The Road to Mediocre

As a lifetime Monty Python fan (the author being one of the Pythons), I'd hoped for more, frankly. There are a few high notes in this "post-modem novel", mostly involving the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, including this gem:

"Where's the tea strainer?"
"It's his day off."

--Ancient British joke

But that was a lot of pages to read just for this joke, memorable though it is.

There are two spacefaring comedians, one with an ex and a daughter, a robot with academic aspirations (he writes the history of comedy in his head and publishes under controversial circumstances as academia doesn't treat robots as eligible for publication -- kind of like conservatives, I guess), and a diva of sometimes mildly entertaining characteristics. And the diva's husband, and some revolutionaries, and . . . well, it took me a while to get around to reviewing this one, and I've probably forgotten some important details. Lots of talk, some of it on target, about the nature of comedy. But much of it not that . . . funny, somehow.

Eric Idle is one of the funniest people who have ever lived. Or at least in the twentieth century; it's hard to judge before that since you've really got to see -- or at least hear -- humor to appreciate it, outside of the narrow speciality of comic writing, which is a wholly different medium from standup and sketch comedy, where Mr. Idle's talents shine. As this book demonstrates.