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The Hell of It All
'Mankind clearly peaked about 40 years ago. It's been downhill ever since. For all this talk of our dazzling modern age, the two biggest advances of the past decade are Wi-Fi and Nando's. That's the best we can do'. In his latest laugh-out-loud collection of misanthropic scribblings, hideous Q-list celebrity failure Charlie Brooker tackles everything from the misery of nightclubs to the death of Michael Jackson, making room for Sir Alan Sugar, potato crisps, global financial meltdown, conspiracy theories and Hole in the Wall along the way. The collapse of civilisation has never felt this funny (unless you're a sociopath, in which case it's been an uninterrupted laugh riot since the days of the Somme). This book is guaranteed to brighten your life, put a spring in your step, and lie to you on its back cover.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2008
90 people are currently reading
1943 people want to read
About the author
Charlie Brooker
19 books547 followersCharlton "Charlie" Brooker is a British journalist, comic writer and broadcaster. His style of humour is savage and profane, with surreal elements and a consistent satirical pessimism.
He presents TV shows Screenwipe, Gameswipe and Newswipe, wrote a review column for The Guardian newspaper, and is one of four creative directors of comedy production company Zeppotron.
His five-part horror drama Dead Set for E4 earned him a nomination for a BAFTA and he is also the host of the Channel 4 comedy panel show You Have Been Watching. Brooker won Columnist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards for his column, and the Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards 2009.
He presents TV shows Screenwipe, Gameswipe and Newswipe, wrote a review column for The Guardian newspaper, and is one of four creative directors of comedy production company Zeppotron.
His five-part horror drama Dead Set for E4 earned him a nomination for a BAFTA and he is also the host of the Channel 4 comedy panel show You Have Been Watching. Brooker won Columnist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards for his column, and the Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
April 16, 2011
I don’t own a TV, and consequently have become that smug gloater at parties who stands there pooh-poohing all forms of boxed entertainment in favour of books. The Wire, you say? Oh, very impressive I’m sure, but have you read Sorrentino’s Aberration of Starlight? Big Brother is the bane of civilisation, you say? Well, you’ve only got yourself to blame, sitting there in your pants at 3AM watching Joncey tongue a carrot. Have you read any Gert Jonke? Don’t: he’s soo tiresome.
As TV critic for The Guardian, Charlie Brooker sifts through the rubble of television for signs of life among the intellectual decay. He’s like Don Johnson in the cult film A Man & His Dog: wandering through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, he stumbles upon an underground cult of clown-faced freaks, then decides he’d rather starve than be corrupted by morons. Amen.
He’s either a prophet or another transitory sneerer making a living through bile. I lean towards the former: this is sharp, incisive, furiously sensible prose.
As TV critic for The Guardian, Charlie Brooker sifts through the rubble of television for signs of life among the intellectual decay. He’s like Don Johnson in the cult film A Man & His Dog: wandering through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, he stumbles upon an underground cult of clown-faced freaks, then decides he’d rather starve than be corrupted by morons. Amen.
He’s either a prophet or another transitory sneerer making a living through bile. I lean towards the former: this is sharp, incisive, furiously sensible prose.
November 23, 2016
I love Charlie Brooker. This book wasn’t as relevant and funny as his others. I couldn’t fully relate to much of the pop culture in the U.K, since I no longer live there, never mind the fact that the book was slightly dated. It was enjoyable, but not as good as his other book, “I Can Make You Hate”.
November 15, 2014
A collection of Charlie Brooker's Guardian columns from 2007 when his misanthropic rage was at peak boil. Brooker turns his splenetic eye on seemingly every aspect of modern culture, from the soul-sapping inanity of reality television to the empty platitudes of the media-trained political class. Brooker's abrasive critique is often hilarious and also enlightening as to the varied inspirations behind his wonderfully nightmarish TV series Black Mirror. Recommended for anyone who ever threw something at the telly.
August 11, 2010
Charlie brooker's books can be a difficult read, as it a relentless stream of invective and brutal summarising of how crap the world we live in is.
However the writing is superb and his dark humour has some genuine laugh out loud moments.
It's one of those books that will infuriate anyone else in the room with you whilst you read it. I found myself making involuntary remarks, sniggers and guffaws. This is irritating for anyone around you, and you certainly can't explain to your kids why you're laughing!
The book also serves as a short term memory jogger for recent events, as Charlie hangs a lot of stuff around topical news events (the book is a compliation of his weekly newspaper columns)and I found myself marvelling at how these things always feel like they happened last week, but in fact it's been a couple of years since the event.
The points about the vacuity of Big Brother and other reality shows are made crystal clear when you realise that you have no clue who he is going on about.
Charlie's world may be bleak and hate filled, but frankly it seems to reflect the current world we live in pretty well....
However the writing is superb and his dark humour has some genuine laugh out loud moments.
It's one of those books that will infuriate anyone else in the room with you whilst you read it. I found myself making involuntary remarks, sniggers and guffaws. This is irritating for anyone around you, and you certainly can't explain to your kids why you're laughing!
The book also serves as a short term memory jogger for recent events, as Charlie hangs a lot of stuff around topical news events (the book is a compliation of his weekly newspaper columns)and I found myself marvelling at how these things always feel like they happened last week, but in fact it's been a couple of years since the event.
The points about the vacuity of Big Brother and other reality shows are made crystal clear when you realise that you have no clue who he is going on about.
Charlie's world may be bleak and hate filled, but frankly it seems to reflect the current world we live in pretty well....
December 22, 2009
Merry Christmas to me! I'm celebrating mine by being laid off from work, waxing too footsore to get any walking in, and indulging in seasonally-affected melancholia with only a hamster and a teapot for company. In short, I'm in the best possible psychological place to appreciate The Hell Of It All by Charlie Brooker, which I should have reviewed on Friday but didn't because I chose to sit around in my dressing gown and snarl bitterly at the computer instead.*
I would have snarled bitterly at the TV, but happily, since I watch Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe on YouTube, I don't have to. He demonstrates convincingly that it's every bit as shit as you suspected, so you can move on with your life. He's been performing this service since the late nineties. His website TV Go Home was a wonderfully surreal mock-up of the Radio Times, featuring shows such as Grief Digestion Theatre (where actors are told that a close relative has died suddenly 18 seconds before they're due on stage), hallucinogenic synopses of Neighbours where "Toadfish rows a boat made of Disprin across a sea of piss", and ultimately, and most memorably, Cunt, where Nathan Barley, worthless twenty something trustafarian media wannabee, is described in terms of such toe-curling contempt and spleen it can induce spontaneous eye-bleeding ("Nathan Barley visits an overpriced Soho shitstack to waste £350 on a selection of ironic Christmas gifts...and a Japanese digital camera that prints photographs on marzipan-scented recycled fucking toilet paper").
And Cunt is where we get off, because the rage engine that powered such eviscerating loathing for the smug meedja luvvie is the same one powering his column. Media itself is not so much reviewed as the series of lazy assumptions behind it (Heat magazine is described as the "tittering idiot's lunchbreak reading of choice" while it invites readers to make fun of Jordan's disabled son, the convenient appearance of sob story backgrounds from unlikeable Apprentice candidates is critiqued, the double barrelled titillation/empowerment nonsense of shows like "Credit Crunch Monty" where ordinary members of the public are stripped and reduced to tears to give them "confidence" is heaped with scorn).
Underneath it all though, there is a sense of unpleasant realisation. Someone, somewhere, is making this stuff and putting it out, and thinks that this is interesting to you. That they're taking you in. That they know who you are, that they've got your number. And the reflections are all distorted and insulting, a kind of Hall of Mirrors of calumny. This is the thing that you suspect makes Charlie Brooker angry, and before very long, you're pretty fucking angry yourself.
The book itself is a compilation of Brooker's column in the Guardian, so obviously it has no particular ongoing theme other than the fact that everything in the universe is rubbish, but especially the media, politicians, relationships, and himself. Oh, and spiders. Or so he'd have you believe, except that every so often he will write lyrically about the legacy of Oliver Postgate (voicer and co-creator of Bagpuss and The Clangers), or on the TV dissection of elephants, or Heston Blumenthal's Feast, and you realise that things aren't hated on principle, just when they're shit. Which is, unfortunately, fairly often.
But the best thing about it is the relentlessly sharp and vicious word portraits drawn in a single sentence: Alan Sugar "used to look like a water buffalo straining to shit into a lake", Richard Dawkins is "god-hating Professor Yaffle impersonator", William Hague a "cheery dot-eyed cueball". Every article is a delight, containing some new phrase or surreal idea - something to love even while it spears the thing it describes in a display of audacious cruelty.
And the index is a thing of beauty. Be sure to look up the phrase "might as well..." in it.
It may be Hell. But it is also passionate and enormous fun.
I would have snarled bitterly at the TV, but happily, since I watch Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe on YouTube, I don't have to. He demonstrates convincingly that it's every bit as shit as you suspected, so you can move on with your life. He's been performing this service since the late nineties. His website TV Go Home was a wonderfully surreal mock-up of the Radio Times, featuring shows such as Grief Digestion Theatre (where actors are told that a close relative has died suddenly 18 seconds before they're due on stage), hallucinogenic synopses of Neighbours where "Toadfish rows a boat made of Disprin across a sea of piss", and ultimately, and most memorably, Cunt, where Nathan Barley, worthless twenty something trustafarian media wannabee, is described in terms of such toe-curling contempt and spleen it can induce spontaneous eye-bleeding ("Nathan Barley visits an overpriced Soho shitstack to waste £350 on a selection of ironic Christmas gifts...and a Japanese digital camera that prints photographs on marzipan-scented recycled fucking toilet paper").
And Cunt is where we get off, because the rage engine that powered such eviscerating loathing for the smug meedja luvvie is the same one powering his column. Media itself is not so much reviewed as the series of lazy assumptions behind it (Heat magazine is described as the "tittering idiot's lunchbreak reading of choice" while it invites readers to make fun of Jordan's disabled son, the convenient appearance of sob story backgrounds from unlikeable Apprentice candidates is critiqued, the double barrelled titillation/empowerment nonsense of shows like "Credit Crunch Monty" where ordinary members of the public are stripped and reduced to tears to give them "confidence" is heaped with scorn).
Underneath it all though, there is a sense of unpleasant realisation. Someone, somewhere, is making this stuff and putting it out, and thinks that this is interesting to you. That they're taking you in. That they know who you are, that they've got your number. And the reflections are all distorted and insulting, a kind of Hall of Mirrors of calumny. This is the thing that you suspect makes Charlie Brooker angry, and before very long, you're pretty fucking angry yourself.
The book itself is a compilation of Brooker's column in the Guardian, so obviously it has no particular ongoing theme other than the fact that everything in the universe is rubbish, but especially the media, politicians, relationships, and himself. Oh, and spiders. Or so he'd have you believe, except that every so often he will write lyrically about the legacy of Oliver Postgate (voicer and co-creator of Bagpuss and The Clangers), or on the TV dissection of elephants, or Heston Blumenthal's Feast, and you realise that things aren't hated on principle, just when they're shit. Which is, unfortunately, fairly often.
But the best thing about it is the relentlessly sharp and vicious word portraits drawn in a single sentence: Alan Sugar "used to look like a water buffalo straining to shit into a lake", Richard Dawkins is "god-hating Professor Yaffle impersonator", William Hague a "cheery dot-eyed cueball". Every article is a delight, containing some new phrase or surreal idea - something to love even while it spears the thing it describes in a display of audacious cruelty.
And the index is a thing of beauty. Be sure to look up the phrase "might as well..." in it.
It may be Hell. But it is also passionate and enormous fun.
March 7, 2013
This book is tricky. It probably deserves at least a 3 star, but despite the hilarious truths and times I laughed so hard I cried, I still couldn't finish it. If I owned a copy I would have finished it and while I love the hundreds of pages of pure sarcasm, I found that it could only be read in small increments and I was infinitely scanning over paragraphs about 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!', 'Big Brother' and 'X-Factor'. If you are into reality/trash TV and fake celebrity culture then this book is for you, however I despise this sort of entertainment. The other reason that I felt I could only read this in small increments is that the constant antagonistic and sarcastic approach to seemingly indiscriminate topics is trying over the course of 400 pages. Another point is that if you do not live in the UK or have never been to London, you will not get 85% of the references and/or jokes. I didn't have this problem as I lived in London for many years, but I would not recommend this book to any of my American family or friends for the aforementioned reason. I would however recommend this book to my British/English friends because it really is a very good laugh.
August 26, 2018
I've thoroughly enjoyed all three volumes of Brooker's collected Grauniad columns. I'm sure this isn't the ideal medium, but I have found that in this format they read like molten lava that has cooled enough to harden, but would still melt your Crocs if you were to hike across it on your way to sacrifice a small child to the unforgiving gods of Snark Volcano. Also, he makes me laugh.
March 3, 2018
Charlie Brooker is a literary genius, a first class wit, a sublime intelligence and so very, very smart. I have yet to find anything of his that I do not like or enjoy, from his writing, to his series of Black Mirror. Give me more Charlie Brooker and I will be a happy man.
October 16, 2016
So the reason this took so long to read (and I was all too aware of the fact it was sat there in my currently reading box) was that it fell down the back of a cupboard and I only re-found it a few weeks ago.
Its great, a series of reprints (with the very occasional updated comment) of articles he wrote in the guardian. I like these books now and again as you can dip in and out of it. You are not following a narrative at all.
More than that it is very pithily and well written it is a book I often chuckled at. Very occasionally it felt a hint mean spirited but it was always funny. It was at its best when the author was being open and frank about himself and his ways. These may have been my favourite bits because I like self depreciation rather than attacking others but that does not change the fact that they were my favourite bits.
I great read. I have already bought another 2 to read so I will be back to Mr Brooker. You could do a lot worse than this if you have a yen for a collection of articles.
Its great, a series of reprints (with the very occasional updated comment) of articles he wrote in the guardian. I like these books now and again as you can dip in and out of it. You are not following a narrative at all.
More than that it is very pithily and well written it is a book I often chuckled at. Very occasionally it felt a hint mean spirited but it was always funny. It was at its best when the author was being open and frank about himself and his ways. These may have been my favourite bits because I like self depreciation rather than attacking others but that does not change the fact that they were my favourite bits.
I great read. I have already bought another 2 to read so I will be back to Mr Brooker. You could do a lot worse than this if you have a yen for a collection of articles.
July 23, 2021
Hilarious, in true Brooker form - and I probably would have found it more so had I known all the references, but I missed a lot of his pop-culture jokes. The passage of time, too, has this book showing its age, and it's outright uncomfortable knowing where he was then compared to where we are now.
February 28, 2010
I think I just wet my pants. Too funny.
October 8, 2010
Charlie Brooker truly has acerbic eyes, two to of them, that make him write funny and acerbic things that are as funny as they are acerbic. Yay.
January 4, 2015
Introduction
--The Hell of it All
Gaming Appendix
Index
--The Hell of it All
Gaming Appendix
Index
June 7, 2014
Even a few years after the columns were written (08-09) this collection is still brilliant. Hilariously dry.
January 23, 2024
A collection of articles from the Guardian newspaper, published in 2009. I do like Charlie Brooker, being fully onboard with his view of humanity, but I am perhaps a little too old to appreciate his obsession with bodily parts and functions. It may also have been a mistake reading the book all in one go, as it where.
The other slight problem arises because you are reading of events in 2009 fifteen years later. Some of the programmes he reviews are long forgotten; the 'celebrities' he rants about are no longer on the public's radar. I would guess some of his own views have changed - he grumps about marriage and children but now he is married with children, happily I hope. It is rather sad to read of his elation when President Obama came to office, when we know what lies in the future.
In 2023, I re-read a lot of collections of newspaper articles which at one time I had loved; almost without exception, I no longer found them enjoyable. Brooker is not quite in that category - I still found a lot of the content amusing - but I am coming to the realisation that nostalgia is probably best left in the mind; the cold light of present reality can prove to be a real downer.
The other slight problem arises because you are reading of events in 2009 fifteen years later. Some of the programmes he reviews are long forgotten; the 'celebrities' he rants about are no longer on the public's radar. I would guess some of his own views have changed - he grumps about marriage and children but now he is married with children, happily I hope. It is rather sad to read of his elation when President Obama came to office, when we know what lies in the future.
In 2023, I re-read a lot of collections of newspaper articles which at one time I had loved; almost without exception, I no longer found them enjoyable. Brooker is not quite in that category - I still found a lot of the content amusing - but I am coming to the realisation that nostalgia is probably best left in the mind; the cold light of present reality can prove to be a real downer.
April 25, 2014
The Hell of it All is a mildly edited collection of articles written by Charlie Brooker for the Guardian newspaper. Since it's just a continuation of his earlier collection Dawn of the Dumb I've decided to produce a mildly edited collection of articles of my own. By which I mean I'm just going to copy and paste my review of that other book and delete anything that doesn't apply.
--
When I left home to start University there were many things I missed. But the combined heartache of all these things was outweighed by the joy I felt at the realisation that no longer would my residence's newspaper of choice be The Sun.
The word newspaper in modern English often gets shortened to just ’paper. This appellation is particularly apt for The Sun since it is undeniably full of paper and just as undeniably devoid of news. Being free of the odious tabloid was liberating. No more would every science article I read start with the phrase “Boffins at the University of…”. No more would the day's biggest news event be commented on by Jo, 19, from Wolverhampton, who was happy to expose both her views on world events and her bosom.
Since I'm a limp-wristed bleeding-hearted hairy-toed liberal the first newspaper I bought for myself was The Guardian. And immediately I started buying it I was in love. Not with the paper itself, whose more liberal stances on every single news story were refreshing at first but soon gave me the impression that if it leaned any more to the left it would fall over. No, the object of my affection was the splenetic Charlie Brooker. His column was often the highlight of each Monday, a day filled with dragging myself through lectures wondering where the weekend had popped off to and when it would be back.
Long after I had a falling out with The Guardian (they compared Boris Johnson to Hitler; I expect Godwin's law to hold in Youtube comments, not in my broadsheet newspaper) and switched allegiances to a different newspaper I would still buy a copy of Monday's Guardian just to read through his often hilarious pieces. The theme was generally self-loathing, although not being a selfish sort of man Charlie Brooker would happily dish out his loathing to anyone or anything else that had irked him that week.
This collection is a combination of Brooker's Monday articles from the G2 supplement that are him just moaning for a page or two and his Screenburn articles that review the week's television. Reading these angry rants once a week usually left me eager for the following week's article, but like some TV shows I worried that reading them all in a row in this collection would rob them of their charm. Thus, despite it being eminently pick-up-able, I practised putting the book down a lot. The individual articles are all rather short, a couple of pages at most. This makes them perfect for filling in those annoying little two minute breaks we have a dozen times a day. A few reviews have called it perfect toilet-time reading, and it is, but I mostly read it while waiting for a bus, while waiting for my pasta to boil, while waiting for British Gas to stop holding me (as it were), and many other pauses in my day that wouldn't normally be long enough for any serious reading.
Serious reading is not what this book is about. Charlie Brooker in general isn't always a seething cauldron of discontent, and he can be touchingly poignant, as best seen in his tribute to Oliver Postgate. However, the articles in this collection are witty, acerbic rage through and through.
If you like Charlie Brooker and haven't memorised everything he's ever written then this collection is a great one to dip into. It passed the six-laugh test with flying laugh-flavoured colours and, from a social history perspective, gives a nice overview of the changes in television during the three year period it covers. Charlie Brooker isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you like your tea with a splash of milk and a teaspoon of relentless pessimistic fury, then you might want to give him a sip.
*This review originally appeared in The Daily Goodreads in July 2012.
--
When I left home to start University there were many things I missed. But the combined heartache of all these things was outweighed by the joy I felt at the realisation that no longer would my residence's newspaper of choice be The Sun.
The word newspaper in modern English often gets shortened to just ’paper. This appellation is particularly apt for The Sun since it is undeniably full of paper and just as undeniably devoid of news. Being free of the odious tabloid was liberating. No more would every science article I read start with the phrase “Boffins at the University of…”. No more would the day's biggest news event be commented on by Jo, 19, from Wolverhampton, who was happy to expose both her views on world events and her bosom.
Since I'm a limp-wristed bleeding-hearted hairy-toed liberal the first newspaper I bought for myself was The Guardian. And immediately I started buying it I was in love. Not with the paper itself, whose more liberal stances on every single news story were refreshing at first but soon gave me the impression that if it leaned any more to the left it would fall over. No, the object of my affection was the splenetic Charlie Brooker. His column was often the highlight of each Monday, a day filled with dragging myself through lectures wondering where the weekend had popped off to and when it would be back.
Long after I had a falling out with The Guardian (they compared Boris Johnson to Hitler; I expect Godwin's law to hold in Youtube comments, not in my broadsheet newspaper) and switched allegiances to a different newspaper I would still buy a copy of Monday's Guardian just to read through his often hilarious pieces. The theme was generally self-loathing, although not being a selfish sort of man Charlie Brooker would happily dish out his loathing to anyone or anything else that had irked him that week.
This collection is a combination of Brooker's Monday articles from the G2 supplement that are him just moaning for a page or two and his Screenburn articles that review the week's television. Reading these angry rants once a week usually left me eager for the following week's article, but like some TV shows I worried that reading them all in a row in this collection would rob them of their charm. Thus, despite it being eminently pick-up-able, I practised putting the book down a lot. The individual articles are all rather short, a couple of pages at most. This makes them perfect for filling in those annoying little two minute breaks we have a dozen times a day. A few reviews have called it perfect toilet-time reading, and it is, but I mostly read it while waiting for a bus, while waiting for my pasta to boil, while waiting for British Gas to stop holding me (as it were), and many other pauses in my day that wouldn't normally be long enough for any serious reading.
Serious reading is not what this book is about. Charlie Brooker in general isn't always a seething cauldron of discontent, and he can be touchingly poignant, as best seen in his tribute to Oliver Postgate. However, the articles in this collection are witty, acerbic rage through and through.
If you like Charlie Brooker and haven't memorised everything he's ever written then this collection is a great one to dip into. It passed the six-laugh test with flying laugh-flavoured colours and, from a social history perspective, gives a nice overview of the changes in television during the three year period it covers. Charlie Brooker isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you like your tea with a splash of milk and a teaspoon of relentless pessimistic fury, then you might want to give him a sip.
*This review originally appeared in The Daily Goodreads in July 2012.
September 20, 2011
"The Hell of It All" continues where "Dawn of the Dumb" left off, collecting Brooker's columns in the Guardian from Aug 07 to Aug 09. The chapters are divided between his Screen Burn columns where he talks about tv shows, and his G2 columns where he talks about other stuff. I love Brooker's work especially his writing but always forget his columns are up on the Guardian website each week so seeing a 388 page book appear is always a surprise and a pleasure as I know I've got 2 years of Brooker's views to read first time. So seeing "The Hell of It All" appear suddenly on the Amazon website, I had to order a copy. And is it any good? Of course it is.
Brooker's views on tv are always funny and spot on, like his article on Bruce Parry in "Tribes" where he reimagines an episode based in Glasgow, or his potshots on BB housemates. There's also a fairly mundane article on his fear of spiders until at the end he adds a note saying he had to write this one as his first submission was vetoed as too gloomy for a Monday morning - the article posits the question "Why don't you blow your own head off?". The article is also included in full.
His best work comes in the form of the G2 articles where his descriptions of not caring about anything in the article titled "The Black Hole" are, dare I say it, profound, while the travel piece where he stays in an opulent Las Vegas during the beginning of the economic crisis contains a spot on description of Vegas. There's also a brilliantly funny article on Gordon Brown's dreary time as prime minister, a paragraph of which I loved so much I've typed it out below:
"Here is a man apparently allergic to luck. Nothing goes right for the Brown minister. He can't even pop onto YouTube and attempt a smile without everyone laughing and calling him creepy. And they're right. The smiles were creepy: they made him look like the long-dead corpse of a gameshow host resurrected by a crazed scientist in some satirical horror movie. It's Saturday night, live from Television Centre! The theme tune plays on a church organ. Your children shriek when he bounds on to the screen. As he descends the glittering staircase, one decomposing arm drops off at the shoulder socket, hitting the studio floor with a damp thud. Oblivious, he steps over it to approach camera one, gazing down the lens with frozen eyes, intermittently twitching that smile. Your screen cracks. Hot plasma leaks out. This broadcast is over." (p.351)
Charlie Brooker's written another amazing book where you actually prefer to read about tv than watch it. And great timing too as a fine remedy to all the putrid celeb biographies and cookbooks out any day now. Very funny, very readable, highly recommended.
Brooker's views on tv are always funny and spot on, like his article on Bruce Parry in "Tribes" where he reimagines an episode based in Glasgow, or his potshots on BB housemates. There's also a fairly mundane article on his fear of spiders until at the end he adds a note saying he had to write this one as his first submission was vetoed as too gloomy for a Monday morning - the article posits the question "Why don't you blow your own head off?". The article is also included in full.
His best work comes in the form of the G2 articles where his descriptions of not caring about anything in the article titled "The Black Hole" are, dare I say it, profound, while the travel piece where he stays in an opulent Las Vegas during the beginning of the economic crisis contains a spot on description of Vegas. There's also a brilliantly funny article on Gordon Brown's dreary time as prime minister, a paragraph of which I loved so much I've typed it out below:
"Here is a man apparently allergic to luck. Nothing goes right for the Brown minister. He can't even pop onto YouTube and attempt a smile without everyone laughing and calling him creepy. And they're right. The smiles were creepy: they made him look like the long-dead corpse of a gameshow host resurrected by a crazed scientist in some satirical horror movie. It's Saturday night, live from Television Centre! The theme tune plays on a church organ. Your children shriek when he bounds on to the screen. As he descends the glittering staircase, one decomposing arm drops off at the shoulder socket, hitting the studio floor with a damp thud. Oblivious, he steps over it to approach camera one, gazing down the lens with frozen eyes, intermittently twitching that smile. Your screen cracks. Hot plasma leaks out. This broadcast is over." (p.351)
Charlie Brooker's written another amazing book where you actually prefer to read about tv than watch it. And great timing too as a fine remedy to all the putrid celeb biographies and cookbooks out any day now. Very funny, very readable, highly recommended.
May 11, 2017
This is the second Book by Charlie Brooker that I’ve read, the first being I Can Make You Hate, which I enjoyed enough to make me read another, a second, the review for which I’m writing now, at this very moment, my fingers pressing keys, keys that represent symbols, symbols that when strung together make words, and words that when arranged into a certain order express thoughts, on this occasion the thoughts that I have about this book, the book that I’ve just finished reading.
The Hell of it All, is quite simply, and definitely the funniest book that I’ve ever read. I found myself frequently erupting and guffawing with laughter in public places. On several occasions I laughed so hard I couldn’t read anymore; imagine that, laughing so hard that you had to put the book down, because that’s what actually happened. I don’t know if this is because I share the author’s misanthropic sense of despair and futility towards all human endeavours.
Brooker focuses this sense of futility to make observations about a broad range of banal and senseless events that modern society appears all too happy to embrace. Subjects like reality T.V, holidays, the media, politics, celebrity deaths, and urban living, are all scrutinised with the same level of disaffected resignation. Brooker is able to identify the futility that lies at the heart of modern life, your life to be exact.
If you’ve long suspected that your life is little more than a meaningless, symbolic procession from the womb to the grave, Brooker will confirm this for you, leaving you in no doubt that it’s all been a complete waste of time. Reading this review was just such a waste of time, you see how much of your time I’m wasting? Are you still reading this? You fool, I’m just wasting your time. Still whatever else you might go on and do next is equally as likely to result in a similar feeling of disappointment, so it’s up to you. Maybe you should just keep reading this ad nauseum until you’ve lost your final shred of self dignity, along with your will to live. This is really the only choice that you’ve got left to make, and both will be utterly pointless, both will leave you scratching your head, saying to yourself, “the hell of it all”.
The Hell of it All, is quite simply, and definitely the funniest book that I’ve ever read. I found myself frequently erupting and guffawing with laughter in public places. On several occasions I laughed so hard I couldn’t read anymore; imagine that, laughing so hard that you had to put the book down, because that’s what actually happened. I don’t know if this is because I share the author’s misanthropic sense of despair and futility towards all human endeavours.
Brooker focuses this sense of futility to make observations about a broad range of banal and senseless events that modern society appears all too happy to embrace. Subjects like reality T.V, holidays, the media, politics, celebrity deaths, and urban living, are all scrutinised with the same level of disaffected resignation. Brooker is able to identify the futility that lies at the heart of modern life, your life to be exact.
If you’ve long suspected that your life is little more than a meaningless, symbolic procession from the womb to the grave, Brooker will confirm this for you, leaving you in no doubt that it’s all been a complete waste of time. Reading this review was just such a waste of time, you see how much of your time I’m wasting? Are you still reading this? You fool, I’m just wasting your time. Still whatever else you might go on and do next is equally as likely to result in a similar feeling of disappointment, so it’s up to you. Maybe you should just keep reading this ad nauseum until you’ve lost your final shred of self dignity, along with your will to live. This is really the only choice that you’ve got left to make, and both will be utterly pointless, both will leave you scratching your head, saying to yourself, “the hell of it all”.
April 13, 2013
I first became familiar with Charlie Brooker when I accidentally stumbled upon online clips from his Screen Wipe programme, harshly criticizing today's television in an hilarious, acerbic manner. As I don't read The Guardian except on aeroplanes, I was not aware he had a regular column there as well; this book is a collection of his columns from 2007 to 2009. His humour is biting and outlandish, and hits the nail on the head nearly every time. He even makes a few self-deprecating comments, mostly to show he's not being a poncy git, and can take as good as he gives - even if it is only from himself. Some of his remarks are awfully nihilistic, but it's no surprise with the amount of incredibly bad television he's had to endure to write his material; the only reason he's survived without going mad or putting his head in a gas oven is by applying his seething, loquacious wit to what he sees. For an international reader, I was surprised how many of the British pop culture celebrity references I actually knew, and this was to my advantage, as I could actually understand most of the jokes. My main disappointment was that he concentrated far too much on the television he despises and not enough on other topics: he barely touched on such issues as politics, nightclubs, road trips, and the Internet, and more of this would have added some spice and variety to the proceedings. It's a little out-of-date now, but it's still very amusing, and his more general observations are, sadly, still very applicable to the dire landscape of modern society, and in particular, its appalling entertainments.
May 26, 2014
Charlie Brooker is not only one of my favorite columnists/humorists/satirists; he's one of my favorite people. He is merciless and sometimes mean, but he uses his meanness to point out the ugly behavior in others. When he sees and finds kindness, he returns it in equal measure - it's just that he doesn't see it that often.
This book contains a selection of columns he wrote for The Guardian, PC Zone and a few other publications between 2005 and 2009. He talks about everything from the Big Brother House to the death of Michael Jackson to travels in the States to the flavors of crisps. His analogies are often hilarious, and he usually says something that I wish I were clever enough to come up with on my own. It's especially amusing to read his columns regarding his lack of interest in children and his lack of success in relationships, given his subsequent marriage and his noticeable softening which he attributes to the arrival of his two children.
I love to be able to read a book all in one go, and that isn't possible for me with a book of Charlie Brooker's columns. If I try to read more than two or three at one time, they run together. I lose detail, and with someone who uses language as deliciously as Brooker, that is a shame indeed.
From the introduction, where he advises that this is YOUR BOOK and you can do whatever you like with it, to the index at the back, which I encourage you to read, there are thought-provoking laughs galore here. My only caution is that if you aren't UK-based, some of the references may have no meaning for you. I know that if I hadn't been living here so long myself, there's a lot I wouldn't have understood.
This book contains a selection of columns he wrote for The Guardian, PC Zone and a few other publications between 2005 and 2009. He talks about everything from the Big Brother House to the death of Michael Jackson to travels in the States to the flavors of crisps. His analogies are often hilarious, and he usually says something that I wish I were clever enough to come up with on my own. It's especially amusing to read his columns regarding his lack of interest in children and his lack of success in relationships, given his subsequent marriage and his noticeable softening which he attributes to the arrival of his two children.
I love to be able to read a book all in one go, and that isn't possible for me with a book of Charlie Brooker's columns. If I try to read more than two or three at one time, they run together. I lose detail, and with someone who uses language as deliciously as Brooker, that is a shame indeed.
From the introduction, where he advises that this is YOUR BOOK and you can do whatever you like with it, to the index at the back, which I encourage you to read, there are thought-provoking laughs galore here. My only caution is that if you aren't UK-based, some of the references may have no meaning for you. I know that if I hadn't been living here so long myself, there's a lot I wouldn't have understood.
July 10, 2017
My ex gave me this book 7 years ago as a present because she knew I liked reading Brooker's column on The Guardian's website. I've just finished it. Way to go, me. It's very good. I really like Brooker's writing style; full of sharp wit, bizarre similes and self deprecation. I much prefer the articles he writes on day-to-day life, personal experiences and current events. They're a lot easier to relate to and draw humour from. The issue I have with it is it occasionally drops back into Screen Burn territory; a column I've never really understood the appeal of. I'm not a TV guy anyway, so reading a column about a show I have no interest in is a bit pointless, especially as Brooker's stance is always to tear it a new arsehole. Who's this article for? People who watch shite TV and want someone to validate their opinion? Seems like a waste of time to me. Anyway, I've got off topic. The articles that aren't Screen Burn are really funny and well worth reading and there's far more of them than the Screen Burn stuff.
August 2, 2020
Collection of pieces for The Guardian. Booker has a very distinctive voice, very entertaining in the right doses. So I read a couple of columns at a time. He spouts several movie/TV ideas, many more outlandish than what he later made in Black Mirror.
Columns are often dated (2007-2009), so who won Big Brother or The Apprentice then is now less interesting. I did get a couple of good recommendations for programs that are (partly) available on YouTube: Inside Nature's Giants (dissecting big animals), and Heston Blumenthal's Feast (I've seen In Search of Perfection before).
A relevant quote for GoodReads (from March 9, 2009 column):
Columns are often dated (2007-2009), so who won Big Brother or The Apprentice then is now less interesting. I did get a couple of good recommendations for programs that are (partly) available on YouTube: Inside Nature's Giants (dissecting big animals), and Heston Blumenthal's Feast (I've seen In Search of Perfection before).
A relevant quote for GoodReads (from March 9, 2009 column):
While people lie about having read highbrow novels in order to impress each other, a massive percentage of highbrow novels aren't worth reading anyway because the authors are to busy trying to impress the reader (who, we now know, probably hasn't bothered turning up). (...) Reading is more trouble than it's worth, and lying about reading is even more pointless.
June 14, 2019
Conflicted. Brooker is a comedic genius (actually, considering how good Black Mirror is, maybe it's better to call him a plain ol' Genius). Most of the book is funny. Some of it took my breath away, it was so funny. But the parts that didn't are the problem.
I'm not say that the jokes are hit and miss. I'm saying that they are hit and question mark. Being a collection of news stories from over ten years ago, it means that this book is very much of its time. Jokes about Big Brother contestants are funny...but I don't know who they are (I wouldn't watch that trash AND it's too far in the past to remember them anyway). Some articles are timeless - about technology and society. But some are rooted in knowing who the target of the joke is.
I can't recommend this book unfortunately even though it's really funny. I feel bad about it haha.
I'm not say that the jokes are hit and miss. I'm saying that they are hit and question mark. Being a collection of news stories from over ten years ago, it means that this book is very much of its time. Jokes about Big Brother contestants are funny...but I don't know who they are (I wouldn't watch that trash AND it's too far in the past to remember them anyway). Some articles are timeless - about technology and society. But some are rooted in knowing who the target of the joke is.
I can't recommend this book unfortunately even though it's really funny. I feel bad about it haha.
May 30, 2021
This book contains a collection of columns that Charlie Brooker had written for the Guardian between 2007 and 2009.
The majority is talking about TV shows, often reality TV like 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!', 'Big Brother' and 'X-Factor'. There’s the occasional piece on politics such as Boris Johnson running for London Mayor.
His writing style matches the dialogue from his TV shows, so if you have seen the likes of Screen Wipe/Yearly Wipe, then you will be familiar with his sarcastic style and self-deprecating humour.
As time goes on, the appeal of this book will decrease. If you read it near the release, then I'd imagine you would enjoy it more than you would now. I also think it would be beneficial to be British. I still enjoyed the book since I like his writing style but it’s hard to recommend due to how dated it is.
The majority is talking about TV shows, often reality TV like 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!', 'Big Brother' and 'X-Factor'. There’s the occasional piece on politics such as Boris Johnson running for London Mayor.
His writing style matches the dialogue from his TV shows, so if you have seen the likes of Screen Wipe/Yearly Wipe, then you will be familiar with his sarcastic style and self-deprecating humour.
As time goes on, the appeal of this book will decrease. If you read it near the release, then I'd imagine you would enjoy it more than you would now. I also think it would be beneficial to be British. I still enjoyed the book since I like his writing style but it’s hard to recommend due to how dated it is.
October 31, 2020
A collection of Brooker's articles for The Guardian between 2007 and 2009. Some of the material is a little dated now, however I found the following takes interesting in October 2020:
• GW Bush - this president is allergic to facts!
• Norovirus sweeping the nation, wash your hands!
• LOL imagine if Boris was Mayor of London
• Trump is a bit rubbish on that US Apprentice
• Have you heard of this new music app Spotify?
• Review of a Spanish Flu drama-documentary... stay away from this show if you're public health jumpy
I particularly enjoyed the Gaming Appendix as it reminded me of a few games we played growing up.
• GW Bush - this president is allergic to facts!
• Norovirus sweeping the nation, wash your hands!
• LOL imagine if Boris was Mayor of London
• Trump is a bit rubbish on that US Apprentice
• Have you heard of this new music app Spotify?
• Review of a Spanish Flu drama-documentary... stay away from this show if you're public health jumpy
I particularly enjoyed the Gaming Appendix as it reminded me of a few games we played growing up.
June 5, 2018
Because I'm a miserable old git (and probably a bit of a misanthrope at my darkest... like Charlton himself) I don't tend to laugh out loud when reading.
This will sound like a cliche but I picked up this book, started reading and really, honestly, truly, laughed out loud very quickly and then often.
I loved this book and will use some of Brooker's more cutting quotes in my own battle with humanity from now on.
Immediately on finishing this book I rushed out and bought "I can make you hate".
Highly recommended.
This will sound like a cliche but I picked up this book, started reading and really, honestly, truly, laughed out loud very quickly and then often.
I loved this book and will use some of Brooker's more cutting quotes in my own battle with humanity from now on.
Immediately on finishing this book I rushed out and bought "I can make you hate".
Highly recommended.
January 9, 2022
"A genius of spleen" shouts the Independent on the front cover and indeed Brooker is. Unapologetically opinionated he doesn't care if you agree with him, or even want to read what he says, the mere writing of these columns appears cathartic (until the next Big Brother/Apprentice contestant makes him rage himself into a puddle of spit).
Reading this in 2021/2022 it actually made me nostalgic, Aww remember pre-Trump (who makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-cameo), before Brexit and when swine flu had us all triple washing our hands. Bring back 2007/2008 - all is forgiven!!
Reading this in 2021/2022 it actually made me nostalgic, Aww remember pre-Trump (who makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-cameo), before Brexit and when swine flu had us all triple washing our hands. Bring back 2007/2008 - all is forgiven!!
January 19, 2019
A lot of the articles assembled in this book are rants about British reality shows from 10 years ago which I have never heard of nor have any interest in. That's not the author's fault, of course - I gather that's a large part of his particular career, and those articles are probably entertaining to the people who know what he's talking about. I will say that the other articles that aren't about dated pop culture are usually funny and often insightful.
June 27, 2020
I think a key problem for me reading this book was the fact that all the columns were over 10 years old, and I was too young at the time to have been aware of half of the tv shows, and some of the current events, he was talking about. As a result, I just couldn’t ‘get’ a lot of this book.
I also found the rage and dismay a little much - I do enjoy Charlie Brooker’s recent TV shows, but overall this book, apart from a few individual highlights, just didn’t interest me at all.
I also found the rage and dismay a little much - I do enjoy Charlie Brooker’s recent TV shows, but overall this book, apart from a few individual highlights, just didn’t interest me at all.
July 30, 2017
Before he was known as the creator of the television program "Black Mirror," Charlie Brooker had a career as a newspaper columnist for the Guardian in Great Britain. I miss Brooker's writing on television to current events despite the fact that he has become an even bigger success. Thoughtful, cutting and hilarious.
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