This audio book is a double blast from the past for me. First the reader is Artie Johnson-for me he will forever and always be that dirty old man that Ruth Buzzi pounded with her handbag on Laugh In. And second, John Grogan does such an amazing job of channeling Erma Bombeck and her obsessions with The Burbs that I felt like checking the cover from time to time to check the author’s name.
Bad Dogs Have More Fun is a brilliant bit of business, full of fun, silliness, seriousness, and all those days in the life anecdotes that make for really great columns. Mike Royko was a genius at this kind of stuff, and Dave Barry is a still a genius at it. John Grogan is not too bad either.
Among the many tales of suburbia are numerous mentions of John’s dear departed dog Marley and how the World’s Worst Dog made John rich and famous and changed his life forever. Arte Johnson’s soft and sonorous tones are perfectly suited to the down to the earth character of the little snippets of happiness, discontent, and disbelief at the behavior of his fellow human beings-and the wonder John feels for all animals that have to suffer by living in a world filled with such people.
These essays are often humorous but sometimes filled with righteous indignation. The collection suffers slightly by often repeating itself in an annoying fashion that made me check to see if the disc had restarted. Another minor complaint, there was none of the usual End Of Disc 1 and Start of Disc 5 in this audio book, it just blithely restarted and counted on my noticing that this repetition meant it was time to put in the next CD.
The little tales of suburbia were like stepping into the Way Back Machine-didn’t that whole idea of the suburbs die with the 1960s? At the latest the 1970s? There is something kind of reassuring about the fact that yuppies are still slaves to their lawns and rich Dads still take their rich Kids out for a ride on their Sailboat.
Sprinkled in with the Good Old Days stories are more Modern Days stories about terrorism and waiting in line at the Airport. But even these little snippets seemed a tad dated and felt like they were from a million years ago-though they were only written five or six years ago. It’s amazing how dated these little Days in The Life essays can become. But they are still fun, and maybe it’s that whole nostalgia thing that really worked for me.
I was amazed that Arte Johnson is doing Voice Over work. Ok, I was amazed that Arte Johnson is still alive. I would have been no more surprised if Bob Denver or Jim Backus had been listed as the reader-and they are dead. At least, the last time I looked they were. Keep up the good work Arte, you were brilliant and I really do miss the sound of your voice, though I didn’t know that until I picked up Bad Dogs Have More Fun.
This is a great collection, get it and read it.
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