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The Residents' Bad Day on the Midway
From the minute you wake up, the world is not quite right. A power failure caused your alarm to go off an hour late, the last piece of bread burns in the toaster and there’s no milk for your coffee. Immediately after breaking a shoestring, you find a stain on your favorite shirt–the one you’re wearing on a hot lunch date. When four total strangers say, “You look tired” on the way to work, you realize it’s not going to get any better.
Sooner or later it happens to everyone, but most bad days don’t include plague death, being stalked by a serial killer and having your business shut down by the IRS. It may be true that no one escapes death and taxes, but they're not usually a one-two punch. While THE RESIDENTS’ BAD DAY ON THE MIDWAY may be a little more extreme than most, its aim is the same as any other bad day: SURVIVAL!
Based on the award winning CD-Rom game, Bad Day on the Midway is a relentless roller coaster ride of imagination, dark humor and surprise - delivered as only The Residents can... a Disneyland of the damned.
Sooner or later it happens to everyone, but most bad days don’t include plague death, being stalked by a serial killer and having your business shut down by the IRS. It may be true that no one escapes death and taxes, but they're not usually a one-two punch. While THE RESIDENTS’ BAD DAY ON THE MIDWAY may be a little more extreme than most, its aim is the same as any other bad day: SURVIVAL!
Based on the award winning CD-Rom game, Bad Day on the Midway is a relentless roller coaster ride of imagination, dark humor and surprise - delivered as only The Residents can... a Disneyland of the damned.
- GenresFiction
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2015
11 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 13, 2016
In the wake of updating technology, The Residents must leave behind projects like their two CD-ROM games (Freak Show and Bad Day on the Midway). However, lead singer of The Residents Randy Rose salvages his masterpiece of a game (Bad Day) by transferring its contents into a short one day read. The result is a wacky and weird surrealist adventure involving tax returns, a plague, a serial killer and a cast of odd characters. Although it leaves out many of the major plot points of the original game, it is still a quintessential landmark for any Residents fan to read and a perfect adaptation straight from the fountainhead of all The Residents' material. It does nothing particularly wrong, and does a good job of explaining the feel of the CD-ROM game. If you're not a Residents fan, or haven't played the game, it's going to be a strange ride into the midway we Residents fans all know and love. It's because of this that I'm rating the book at 4.5 instead of a whole 5 stars.
September 3, 2023
I think it's a pretty good chronicle of the game's events and gives more time to develop the characters we meet throughout the game. I felt it was a pretty short read, I'm a fast reader but took me a bit over an hour.
October 28, 2021
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The Residents are one of the hardest musical groups to pin down. They've put their eyeballs into interactive CDs, videos, books, and of course, music. They follow one Theory of Obscurity, not out of pretentiousness, but because they understand that poetry, and the pure emotions found therein, can't be drawn out, but are struck, like a pickaxe on silver, Luna's flow through a vanishing mine, whose corruption can only exist in the "open" veins, what is dug through, not dug out (which isn't even in the equation). The Theory of Obscurity then introduces pure emotion, not as something to go through somebody, but to surround the cranium and its preceding body, that is, the stem.
"Make Me Moo" -- the little girl sings. https://youtu.be/vgUAeLuLfXc
How should someone go about helping this child moo? The Residents know, while I'm impelled towards making this child moo, yet she's so happy already, that I join in mooing with her.
Or, who will follow the Gingerbread Man, who knows his ways? https://youtu.be/hr-I6-gxecg
Like William Blake, this is a world for children, not derogatorily, but the child as fully human. The full range of human emotions is expressed in this childish world, and its results are often surreal, disturbing, intense. As follows sense, since every adult wears their own child on their skin. There is no inner child, the child is solely on the skin, for when the child is young, the adult is very small, a nut, hasn't yet been pushed out. Now, the child is bursting at the seams, and some points are weaker than others, some thinner, where Obscure words rest more easily, soothe the disfigured child on edge.
"I knew what it was all about, long time ago...."
The Residents are a playground for reliving lost emotions. I skinned my knee somewhere there long ago and am looking for my skin. I become obscure, I don't want to admit whether I've found it or not and put it in my pocket. What is small from me is obscured by how large I've become. But it's okay, many of us feel this guilt of losing something that wasn't small then, but is now incredibly so.
It teaches me to care, and that I do care. And as the years go by, it grows larger the more I relax into it, that small patch of skin hidden somewhere under rubber or wood chips, secured by near daily trips and falls above.
Maybe I'll find it as a failed shoe someday, having been plunged in grape juice.
The book was great, things go bad to worse kind of story. Written by four eyes, or two people, or one skull, I'm not sure, but who or whatever they were knows how to write a story. Dixie's Kill-A-Commie; Lottie, The Human-Log, Dagmar, The Dog-Lady, and Ted (take a guess), among outsiders, like the Man From The IRS (Agent Rockridge). But these aren't just weird names for weird names's sake, each are well-written and have their personal issues, expanded and enfolded upon each other's. Timmy, the curious and dramatically innocent child, is, perhaps predictably, the hero of the story. Stay curious, pay attention, and have fun -- mostly these qualities get him through the "bad day".
Also, shoutout to Antibookclub, https://antibookclub.com/. Sent me this hand-written note and pin. Thanks for publishing this weird book (which came with an audio CD of said novel!), I honestly didn't think it would be a good read before, more of a curiosity.
September 27, 2023
Really great insight into the story and characters that wasn't there in the original game. Plenty of fuel for how obsessed I am with Ted and I have a new appreciation for the IRS man, as they gave him a lot more depth than he has in the game. The Residents having had almost two decades to reflect back on the original story was definitely a big help.
I have a couple of issues, though. The themes are to be expected from the Residents, but they still kinda put me off a bit. There was a bit of racism towards the IRS man, which isn't unrealistic within the story itself since it's set in 1963. The narration felt a little weird to me as well—it calls him "the black man" multiple times per paragraph when his race doesn't really have anything to do with the story apart from a few other characters' remarks, and the author of this book is white.
My second issue is one specific scene where a character suddenly makes a sexual advance on another character. There's definitely a mutual attraction between the two, but it's a very off-putting circumstance in which the sex happens and it's framed as completely okay. I wouldn't call it rape in context, but it would be if it were a literal, real-world situation and it could potentially be triggering for some readers.
Overall, though, I really loved this book and I'm super glad I finally read it. It gave a lot more depth and backstory to the characters than was originally present in the game, which I suspect is in part because of the years the Residents had to look back on it, and in part because of the limitations of the original medium. The novel format is greatly beneficial to the lore of the midway, as it helps slow down the story of the (very difficult-to-play) game to focus on adding more details. The Residents are masters of constructing characters that feel real even when everything else is ridiculous and outlandish. (God in Three Persons and Freak Show are fantastic examples of this as well.) The addition of a few new characters, like the man from the Health Department, also straightens out the logic of the plot and gives it more weight and solidity. The switching of perspectives throughout the novel (including Oscar's!) is also very reflective of the gameplay, which I really like. Some of the later events surrounding Ike didn't make any sense, but it didn't significantly bother me. Of course, the game has multiple potential endings while the book settles on one, but that's completely understandable given the different formats of the two.
I probably have more thoughts but I've been up all night and I just wanna lay down cause my back hurts like hell. I realize a lot of this review was me comparing the novel to the game, but I figure the only people reading this book are gonna be Residents fans already. Plus, the game has finally been made easily accessible thanks to Max Wegner (https://www.wegneronline.com/badday/p...) so you don't have to fight with a virtual machine for hours to set it up. I highly recommend checking out both formats of this unique and engaging story.
I have a couple of issues, though. The themes are to be expected from the Residents, but they still kinda put me off a bit. There was a bit of racism towards the IRS man, which isn't unrealistic within the story itself since it's set in 1963. The narration felt a little weird to me as well—it calls him "the black man" multiple times per paragraph when his race doesn't really have anything to do with the story apart from a few other characters' remarks, and the author of this book is white.
My second issue is one specific scene where a character suddenly makes a sexual advance on another character. There's definitely a mutual attraction between the two, but it's a very off-putting circumstance in which the sex happens and it's framed as completely okay. I wouldn't call it rape in context, but it would be if it were a literal, real-world situation and it could potentially be triggering for some readers.
Overall, though, I really loved this book and I'm super glad I finally read it. It gave a lot more depth and backstory to the characters than was originally present in the game, which I suspect is in part because of the years the Residents had to look back on it, and in part because of the limitations of the original medium. The novel format is greatly beneficial to the lore of the midway, as it helps slow down the story of the (very difficult-to-play) game to focus on adding more details. The Residents are masters of constructing characters that feel real even when everything else is ridiculous and outlandish. (God in Three Persons and Freak Show are fantastic examples of this as well.) The addition of a few new characters, like the man from the Health Department, also straightens out the logic of the plot and gives it more weight and solidity. The switching of perspectives throughout the novel (including Oscar's!) is also very reflective of the gameplay, which I really like. Some of the later events surrounding Ike didn't make any sense, but it didn't significantly bother me. Of course, the game has multiple potential endings while the book settles on one, but that's completely understandable given the different formats of the two.
I probably have more thoughts but I've been up all night and I just wanna lay down cause my back hurts like hell. I realize a lot of this review was me comparing the novel to the game, but I figure the only people reading this book are gonna be Residents fans already. Plus, the game has finally been made easily accessible thanks to Max Wegner (https://www.wegneronline.com/badday/p...) so you don't have to fight with a virtual machine for hours to set it up. I highly recommend checking out both formats of this unique and engaging story.
June 3, 2025
I hope "Randy Rose" was taught where the italics button is typically located after he wrote the book.
This 3 star-rating is one of those where on a technical level, the book is pretty shabby, with a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes and an overall vibe that makes this feel like fanfiction even though if you look past the mistakes you can tell that the author did indeed write at least part of the original game. However, I did have a lot of fun reading this - with a few exceptions which I'll get to - and it's a trashy good time like a B-movie, especially in the third act.
If you haven't read the book because you think it's just a recap of the game, I won't give anything away, but while the first two-thirds follow the game fairly closely with some additions and cut subplots, the third act goes into a COMPLETELY different direction that caught me by surprise in the best way, and it redeemed the reading experience for me.
My two biggest problems with the book are 1. The mixed-bag handling of the IRS Man and 2. Despite how much fun I had with the book unabashedly being kinda stupid, I did feel the emotional depth from the game was either lost or not explored as much here, such as Ted's disturbing worldview, Dixie's grief over her dead father and losing her baby which led to her being groomed by Ike, Timmy retreating into his imagination to escape his claustrophobic family life and his mother accidentally killing his pets, etc. Perhaps those things weren't explored in the book because it would've clashed with the tonal shift of the third act.
Going back to the IRS Man, on one hand, it's nice that he gets a name, his personality goes beyond "obsessed with taxes, loves dogs", and he becomes the main hero along with Timmy, but on the other, the narrative points out he's a black man way too often, like alright book I don't have amnesia, and his sexual encounter with Dagmar is VERY awkward, and I don't think it was meant to be. You can really tell this book was written by an elderly southern white guy.
Other than that, this book is stupid fun. It also fleshes out the Midway itself and answers a few questions I had from the game. Maybe someday we'll get a more polished follow-up to BDOTM that explores all the characters more in-depth, but the chances of that happening are pretty low unless The Residents are planning something for the game's 30th anniversary, so I'll make do with this.
This 3 star-rating is one of those where on a technical level, the book is pretty shabby, with a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes and an overall vibe that makes this feel like fanfiction even though if you look past the mistakes you can tell that the author did indeed write at least part of the original game. However, I did have a lot of fun reading this - with a few exceptions which I'll get to - and it's a trashy good time like a B-movie, especially in the third act.
If you haven't read the book because you think it's just a recap of the game, I won't give anything away, but while the first two-thirds follow the game fairly closely with some additions and cut subplots, the third act goes into a COMPLETELY different direction that caught me by surprise in the best way, and it redeemed the reading experience for me.
My two biggest problems with the book are 1. The mixed-bag handling of the IRS Man and 2. Despite how much fun I had with the book unabashedly being kinda stupid, I did feel the emotional depth from the game was either lost or not explored as much here, such as Ted's disturbing worldview, Dixie's grief over her dead father and losing her baby which led to her being groomed by Ike, Timmy retreating into his imagination to escape his claustrophobic family life and his mother accidentally killing his pets, etc. Perhaps those things weren't explored in the book because it would've clashed with the tonal shift of the third act.
Going back to the IRS Man, on one hand, it's nice that he gets a name, his personality goes beyond "obsessed with taxes, loves dogs", and he becomes the main hero along with Timmy, but on the other, the narrative points out he's a black man way too often, like alright book I don't have amnesia, and his sexual encounter with Dagmar is VERY awkward, and I don't think it was meant to be. You can really tell this book was written by an elderly southern white guy.
Other than that, this book is stupid fun. It also fleshes out the Midway itself and answers a few questions I had from the game. Maybe someday we'll get a more polished follow-up to BDOTM that explores all the characters more in-depth, but the chances of that happening are pretty low unless The Residents are planning something for the game's 30th anniversary, so I'll make do with this.
July 18, 2019
Knowing and loving both the Residents' ouevre and having extensively played the game on which this novelization is based, I have mixed feelings about this book. Randy's prose is childish, his descriptions are vague or lazy, and the characterizations are paper-thin. His way of conveying action is mostly through dialogue, having characters explain what they are doing in speech ("I am now putting my last cartidges into this rifle!"). That is quite lame.
One of the most interesting features of the game was the internal monologue of each character presented as random "thoughts" in the lower side of the screen. This is sorely missing in the book. And some added subplots not present in the game (Tebo, Cheeseburger Billy, Dagmar vs. the IRS man) are added seemingly for the shock value, while the conclusion is so trite as to make me scream in disgust.
More than a novel this feels like a rough sketch of a film treatment not worthy of the Residents name. Randy sure is a great writer of songs and while some of the band's "storytelling" albums are clearly owed to the same pen (or dictaphone) they are more compelling than this. A good novelist he is not, as these flaws are shared by The Brickeaters.
Overall this seems like a missed opportunity to create a novel around some fantastic ideas. The game is far superior.
One of the most interesting features of the game was the internal monologue of each character presented as random "thoughts" in the lower side of the screen. This is sorely missing in the book. And some added subplots not present in the game (Tebo, Cheeseburger Billy, Dagmar vs. the IRS man) are added seemingly for the shock value, while the conclusion is so trite as to make me scream in disgust.
More than a novel this feels like a rough sketch of a film treatment not worthy of the Residents name. Randy sure is a great writer of songs and while some of the band's "storytelling" albums are clearly owed to the same pen (or dictaphone) they are more compelling than this. A good novelist he is not, as these flaws are shared by The Brickeaters.
Overall this seems like a missed opportunity to create a novel around some fantastic ideas. The game is far superior.
Read
January 4, 2016A fun thrilling addition to Residential canon, based on best selling early 90's CD-ROM game of same name. Follow intertwining threads of several different characters at a rundown carnival Midway in the midst of a plague outbreak and a coming storm and electrical fire.
July 22, 2015
This adaptation of The Residents' CD-ROM of the se name remains every bit as much fun as its source material. Dark, funny and as weird as you could imagine a bad day on the midway could be!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews