Tuesday, November 2, 2021

STRANGE PLANET

 Strange Planet

Strange Planet

- Nathan Pyle -

I laugh heartily at humour of this sort - a different perspective on the behaviours of humans.
This book takes you through common moments in the lives of us humans, the only difference is that it is told through the eyes of Aliens...which points out how absurd some of our behaviours and customs are. Like putting open flames in the face of a child to celebrate their birthday. The Aliens go through the routine of lighting candles on a birthday cake and then blowing them out. But when you change the words around, thesaurus style, it seems hilarious - bring a confection of flaming wax cylinders to celebrate another planetary rotation. Then exhaled upon the cake and we will consume it!

Strange Planet Birthday Cake

Most of the book is full of similar jokes. Which, funny enough, are often just recycled jokes from the past. 
The one example I can think of is how the aliens find a pet (aka animal companion) cat and it starts to purr. They comment that it appeared to have turned on. 

Cat joke - new age

Well, I remember laughing at a comic from The Family Circus Comics when I was eight years old (so many many moons ago) where one of the kids puts his ear to the cat and says, "Mom, the cat's motor is running". Very similar joke. Very funny. 

Cat Joke - old age

Timeless humour. Taking a human experience and putting a spin on it. It's been done over and over, and Strange Planet seems to be a great example of the latest spin for this generation.

I've been a big fan of humour like this since I was a kid. Like I mentioned I remember being young and reading Family Circus books and having a good laugh. I moved on to The Far Side by Gary Larson, which now that I look at it, seems to be very similar humour. 
While Family Circus took a funny take on life through the misinterpretations of children...like the cat's motor running.
The Far Side took a similar twist on human experiences. I always liked the one where the basketball pops and the players ask 'what do we do now'...a situation you can relate to, however, it was placed on a deserted island with nothing else around. That twist makes it funny.
Or the real reason dinosaurs went extinct...taking a human experience and putting it into a different context/species makes it seem funny.

Far side dinos acting like humans

Long story, Strange planet does a great job, just as great at Family Circus or The Far Side, of making fun of our human experience. And, what's more fun than laughing at ourselves? Laughing at animals behaving like us? Laughing at Aliens behaving like us? What's next robots having emotions...now that's funny! 

I would say, take this book for a spin. It was rated the best humour book of the year 2020 on Goodread.com, which is what inspired me to pick it up . I can't argue that it was funny and original take on life. I would have liked to see more...but, I guess I can't really complain, there is a book #2.