“I told Krassner one time that his writings made me hopeful. He found this an odd compliment to offer a satirist. I explained that he made supposedly serious matters seem ridiculous, and that this inspired his readers to decide for themselves what was ridiculous and what was not.” Kurt Vonnegut
Perhaps in admitting this I am admitting how out of the loop i am, but until a few weeks ago I’d never heard of the infamous and somewhat controversial Paul Krassner. So for those of you (like myself) who are unfamiliar with the author of the brilliantly titled novel “One Hand Jerking” Krassner is both a social activist and comedian whose career of what can only be called random opportunities spans the past five decades. To put it more simply, he is old as dirt. His book is a collection really, of his satircial musings about both his life experiences and ideas on politics and the social experience. A collection of musings that ultimately were written for an online porn magazine. Suffice to say he does not in any certain terms hold back on his deliberate attempt to be both real, ironic and really ironic. I must admit in reading this book the part of me that used to wear a purity ring for a good 7 years was somewhat shocked and appalled. (Yes I had a purity ring-they really do exist outside of the Jonas brother’s world) Luckily for me college was (as it is for most people) both liberating and corrupting so even thoughat times my inner little girl wanted to flinch at some of the more shall we say, ahem adult topics he covers, I was more or less able to appreciate his sometimes optimistic and sometimes scathing look at our society as a whole. I was able to get past the coprophagia references (look that shit up) and value this book as a craftily spun, well thought out break down of a career that included working at Hustler magazine.
From stories of his first time on stage, to working for Playboy, to publishing the newsletter “The Realist” Krassner enlightens us on his thought process intertwined with social savvy. He muses about all the great minds of our time from Peewee Herman to Bill Clinton. He takes a brief stab at the Cuban missile crisis but ultimately is distracted by Jackie Kennedy and her “hot ass.” Speaking of President’s wives, Krassner claims Eleanor Roosevelt has the “best body hes ever seen.” Bet you you didn’t know that before this blog did you? See what reading can do for you?
I learned a good many other important and insightful things from this book. Afterall that is what books are good for. Important and insightful information. For instance, Janet Jackson’s boobs at the Superbowl ousted the 9/11 attacks as the most searched for event in the history of the Internet. Good job humanity- never failing to take a good hard look a flash of flesh. I also learned that there is a Game, the longest running death pool in America, in which people bet on who will die that year. Apparently its quite famous and the 100 or so people who participate do it only for the pride of winning, there is no monetary prize (because that would be downright inappropriate) Krassner doesn’t say, but one can only hope that if one of the bets is murdered by one of the players they are disqualified. There really is nothing like de-humanizing people’s pain and grief in order to win bragging rights. Though I suppose if we couldn’t laugh, we might as well just kick over and die (but only in a specific year, in case someone bet on you, please lets all be considerate).
He name drops a lot, which is expected but overall I was certainly able to enjoy his counter-culture outlook. He is, after all, the only person to ever win an award from both Playboy AND the Feminist Party Media Workshop and if that doesn’t constitute some kind of talent then I don’t know what does.
