there was some way of ranking people who vote for reviewers, so that you could be sure that the reviewer ranking was more accurate. Perhaps some kind of voting system, with reviews?

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:54:23 -0800

The utterly straight-faced effusiveness, and the lack of spelling and grammatical errors, remind me of Neal Pollack. Neal, if it's you, say so now. Don't go all Joe Klein on us. Man, what a loser, that Joe Klein.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:55:17 -0800

Man, what a loser, that soyjoy. What I meant was: Neal Pollack.

By: lsd4all

lsd4all — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:11:08 -0800

WOW! You sure can learn a lot about someone from their Amazon reviews. I think Old Hank is a divorced, turbo-charged writer whose dog has bowel troubles and he plays classical guitar to help on his weight problem.

By: jasper411

jasper411 — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:26:08 -0800

What a great link. I'm laughing so hard I'm crying... My personal favorite has got to be for that classic text The Guide to Bovine Clinics: May serve a purpose April 16, 2002 Protein diets were a waste of time, eat yourself thin diets were never going to work with my wife Marjorie and so I bought this book as a final attempt to shame her into tackling her obesity. Oh, and I put that it came from the children.

By: milnak

milnak — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:31:19 -0800

I love this one: An outrageous laugh-til-it-hurts video-blunderama of bariatric bloopers and outtakes. With priceless footage of hapless laparoscopies and catatstrophic gastroplasty this cavalcade of ham-handed stomach staplings is guaranteed to make you both laugh and launch your lunch.

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 16:22:45 -0800

Here's my fav: Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science by Royston M. An excellent book on the breakthroughs in science which have in some way been fuelled by chance. Inspiration came to Archimedes while sitting in the bath and to Isaac Newton under an apple tree, as we all know; but Roberts offers other less well-known yet fascinating tales of scientific discovery. I was intrigued to read that Bill Gates invented the left-handed mouse while "working on something else" - according to the Microsoft guru himself. I ♥ Neil Pollack

By: Zonker

Zonker — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 16:41:57 -0800

OK, here's my favorite. On Clare Maxwell-Hudson's "Pocket Massage for Stress Relief": A tremendous book to help soothe and relax. I tried a little "pocket massage" on a train recently - it certainly relieved the stress, but do remember to chose your venue with care, especially if you are using essential oils.

By: ook

ook — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 17:56:31 -0800

Colloquial Afrikaans : The Complete Course for Beginners The quality of this cassette is marvelous and I felt like checking my ears for accumulated phlegm when I took off the headphones. Side one deals with the basics of conversational Afrikaans and side 2 sets out a variety of expressions of belligerent condemnation. I'm not ready to declare a favorite yet -- still 100 or so to go -- but this one made me laugh hard enough to kick my previously-crushed-by-five-gallon-can-of-paint toe into the wall. Bastard.

By: normy

normy — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 19:27:24 -0800

Nothing expresses the brutal grandeur of rectal polyps and anal fistulae quite like the mother-tongue of Goethe. Genius.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 23:11:17 -0800

When Dave Eggers' first book came out, there was a contest on mcsweeneys.com to see who could post the most over-the-top five-star Amazon review. I wish they were still up there, as there were some real beauts.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Fri, 13 Dec 2002 01:56:43 -0800

Oh my God. I am *sick* with laughter. Could Henry Raddick be a tip of the cognomen to Henry Root?

By: salmacis

salmacis — Fri, 13 Dec 2002 01:58:54 -0800

My favourite: Surviving Divorce: A Handbook for Men by Gay Search A well-written and challenging book which I bought for my Uncle Sandy as he attempts to cope with the aftershock of divorce. Unfortunately he thought the author's name was a coping strategy being suggested and he refused to read it.

By: skylar

skylar — Fri, 13 Dec 2002 05:08:02 -0800

Does anyone have a contact for Henry Raddick? Has he another alias? A website? A blog?

By: hot soup girl

hot soup girl — Fri, 13 Dec 2002 06:06:09 -0800

Heh. I also like these reviews by a fella called Leon over at Epinion.