Cartoons for People and Advanced Bears by Jim Benton Review

An artist who draws a crap duck painting then sells the pastel-splattered rag underneath it as the real art, a fat guy who likes Cheetos, a wizard who summons a lemon instead of a demon thanks to cursive (the cartoon on the cover), and what do the buttons on Darth Vader’s chest really do? These are the one-page cartoons of Jim Benton most of which are pretty meh, though a few aren’t bad.

I liked the God cartoons, like “Every time God closes a door, he opens a window” showing God closing a door, opening a window, and the dude plummeting to his death as he walks out of the window at the top of a skyscraper. And some poor bastard diagnosed with illness and being told this is all part of God’s plan – cut to God with a whiteboard: 1) Make universe, 2) Give Steve a tumour, 3) …? 

I actually laughed at a couple jokes like the scientists who’d invented the solution to the worst menstrual symptoms: ear plugs for men (though I’m certain I’ve heard that one before)! And the urn of Grandma’s ashes with the smoking Granny tapping off her cigarette into the urn with “I’m cutting down, you little shits!”.

However the majority of the jokes though just left me thinking, eh, whatever. Raccoon bank workers holding their hands up to the Raccoon customers while their exasperated manager says “For the hundredth time, it’s not a robbery!” or God getting creeped out by the obsessives who do everything in his name. Har. Har. They’re mostly forgettable newspaper gag comics that you’ll breeze through, getting the joke but not laughing. 

Cartoons for People and Advanced Bears is a decent loo read (Loo Read and the Velvety Soft Toilet Paper for Your Underground - I should get into this bad joke writing business!) but nothing special.