The Smartest Book in the World: A Lexicon of Literacy, A Rancorous Reportage, A Concise Curriculum of Cool

by Greg Proops

Greg Proops is an internationally renowned comedian, best known for starring on the hit improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and for his popular award-winning podcast, The Smartest Man in the World, which Rolling Stone magazine called some of the boldest comedy on the podcasting frontier right now. But Proops is also a fountain of historical knowledge, a wealth of pop culture trivia, and a generally charming know-it-all. The Smartest Book in the World is based on Proops's sensational, iTunes Top 10 podcast. The book is a rollicking reference guide to the most essential areas of knowledge in Proops's universe, from the noteworthy names of the ancient world and baseball to the movies you must see and the albums you must hear. Complete with history's juiciest tales and curious back-stories, Proops expounds on the merits of poetry and proper punctuation, delivering this wealth of information with his signature style and Proopsian panache. An off-beat and exuberant guide to everything, The Smartest Book in the World gives you everything you need to know to always be the smartest person in the room.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, History, Comedy, Audiobook, Memoir, Books About Books

8 pages, Audio CD

First published May 5, 2015

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have three categories in which I place books by comedian writers: (1)Laugh out loud until tears roll down your cheeks. George Carlin belongs here. (2) Chuckle audibly and often. David Sedaris belongs here. (3) Grin frequently. Greg Proops belongs here.

Proops' dry wit and clever writing shines through in this book which takes diverse topics and spins out the facts accompanied by his personal comments....movies, film, poetry, women, books, and baseball. Granted, he gives lots of space to baseball but hey, it's his book.....besides I am a avid baseball lover so no complaints from me. He even sets up imaginary teams such as the All Time Controversial Team with players/managers like George Steinbrenner, Pete Rose, and Billy Martin; or my favorite, All Time Dictator Teams with Hitler as manager and Chairman Mao as designated hitter. He ends the book with the funniest of all the chapters "Art I Wish I Had The Balls To Steal" and then proceeds to explain how he might get away with stealing Jay Defoe's "The Rose" which weighs over a ton.

It's a fun book which will make you grin frequently and sometimes even chuckle audibly.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are too many baseball analogies, but I love his sense of humor. He recommends movies, music and books (chapter 16&49) that sound so good. I need to go through them at the earliest opportunity. There are some badass feminists list here as well, so I was gratefully introduced to Florynce Kennedy, Ava Lovelace, Wilma Mankiller, Petra Herrera, Yuri Kochiyama. And there is poetry. Lovely, lovely poetry.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greg Proops is easily the third best thing about the delightful Whose Line is It Anyway show in both British and American reincarnations. In book form something doesn't quite translate right. Or maybe it's just that Proops' star in isolation doesn't shine like it does in stellar company. Either way, in literary form it makes for a light, lightly amusing read that's just far enough from being the smartest book in the world to justify the title as being properly ironic. The book is essentially a list of all the things Proops likes and thinks you might like also. These things include poetry, baseball, classic cinema, baseball, some books, some art, baseball, lots of music and oh yeah...baseball. If Proops' interest are similar to yours, it might be more fun. If not it can be somewhat less compelling. For me the brief mentions of famous historical figures didn't quite balance out all that baseball...or music for that matter. I think Proops is hipper than I am, he certainly thinks so, he showers his readers with feline sweet nothings, he's a groovy one for sure, cultural, witty and all too aware of it, profoundly feminist to the extent of referring to women as Women every time. Funny too, but we already knew that. And quite entertaining as a writer too, but nowhere near the hilarious levels he reaches as an improve comedian. Having had the Proops experience of both formats, my preference is definitively toward the latter. But for a quick diverting read this'll do. And who knows, you might learn something too.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

To begin with, this book has ENTIRELY too much baseball. That being said, if I ever wrote a book it would be like this, sans sports. Truly enjoyed it and read it in one sitting.

[Grotto · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like the book that claimed to be the smartest in the world. However, the smartest thing about this book its ability to sell itself based on its title... and really it should have been titled Here Are Some Random Thoughts I Am Having.

The book jumps around a set of various topics in Short Essay format. The topics he talks about most are Art, Music, Movies, Books, Poetry, Ancient History, and .... Baseball. Yes, A LOT of baseball. Proops did not need to tell me all about his personal fondness for baseball (though he did for several pages) for me to figure out he had a vested interest in it. The prior topics make up about 50% of the book and BASEBALL makes up the rest. This is what ruined this book for me.

Proops' wit too, which I have been a huge fan of in his PodCasts and apperances in Whose Line is it Anyway, was simply lost to me for most of this book. It came off smug; very "this is my opinion and if you think any different you are not cool."

The best part about this book is that it's punctuated with very clever stings of satire and sarcasm regarding current events and political-correctness that are undoubtedly hilarious; and really if you were to delete all the junk about which political leader would make the best shortstop, then you would have a few pages of Greg Proop One-liners, that I would be happy to purchase.

[Ava · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book since I love Greg Proops and I adore the Smartest Man in the World-podcast. Unfortunately this book didn't quite capture all the quick sass and wit of Greg and reads more as a bunch of his favourite things. Which actually works beautifully as the basis of his podcast with his incessent plot-twists and flow of thought but very little of it makes it to the book in one piece. I get it, though, that is a hard thing to capture in literature with keeping the narrative concise and readable.

I wished Greg could've sold me on baseball but its just so not interesting to me that it was dissapointing that a lot of the book was about that. Any sports facts to people that aren't into the sport in question will get boring very quick no matter the passion for it by the fact teller. His tastes in movies, music and literature were a bit too common knowledge or just too close to my own to really give me much to yay about neither. So concludes that surprisingly the best parts of this book are his historical anecdotes. I'll still keep loving the podcast though.

[fleegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love wit, and Greg Proops has a ton of it. This clever book is filled with terrific lists of books, art, movies, Roman emperors, and many, many things baseball. This was such a fun read, and bonus, it's very informative.

Like many comedians, Proops really knows how to use words. He has a vast vocabulary while using an economical style, so his essays are very short and to the point while also entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny. The man is dead clever. I wish I had written at least half of the essays myself!

I very much enjoyed all of the baseball topics, and his knowledge of the history of the game is impressive. Actually, his knowledge of the history of all the things is pretty impressive. And he feeds you this knowledge in bite-sized nuggets of fun.

What I really loved though, was how he wrote about women. It was so nice to read such smart and respectful things about women. Kudos to you, Mr. Proops!

[Maya Gutierrez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't like listening to podcasts, they don't hold my attention - and my husband listens to them incessantly. That being said, Greg Proops' The Smartest Man in the World is the only one I pay attention to when it's playing, because Proops is insanely witty, debonair, wildly clever even while drunk and/or high, and can talk about the most boring subjects (i.e. baseball) in an entertaining manner. None of this translated to his writing very well, in fact I wouldn't really call it a book. It's more of a list of his favorite poets, movies, historical figures, etc. I can't in good consciousness give anything he does less than 3 stars since he's so fabulous, but I would warn only his true fans to tackle this.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compendium of what is hip and cool from Proops' perspective. Full of short short essays on history and quick grabs of super hip poetry as well as very interesting lists. Imagine Reddit without any of the bullshit comments. Pinterest from a super interesting person. A great book to have in the car in case you find yourself waiting for someone and want something solid and truly interesting to read that won't take that long, or in your backpack while you wait between classes.
Highly recommend it as a gift for high school Seniors or graduates just off to college, as many of these lists would make an excellent starting place for further exploration of the world.

[Herb Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those fun books that is packed with information. It's like listening to a very bright, well read and well informed person with ADD talk. You learn about movies, ancient history, poetry and even baseball. He manages to make baseball sound interesting and important. Given that I think my special room in Hell would be a box seat at an endless baseball game, my pleasure with this book is a hats off to the talent of this author.

[Sonnet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A-MAZING! I absolutely loved it. Funny, witty, informative, and, at times, insightful. Lots of baseball, but even those parts were really interesting. I recommend listening to the audio-book, though. Narrated by the author, it is laugh out loud funny. I don't think anyone else could have done it justice.

[Monica Alvarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

he gave a fair warning on the baseball talk/writing. I did appreciate his love for the sport after reading so much about it. I'm still a bandwagon fan and I go to games because it's fun.

I learned so much from this book. I bought some new books and made a list of movies to watch. I love that he uplifts women and their accomplishments.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff about poetry, Women, music and film. The greatest Proopcast-away-from-home. The baseball sections were a bit long, for my taste, but I made it through for the Proopmeister General.

Hats off to you, Proopy! Your podcast be the bestest, Daddy-o.

[Carly Richter · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge fan of the Proopdog, I loved this book. He is class all the way. If you enjoy his podcast, you will love this book. With that said, light one up, pour yourself some vodka and crack open this book.

[Leah K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' fan so I decided to pick up this audiobook, The Smartest Book in the World, by Greg Proops (frequent improv guest on the show. The book is part facts, part humor, park opinion pieces ranging from history, to movies, music, and much more. A quick and fun romp through many subjects. I am glad I went with the audio version as he really brought the book to life. He also runs a podcast under the same title.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's funny reading some reviews from people who have never heard his podcast.

It's also funny reading this years after it was released and realizing that he doesn't do a lot of these things anymore on his podcast. :/

Not a great & funny book like you'd expect from a comedian, but there are laughs to be had for sure.

[Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I loved this book any more, it would explode in a celebratory poof of snazzy, somehow slightly sarcastic confetti when I looked at it.

Greg's voice, snarky wit and hilarious 300mph brain come through loud and clear on these pages. He even got me to read, eagerly, about baseball: a feat no other human will ever accomplish.

If you love his standup and podcasts, you'll love this. If you don't, I don't care.

[Ben George · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Just, ugh. DNF

[Andrew Mull · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less of a complete book, more of a collection of things greg proops likes. Lots of talk of poetry, books, movies, art, which I was a big fan of. The other half of the book is dedicated to creating baseball teams out of historical figures and discussing baseball. I am not a fan, and am still not a fan of baseball, but it was interesting hearing some of the history since Proops is so versed in it it seems. Overall, his humor did not translate well for me, and the history is more like listing things he likes with little more info than that (with some exceptions).

[Elyse · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not care for this book at all. I've seen Greg Proops several times on the now cancelled @midnight show, the game show where the points don't matter. He was funny. And had his own style and comedy flair. But this book was just blah. Not worth my time. It was full of nothing. Proops said so himself in the Afterword that there was too much baseball and poetry in it. YES THERE WAS. GAH. Every section had a "baseball team" made up of that subject's celebrities, baseball players, bombshell women, actors, musicians. I started skipping over these parts. I also skipped over the second and third baseball sections completely. And a lot of the poetry. It's just a bunch of nonsense because it covers too much of everything and it's all just Proops's opinion and now I have no desire to look up his podcast.

[Shawn Thornton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been called things I like by Greg proops because its not the smartest book. Greg talks shit about stuff he likes and most of it is about baseball. I'm Irish I know fuck all a about baseball. He also talks about music, movies, history and poetry. When he talks about his favourite music and movies I got the feeling if you disagree with him you are not as smart as him. His history lesson's felt like they were lifted straight from Wikipedia. My favourite music is punk and I got a little excited when Greg started to talk about it, three albums later we were back to baseball. This was not the worst book I have ever read I enjoyed parts, but it was definitely not the smartest.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greg Proops brings the wily, boisterous humor his podcast’s listeners are intimately familiar with to the printed page. Proops, most widely known for his improv work on the show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,” declares his podcast “The Smartest Man in the World” podcast, so naturally his book follows as “The Smartest Book in the World.” This volume is part people’s history of pop culture, part fanatic list-o-mania. Proops discusses the passions in his life, from baseball to poetry to film to music, pointing out their oddities and hilarities along the way. Readers will come away with a full to-read/watch/listen list.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

** 1/2

Realistically, the star rating is too low, but this is a book that is unrelenting repetitive if read straight through. By the midway point, it becomes clear that there are only lists awaiting you, all of which are variations of lists already written (there are far too many baseball lineups composed of historical figures unrelated to ball: examples being the Dictator Baseball Team, the Historical Women Team, etc.) Such lists work fine as bits on a podcast spread out over weeks, but by the time you’ve gotten to the seventh list of baseball teams, the sixth selection of music (broken up by genre: random lists of the author’s preferences of funk records, punk albums, etc), the eighth seemingly randomly selected poem, the faults with the book become clear: the work is redundant (Proops repeats stories of Alexander the Great and facts about Satchel Paige); the gimmicks grow tiresome (finding new types of baseball teams loses its lustre by the fourth, and the reader might begin to wonder why there must be yet another team as opposed to different material altogether); and the reverence he holds for topics such as revolutionary women in history and Negro League baseball contrasted with his hate for white men in history and bigotry in white baseball renders him incapable of finding humour in the subjects at hand, forcing him to rely on his manner of writing — which is a shorthand version of his oratorical abilities that, on the page, lacks the inherent charisma of a skilled comic — to provide what laughs there are. It is a history book disguised as a comedy, which would work if there was more variation. In the afterward, Proops writes that there is too much baseball and poetry, which is only half true. His writing on baseball is exceptional, though would offer nothing to those disinterested in the topic. However, by allowing himself to simply tell the history of certain aspects of the game, he shows himself to be capable of being a remarkably gifted, if snarky, historian. By repeatedly returning to the now-tired gimmick of constructing teams, he shows himself to be an author lacking content. However, the autobiographical anecdotal material detailing baseball as the only means of connection with his father provides us enough insight into his history with the game that his clear passion for the history of the game and how racism practically defined it for decades somehow makes his decisions on what to cover more personal than they appear otherwise. Combined with his never-hidden hatred of a status quo dominated by discrimination, we have a delightfully wry telling of history that is often incredibly personal despite detailing the lives and accomplishments of men he’s never met. Conversely, by offering no explanation of how he has selected the many poems reprinted in the book, we are met with nothing but a handful of poems easily found in the public domain. Hipping the audience to poetry is admirable, but why are there so many poems, and why are these the poems that are here? If you have read the poems he has selected, then you may skip, because he does nothing with them. The author may let the work speak for itself, but he is not the author of these works, and his brief description of the poets is all that is required, however, the question then is why Blake over Wordsworth? Why Sappho over Smith? These are questions that, I assume, would not occur to the reader who consumes the book piecemeal. And such, to consume the book piecemeal is to perhaps find total satisfaction; his decision to include baseball, art, and feminism is laudable. His decision to repeat gimmicks to the point of them becoming stale, redundant, and, unfortunately, boring is not. By keeping the same borders while giving himself the ability to change them is frustrating. By repeating stories while writing of people whose lives were grander than fiction is frustrating. The material is A+, though little of it is his own; it is selected in his words and reprintings in the original authors’ words with none of the man whose wit and wordplay is what will ultimately sell the book. The originality is in the presentation, but this cannot sustain a 300 page book. Variety is the spice of life, and it is the neglected necessity of The Smartest Book in the World. Read a section at a time and enjoy. Read it straight though and lose what makes it great it in the first place. It deserves more than **1/2, but having read it through, I cannot give it more; by the time I had finished, the book had overstayed its welcome by 150 pages and was busy vomiting in the bushes, refusing to leave the party that has already ended.

[D J Rout · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first saw Greg Proops on Whose Line is it Anyway?, I was struck by two things: while everyone else was dressed casually, he wore a suit; and while everyone else didn't have glasses, he did. This, I thought, was a smart guy.

Proops, who's a friend of The Drunken Odyssey (with John King) also has a podcast of his own, which he has turned into a book here.

The best adjective for this book is 'eclectic'. There is information from all over the place, fact-checked, and Proops cites his sources at the end. The style puts a modern stand-up (or improv) take on historical events, but unlike other podcasts, doesn't pretend that the 21st century view is the only correct one.

You have to be very interested in baseball to get the most out of this book, but his analyses of, for example, previous English monarchs and how they should be placed in a baseball team provides some insight into his thoguhts on their characters. Don't look too deeply at the monarchs one, but his baseball team of cinema bombshells contained little that I could object to, and his thoguhts on Rita Hayworth are some of the most cogent I've ever read.

The book also has a good index, so you can look up interesting bits of trivia to refresh your memory. A good effort from the race-caller in The Phantom Menace .

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Greg Proops. I think he's very funny. But after reading this book it's clear we have different tastes, and that diminished my enjoyment of this book. I do want to point out the middle-of-the-road rating I gave it is really a reflection of it being not to my taste, as opposed to finding it mediocre in some universal way.

Well... there is the baseball motif thing. I think there's something a bit askew when you title a book The Smartest Book In The World and spend half of it talking about one thing. The endless array of baseball teams, made up of monarchs, dictators, Roman emperors, etc. got to be a drag after the 30th one. OK, that's hyperbole, but it sure seemed like it sometimes.

It's also hyperbole to say that my tastes are diametrically opposed to Proops'. From his selections, it's clear we have similar tastes in literature, so there's that. But any author who calls Yes' music "hideous elf music" while extolling the virtue of Dylan (whose music I refer to as "hideous troll music") can go get fucked, musically.

Overall, I thought the book could've used more pages. Wait, what? Well, the brief summaries of historical figures barely scratched the surface of some of history's most colorful characters. I got much more enjoyment out of the in-depth treatments of Satchel Paige and Alexander the Great. An entire book of that would've been awesome.

Also, vodka? Not Scotch or bourbon? Proops writes of vodka as if it's some sort of heavenly elixir, instead of the two-dimensional nuevo-yuppie spirit it truly is.

Call it half a good book, and maybe more if you share the author's aesthetic.

[Amber Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of things going for this book (in the sense that I personally would pick it up)

1) I've always liked Greg Proops humor, and some of the jokes and references I've been making the longest are some of his.
2) Proops is a bit of a progressive a know-it-all-asshole with a sense of humor
3) It's a collection of compendiums, curated by Proops, a mind who I already trust.
4) The audiobook is narrated by Proops himself.

This book is very much enjoyable for its 101-levels on subjects that I've hesitated to devote more time to, peppered with signature Proops jokes. It has really inspired me to be a more dedicated listener of his podcast, as well as check out more information on a few of the subjects he's covered.

The one subject I will not be checking out more is the one drawback of the book (warranting the 4-star rating). Baseball. Jesus Christ, does he love baseball. It's his books, so I'm not going to say it shouldn't have been in there, it was just too much for me. This is a personal preference, as I'm just not really much of a sports person. If you like baseball, then you'll dig it. If not, maybe just skip those sections (as I ended up doing after a while), the rest is still worth it.

[Nicholas Zacharewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of the Smartest Man in The World podcast, my enjoyment of this book came as no surprise.

The topics Proops writes about are fairly similar to the sorts of things covered in the podcast: music, politics, movies, and baseball. There will also be some familiar ground for fans of the podcast, but Proops makes pretty good use of the depth that a book allows, embellishing a few of his apparently favourite chestnuts. Also, even if some of them appeared on the show, I appreciate having some of his "must" lists in a more permanent form.

But what blew me away the most about this book was just how well Proops wrote the sections on history. The tone and voice were pretty much identical to his historical tangents on the podcast but with the focus that writing corrals such thoughts into. If Proops ever writes a book entirely about history, I would be one of the first to pick it up.

Until then, this book is still worth a read if you've ever encountered Proops before or if you just want to have a groovy (and mildly educational) time.

[Jordan Stitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

You'll LOVE the Proopsisms, the Prooptionary, and the VOICE behind this gem! Yes, I used the oxfords and an explanation point there... (And and now parenthesis/ellipsis) ON PURPOSE. I love this man, his mind, his willingness to share his quirky weird; his thoughts and the manner in which he shares them. I've both read the book, and listened to it in the author's voice, and I highly recommend the latter. Where he and I disagree, I giggle, because he articulates his ideas so endearingly. I'm young, so apps n' shorthand tend to be my jam. But, my God how beautifully he twists a sentence in protest of things I both embody and rage against. I love Proopsy.

Read this book. Or better, if you can, and are a digital library card holder, LISTEN TO IT. You'll learn things, and (if you get funny) laugh out loud.I

[John Kaess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I seldom rate a book 2 stars, because i've learned to abandon books which i would give that low a rating to. I persevered and finished this book, just because it occasionally had a few interesting things. The entire book is basically made up of lists. Lists of movies, music, people, and a lot of baseball. Each item in each list has elaboration on the reasons the author thinks it to be noteworthy. The reason i gave it 2 stars is that the author seems unduly preoccupied with pointing out sexual proclivities for anything he possibly can throughout all the lists. In addition, he is almost as fixated on the smoking habits of each person or movie in his lists. It's not that these things are not occasionally relevant or interesting, but they very much are not relevant and interesting constantly. It becomes very tiresome.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd, rambling compendium of stuff Proops likes, his liking explained in in-your-face directness, this is his list, his likes, and you can do with it what you want. He conjures up imaginary baseball teams, staffed by Roman emperors; or bombshells, doxies and dames (Mae West, Diana Rigg, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr); or all baseball players, from every era. He is a baseball fan, a fan of different kinds of music, a fan of ancient history, and he gives his studied take on all these topics. Much fun to read, clever and idiosyncratic.
Read as bedtime reading, for which it was excellent: short-ish essays on various topics, fun to read, easy to put down, worthwhile picking up again.
I'll remember the sort-of-silly premise of the book, its sort of arrogant tone of voice, the author's wide range of knowledge upon which he has well thought out opinions.