The Dog Dialed 911: A Book of Lists from The Smoking Gun

by The Smoking Gun

From the creators of the hugely popular web site thesmokinggun.com, the most hilarious and outrageous true stories uncovered in ten years (almost) of the world's funniest investigative reporting.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2006

Reviews

[Addison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is something of a mixed bag - I'm not 100% sure it should be listed as humor. Yes, you're definitely going to laugh at the mugshot of the idiot caught huffing gold paint, but I fail to see what's funny about the documents regarding things such as child abuse, animal abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault. They certainly didn't strike me as "amusing" and felt horribly out of place considering the book was going for a "haha-look-at-these-dumb-criminals" tone. Definitely missed the mark on that one.

[Kricket · Rating 2 out of 5]

i found this while i was weeding 031 ("General encyclopedic works — American") and became curious. parts of this were very funny (ex: program test report for the pilot of "Friends") but parts of it were gross/boring so i skimmed. overall i give it a hearty "meh."

thus concludes my in-depth review.

[Nina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty stupid. The authors just culled police reports and court cases for amusing (or usually salacious) examples and mug shots of celebrities who had been arrested at some point along with their stories. The title came from a case where a dog stepped his owner's cell phone and accidently hit speed dial for 911. Other cases included a guy who had a UPS pilot friend pack him in a crate and send him air freight to his destination and a science teacher dumb enough to have his 7th grade students draw their own blood with a shared lancet. My favorite was a couple who went to visit their parents' glass-faced urn niche at the mausoleum and discovered their mother's box had been replace with a partly open can of Pringles Sour Cream and Onion.

A big problem with the copy and paste approach the authors used was that the book had the most typos I've ever seen anywhere. Practically every sentence had a typo or even more, sometimes making the content incomprehensible. Here's one instance: "While speaking with Trooper long three children trooper long three children and adult trunk of the vehicle opened and The adult female vehicle I returned to my patrol vehile advised frederick road the vehicle vehicle on the ramp to operator." I can only assume there was no editor.

[Douglas Reedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book to read. Fast paced with lots of interesting and humorous facts. I would recommend this book to anyone with a short attention span like me.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great if you want to see pictures of celebrity mug shots and read about utterly stupid criminals! The stories are hilarious and this book literally makes you wonder "what were they thinking"?

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someday I will become a better, more compassionate person who does not laugh at a mug shot of someone who tried to get high by huffing glittery-gold spray paint.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0721051gold1.html

[Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

- from the jacket: "Proof that truth is stranger than fiction! This wildly entertaining book features excerpts from a wide array of public documents that hilariously illustrate some of the most important, scandalous, or bizarre news stories to make headlines in recent years."

[Dan]

A Christmas gift from Sara.

[Julie N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny for the most part, interesting for sure

[Duane · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book for anyone who wants to know the real story behind the news stories you hear about on television. Does contain graphic language so be warned.

[Teena in Toronto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some funny stories! I occasionally go into the Smoking Gun website.

[Jarrad Bock]

Not a bad flick through, some funny things.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so much fun. Good for those days when you just don't have anything worthwhile to do. :)

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny.

[Marie-pier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent bathroom literature.