In Review

08 January 2009 17:10 BST

Is This Some Kind of Joke? by Dagsson

Published by Penguin, out now, hardback, £10.99.

In a nutshell...

Funny, filth, dark, brilliant, bloody

What's it all about?

A series of one-liner jokes drawn simply by Dagsson.





Each page brings a new joke. Each dark, gory and funny.





Who's it by?

Dagsson - or Thorarin Hugleikur Dagsson (literally Thor's Eagle Mindgame Son of Day) - is the sole reason the UK should warm up its frosty relations with Iceland.

His first two books - serialised in the Guardian Weekend - have spawned a legion of laughing UK fans, laughing at a series of misfortune and pain.

Somehow Dagsson created a stage play of his first book Should You Be Laughing At This?, which won awards in Iceland - and is now working on a musical called Uterus and a TV series.

I can't wait.

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

A live action Hollywood version of Dagsson's work is now in the pipeline.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are to play a couple - where Pitt will announce he came on her towel earlier and also warn her if he hears her even a tinkle of her p**s he will divorce her.

John Travolta will play the man hiding in the bushes saying :"I love watching gay sex, but I'm not gay."

George Clooney will cameo as the guy rushing into his bedroom catching an unfaithful wife (Scarlet Johannson) exclaming: "I can't believe it! My wife! My best friend! My boss! My mother! My dog! Santa Claus!"

Ricky Gervais will be at the bottom of a flight of stairs in a pool of blood saying: "I fell."

Ben Affleck will be in bed as children peer at the window saying: "Mum!! Those kids are back to state at 'Aids-Man'."

Ewan McGregor will greet Julia Richardson on Valentine's Day with a heart drawn on the wall with faeces.

Tilda Swinton will tell a son on his way to school: "Oh, and before I forget, Harry. I shat in your hat."

None of this is true.

But it shows what Dagsson has in store for you with Is This Some Kind of Joke?.





So it is any good?

Wave after wave of hilarious filth. What does it say about me and the society that has formed me that I find this funny?

One could argue the juxtaposition of the simple - if not crude - line drawing with images of horror ejaculate some childish joy in the reader. However for one to argue that one would have to be on Newsnight Review and be an arse.

Dagsson is just funny. If future generations look back in horror that people of the early 21st century laughed at such depravities, then they should stick their heads in a bucket of menstrual blood.

Is this book having an effect on me? Is it bringing out a dark side already there?

On a weekly one-off basis Dagsson's world is fine, but a whole book of the stuff is psychological danger.

Dagsson must be banned.

My girlfriend took my copy and was in tears after just one cartoon (a figure in a pool of blood at the bottom of a flight of stairs).

However after 15 minutes she was laughing.

Such is the beauty of Dagsson. He takes what is awful (mothers forgetting middle child's name, a mass murder after a patient runs out of drugs, a father telling a child not to be shocked after chopping up the mother, a child eating a grandfather's brain, a child burning a sibling to death with a giant magnifying glass) and makes it hilarious.

Give the book to your best friend for Christmas and if they don't like it, find a new best friend.





Daniel Barnes