One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Satirist

By Paul Krassner

Book Overview

Counterculture legend Paul Krassner gazes on the fires of pop culture, politics and celebrity and returns unscathed to help us make sense of our senseless world, with an introduction by Lewis Black (The Daily Show) and a foreword by Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, Le Show).
From cults to pornography, from Charles Manson to Homer Simpson, from the war on drugs to the invasion of Iraq, from Dolly Parton to Lenny Bruce, from circumcision to propaganda, this collection epitomizes Krassner's credo, "Irreverence is our only sacred cow."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583226966
• ISBN13: 9781583226964
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.5" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

so glad this book exists

I certainly like part of this book, but I am not going to tell you which part, and this book does not have an index, so it won't be easy to look up which part about Lenny Bruce I like, but "The Ballad of Lenny the Lawyer" listed in the Contents is not it. It took so long for Lenny Bruce to get a pardon from New York, where he was convicted of obscenity for a performance at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village, that it must have been December 2003 before sufficient hypocrisy had built up so a New York governor could announce a pardon based on "the precious freedoms we are fighting for as we continue to wage the war on terrorism." (p. 111). Anyone who is familiar with Paul Krassner will not be surprised that Lenny Bruce shows up again 43 pages later in a section called "The War On Indecency." So much that I believe gets confirmed in a book like this that I won't describe it any further.

Indecent exposures by Paul

Paul Krassner is an American satirist whose observations have won him awards from as unlikely a contrasting set of resources as Playboy and the Feminist Party Media Workshop. His controversial satirical observations have won him acclaim and condemnation around the world, and he's been described by the FBI as a 'raving nut'. ONE HAND JERKING: REPORTS FROM AN INVESTIGATIVE SATIRIST offers up the best of his sometimes-indecent exposures, tackling subjects from international politics to social concerns with a deadly eye for irony and an occasional Lenny-Bruce-style shocker. Highly recommended for any tired of the usual boring social commentary.