Me, You, and Meme Reviews: How to Avoid Huge Ships
If you travel the Meme Streets of Amazon with any frequency at all, or if you don’t resist as you fall ever deeper into the twisted rabbit hole of gag products, you just might have come across a certain seafarer’s survival guide: How to Avoid Huge Ships. And while the Second Edition’s cover is most known and most recognizable, the alternate title from the First Edition only adds to the legacy.
So let’s talk about this product a bit. That’s what we do in the Part One of Me, You, and Meme Reviews, after all.
The Book
As you can see from both book covers, this text was penned by a real captain, or “pilot.” It is a legitimate tool, from an expert to a novice, on the behaviors of large ships, how they can be maneuvered and how they cannot, how things appear from their point of view versus the POV of a small private vessel, and how you can best avoid life-threatening situations whilst on the water.
However, it is also called How to Avoid Huge Ships, and in this day and age, that’s a stroke of deadpan humorist genius. Thus, meme reviews. Thus, the cycle starts anew.
A slightly funny product begets a funny review. A funny review gets attention and begets more funny reviews. And so on and so forth, and here we are.
The Impact
While not as universally condemned as the Bic for Her pens, nor as universally adored as the Three Wolf Moon shirt, How to Avoid Huge Ships has still managed a great deal of notoriety.
Ten years after its initial publishing in 1982, How to Avoid Huge Ships was awarded the Diagram Prize from Bookseller Magazine, a humorous award given to books with odd titles. In 2008, it finished as the third Oddest Title of All Time (behind Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers and People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It).
According to the book’s Wikipedia entry, it was featured in articles on everything from The New York Times to Cracked, being called both the best book ever and the worst book ever by The New York Daily News and Publisher’s Weekly, respectively.
Jimmy Fallon even featured it on his Do Not Read list. But if you think Fallon is funny, let me direct you away from this website immediately. Here is the link to Roblox. Have fun.
And finally, this book inspired a few others, the covers of which can be seen right here:
The Reviews
That’s what we’re here for! So let’s see the funny that some creative internet people made, huh? Okay!
Sincere apologies for the blurriness in the upper right. That’s repost of a review from Walmart.com, where the book can no longer be found, so the review can’t be snapped fresh.
But, ahh, what a set of fine reviews. And if it’s not in poor taste to say so, these are just the tip of the iceberg.
That said, I can do better, and I will. Coinciding with this blog post is a segment in Episode 60 (click Episodes to listen), and NEXT WEEK, I will be reviewing the book myself, both in meme form and in a legitimate, helpful fashion. See you then!
