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“This Won’t Help : Modest Proposals for a More Enjoyable Apocalypse” is a collection of short, witty pieces that show the potential of satire to be entertaining and incisive. Written by Eli Grober, longtime humor contributor to The New Yorker and former staff writer for The Tonight Show, the book includes swift transitions between personas, formats, and topics to discuss recent, hot topics. While the breadth and relevance of the book is admirable, it is difficult to see it holding up over the years.
The humor that Grober employs is striking at times due to its sharp wit and insight. Amidst the more unserious moments, Grober writes with unassuming wisdom, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. That’s because twenty years ago today, we were short exactly one tree.”
More impressively, Grober is socially aware and treats topics of social justice in an entertaining but non-dismissive manner with essays titled, “Welcome to Your Congressional Hearing. You Must Answer My Open-Ended Questions with a Yes or a No” and “Stop Politicizing This Thing That Can Only Be Solved Through Politics.” Mega corporations and religious organizations are not exempt from Grober’s satire: He wryly notes the irony present “when the latest lottery winner donated most of their prize to a charity that turned out to be a tax-exempt shell company for the owner of a megachurch.”
However, his humor can at times slip into cliché. Partly because the topics are so current, the collection can at times feel like a reiteration of jokes and hot-takes that go viral on social media. For example, the humor in, “In the end, the most important thing to remember when saving up to buy a house is that someone else will need to pay for it,'' does not feel sufficiently distinct from everyday disillusionment to warrant a laugh. Similarly, pieces like “Updated Proverbs for Late-Stage Capitalism” are too simplistic and obvious in their comedy to leave a lasting impact and thus do not quite deliver with their parodic tones.
Nevertheless, a key success of the collection is the brevity of its pieces. Each piece spans one to three pages, which never makes each joke feel like it is running on for too long. While it may seem disjointed at parts due to how rapidly the collection moves through topics and personas, the collection feels more geared towards casual, piecemeal reading.
Likewise, the freshness of the collection stands out as every piece carves out a niche. Across the book, this aspect of specificity makes Grober’s comedic voice dynamic and engaging. One can easily see this from the wide range of essay titles: “Pop quiz: Fall of Rome, or Right Now?,” “Test Prep for Your Annual Tax Quiz,” and “A Guest Essay, by ChatGPT.” These different formats are typographically reflected in the interactive reading experiences created by checkboxes, funny lists, and a variety of different fonts and page designs.
Despite these successes, a fundamental disjunction exists between the aims of the collection and the format in which it is presented. Even though the variety of formats and styles create an interesting reading experience, one cannot help but wonder how much more engaging these pieces would be in an online format. The short quips and attempts at multimedia incorporation naturally lend themselves to more interactive and colorful web pages rather than this book’s traditional print format.
The collection is also extremely current, which makes it relevant in the present but limited in its longevity. Grober’s satire riffs off current events, making it more attuned to the quick turnover rate of mass-media cycles.
Ultimately, Grober’s wit is a force of nature that keeps readers engaged and entertained throughout. The topics covered are nuanced, and Grober makes surprisingly insightful points about the state of current affairs. However, it remains unclear if the value of these varied essay topics increases when compiled into a singular book.
—Staff writer Sean Wang Zi-Ming can be reached at sean.wangzi-ming@thecrimson.com.
