“If the idea is to parody a certain subculture, then Simon Hanselmann nailed it hard.
It gets better as it goes, and towards the end the stories that are a little longer are a little funnier. The one where they rob the store is okay, the one where they end up at an underage party is alright. The idea of not being able to call in the landlord to fix a toilet because you did something weird in your apartment is something a younger me can relate to.
But mostly it’s like talking to that one alt chick you know who is sort of into witchcraft and considers herself very in touch with her mental health and shit, and she’s not stupid, but she’s a total mess who’s always stoned. And she’s kind of cruel in that way kids are cruel and she hasn’t grown out of it.
I don’t know, it just sort of feels like a bunch of stories you’d be told that all start with, “You’re not going to believe what happened. So we got super high, and then…” and then the rest of the story is pretty boring.
I think it’s entirely likely that this is 100% the goal of this book. I don’t think the characters are meant to be aspirational or that Simon Hanselmann is promoting anything other than a laugh, really. I understand these are a parody of a comic that I’ve never read before, so there might be something missing there. I just didn’t really have much interest in what would happen next.
As a wise man once told me: You can tell a boring story about an interesting story, you can tell an interesting story about a boring person, but don’t give me a boring story about a boring person.
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