Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby

by Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal

Matthew Inman, Eisner Award-winning creator of The Oatmeal and #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You, presents a must-have collection of comics for cat lovers!

Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby is chockfull of comics about cats, babies, dogs, lasers, selfies, and pigeons!  This book contains a vast wealth of never-before-seen comics, including informative guides, such as:
How to comfortably sleep next to your cat
10 ways to befriend a misanthropic cat
How to hold a baby when you are not used to holding babies
A dog’s guide to walking a human being
How to cuddle like you mean it 
Includes a pull-out poster of:  How to tell if your cat thinks you’re not that big of a deal.

 

Genres: Humor, Graphic Novels, Comics, Nonfiction, Cats, Animals, Graphic Novels Comics

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2019

About the author

Matthew Inman (a.k.a. "The Oatmeal") is a Web designer and developer from Seattle, Washington. He has been designing Web sites since the age of 13 and is a seasoned programmer, systems administrator, and online marketer. Matthew launched theoatmeal.com in 2009.

Reviews

[da AL · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really was a fun book that actually made me laugh!

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Matthew Inman’s latest is a kind of follow-up to his brilliant book, How to Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You, where he “amusingly” explains why he thinks cats are more impressive than babies – it’s also my least favourite of his books so far.

He’s basically got one joke for babies (or “goblins” as he calls them): they shit and puke a lot and are vulnerable to everything. Har… har. If you didn’t laugh at that one, he repeats it numerous times throughout and it never gets funnier. And speaking of repetitive jokes, his take on cats is that they’re cunning little furry assassins. Hmm. Ok.

Unsurprisingly, he hasn’t got enough material for an entire book so ends up utilising what reads like leftovers from his dog book, My Dog: The Paradox, which, if they are leftovers, I can see why they got cut! There are also some random pages on relationships and being an introvert that were equally meh. It really is like reading a book of disjointed, unfunny memes.

Some of the bits made me laugh, like the homicide pigeon quizzing a cat wearing a pigeon’s head, or the cat saying, while you love them completely, they live with the neighbours while you’re at work. Also, I never thought about it before but it’s true that cats weirdly stop eating when they see part of the bottom of the dish and won’t keep going until you cover it up!

It’s a lot less great stuff though than I’m used to with Matthew Inman. Why My Cat is More Impressive Than Your Baby is an unimpressive read – if you’ve not already read it, I recommend How to Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You instead.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title drew my interest and an immediate guffaw. I was already familiar with The Oatmeal, so I was prepared for a good laugh. Overall, I found it a bit of a mixed bag. I laughed, but not as much as I thought I would. My favorite lines come from the following descriptions:

"My dog is an affable ball of fur and joy who is so excited to see me he sometimes starts dry heaving."

"My cat is a confusing ball of violence and tenderness who would probably try to eat me if I were to lie still long enough."

A baby - "diapered ham-goblin, defiler of dreams, relentless ScreamBall."

[JohnnyBear · Rating 1 out of 5]

3 out of 10

I was pretty disappointed by this book, especially after reading his previous collection, "How to Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You." I found this book to be massively unfunny for the most part, and also extremely repetitive. A massive downstep from the previous book.

I feel that this book focuses too much on gross-out humor. The previous book had more variety, but this one is mainly just the same joke told in slightly different ways over and over again, to try to make you laugh. I get that this book is trying to surprise you with its gross content, and there are some strips where that goal is achieved but for the most part, this book really fails at shocking me. It just comes off as dare I say, cringe



I get that the author is trying to be meta, and "woke," but I think it fails pretty badly. The art is not the worst. And I do agree that cats are for the most part more impressive than babies, but I think this book really fails at what it's trying to do, and I really couldn't recommend it.

[Shabbeer Hassan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthew Inman marks a successful return after his much hilarious How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You take on the inner workings of cats and their "hoomans". The comparison between baby and cat ninja skills were spot on and most importantly he had a damn nice panel on the pesky "other" humans and their exhortations on everyone following their quest on populating earth!


All in all, a worthy book to appease our cat overlords!

My Ratings - 4/5

[Mindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's get into some real talk in the middle of a review for a comedy book, shall we? I wanted to see exactly how many of Inman's books I own, so I pulled up the list, I own 5 of them. And weirdly, even though I've been reading and buying his books since 2013, I've given every single one of them 4 stars.

If you know Inman's humor, you know that he's pretty much always spot on. I have had more laugh-out-loud moments with Inman's cartoons than I can count. And the same is true for this book. The basic premise here is that pets (or specifically cats) or way more impressive than babies. It's a joke buried in Inman's disdain (which is an assumption on my part, but usually the comedy in Inman's work holds at the very least a shred of truth. Doesn't all comedy?) for kids and babies. Why do I assume this? Because I get how he feels. I mean, there's a reason a whole generation of people call their pets "fur babies". For a number of people, pets are preferable to making the big decision to start a family.

And the cartoons in this book are hilarious. I swear at one point my husband was sitting across the room playing a computer game and I was just cracking up. That's why I continue to buy Inman's books. He's crude, and controversial, and hilarious. All of you who have spent time at his website know what I'm talking about. So why 4 stars? I swear I have no idea. This book gave me moments of pure delight. More time than I can count I was cackling out loud and telling my husband for the upteenth time that he had to read it. So this book get's 5 stars. Man, I need a blog. Because those little stars have been a wee bit controversial lately, and I would love to talk about them. But this is a review for one book, and this book is one that I really enjoyed.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is HILARIOUS. I laughed out loud the entire time while reading it! Definitely going to look into more of this author's work!

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illustrations of the many, many ways cats are superior to babies

I'm giving this five stars because it made me laugh out loud several times - the belly deep, sucking in a surprised burst of air to guffaw madly kind of laugh.

And because cats are awesome.

[Karly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long story short, great gag gift. And great little book to flip through if you want a laugh. There’s a certain humour to this book you have to understand. If you don’t you might not like this book but I’m a fan of cats. And upon taking a quick flip through at the bookstore I figured what a great coffee table book this would make. Friends and family have flipped through it when they come to visit me and it’s a great little conversation/laugh piece.

Overall 5 stars simply because you can’t go wrong with a book full of illustrations waiting to make you laugh.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inman is certainly not breaking new ground here, but this is a nice mix of cat, dog, baby, and gross-out humor.

[Cupcakes & Machetes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guilty as charged. I bought this as a birthday present for a cat-obsessed friend but when I realized I could read it without bending the pages/spine and making it obvious, I sat down with my coffee and dug in. (This person doesn’t have any social media pages so it’s a victimless crime.)

It is the purrfect graphic novel for your childless, cat-loving friend. Purrhaps, even a friend with children and cats that still retains their sense of humor. If your friend doesn’t like children OR cats and prefurrs dogs, well there are a few pages of dog humor as well. They’ll at least relate to how evil cats are.

So really, this comic has a little bit of everything for everyone. Making it a must-buy present for practically anyone in your life. Unless they lack a sense of humor and then, are you friends with an android?

[Chasity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, but sCATtered. (See what I did there?😃) I thought it’d be more baby vs cat focused, but it really wasn’t.
Definitely had a few laughs, though , and shared some bits with my sister (proud cat owner).

[Ieva]

Autorius su meilia ironija vaizduoja kačių ir vaikų augintojų kasdienybę. Daug kur juokiausi ir linksėjau galva, kai kur tik gūžčiojau pečiais, bet imant bendrai tikrai smagus pramoginis skaitinys juodo humoro ir makabriškų iliustracijų mėgėjams.

[CS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

If you have kids/want kids and don’t have a good sense of humor, maybe skip this.

If you own a cat, this will get a chuckle out of you. It’s more than just how cats are better than babies but babies get the short end so if you think everyone ought to have kids, you won’t find this funny at all.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

He's not wrong. Pretty much any cat is more impressive than any baby. But there comes a time when the baby stops looking at your finger, and starts looking the thing you are pointing to. My cat may be better murderers (we'll never know because they are indoor only) but they never stop looking at the finger. And while cats are similar to infants in the communicating their needs without language, the baby does eventually learn to tell you where it hurts, or what they would like to eat. And in time the baby learns how to feed itself and eventually you, too. I love my cats, but not a one of them has ever cooked breakfast for me.

[Spouse's] personal copy

[Alli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this hilarious shit storm of childfree comics. If you’re like me and tired of screaming babies always showing up, either in person or appearing in conversations with people, get this thing and put it on your desk.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, laugh out loud book for people who like cats more than kids. That’s me! Sorry parents! 😜😻

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll take my dogs and cats over any "relentless ScreamBall" any day.

[Sha Mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ilustrasi yang lucu dan jenaka yang sarkastik menjadikannya bacaan yang menyeronokkan bagi pencinta kucing dan komedi ringan..

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

By this point, you probably know if you like the Oatmeal's stuff or not. It's crass, inconsistent (in both quality of writing and art), and full of sometimes inventive profanity. It's also pretty funny.
The title is a little bit of a misnomer - there's a third dog in the race, literally, and canines regularly rank above babies as well.
It's a quick read, and it focuses mostly on the sociopathic behavior of felines, coupled with the boneheaded optimism of dogs and the excessive excretions of babies, with a few bits about other things, like the positive aspects of farting. The art ranges from the traditional groteques to some surprisingly high quality drawings, coupled with some beautiful color work (although it's often undercut, intentionally, by its content). I especially enjoyed the brief cat/baby diary moments interspersed throughout.
This book doesn't have any high-minded insights to share; babies are messy, cats are evil (but still lovable), and dogs are doofuses (but also lovable). I think most everyone will find something funny in here, as long as they aren't easily offended by profanity and poop/vomit jokes.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a person without children by choice, this collection of comics by Matthew Inman will make you laugh and be a warm hug of comradery. You are not alone. Other people also perceive babies as bodily-function terrorists that parents are "so grateful" to have but also blame the death of their hopes, dreams, and enjoyment of life on. If you agree (and take no offense to dogs being described as dumb love machines and cats as imperious assassins) please pick this up and enjoy!!

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book for anyone who has ever been violated by a feline starfish in the nighttime.

[The Captain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ahoy there me mateys! As some of the crew may know, I love me kittens and I think they make the best ship friends. I also don’t have kids and never plan to. They get in the way of pillaging. So this title intrigued me. I have seen some of the author’s comics before and so borrowed a copy from a local library.

Sadly, the title was one of the better things about this collection. This was a disjointed mix of one-track jokes. Babies poop and puke. Cats are jerks who begrudgingly deal with humans. Both of those things are true. But the included comics (with a couple exceptions) rarely made me smile at how they portrayed these facts. Plus there seemed to be poor organization of what material was included. Cats were only one topic. Besides babies, there was also commentary about dogs and introverted humans and a few where I missed the point altogether. Even the style of the comics jumped back and forth. Maybe this would have been easier to read in a physical copy but sometimes I was confused if a comic had even ended. Also way too many fart and poop jokes. I guess I was expecting something a tiny bit more clever. I feel these ideas about cats and babies have been dealt with by other illustrators with much better success.

This doesn’t walk the plank only because of the final section of outdoor cat safety and statistics. Arrr!

[Vasilis Manias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Χιλάριους!

[Matthew Inman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi GoodReaders!

I live with two cats, two dogs, and zero babies. My cats are violent, lovable, confusing sociopaths. My dogs are loyal, dumb paradoxes comprised primarily of reckless, joyful enthusiasm. I wrote this book because I'd amassed a bunch of ideas about cats versus babies, and eventually had enough material to start another book. From there, it evolved into a large collection of illustrated comics. If you've read my website, some of this material might look familiar. This book has over 50% new material, however, so there's plenty of new stuff to explore.

A couple of notes about this book:

1. The book isn't just 160 pages of comics about cats tormenting babies (although there's plenty of that). I tried to vary the subject matter, so there's plenty of comics about dogs, cuddling, selfies, romance, and pigeons.

2. If you're a dog person, skip to the chapter titled "How to walk a human being." It's based on my dog, Rambo.

3. I find that collections of comics are best read in short bursts. Don't sit down and read the whole thing in one sitting. Put it on the coffee table or on the nightstand and read it when you want to chuckle for a few minutes. I've found that short-form comics tend to thrive better when they're not read all at once. I once sat down and read the entire Far Side collection, every single strip, in 2 hours. The Far Side is amazing and hilarious, but that was far too many chicken jokes for one sitting.

4. There's a poster included in the back of the book of "How to tell if your cat thinks you're not that big of a deal." Post it somewhere public. Post it somewhere that will serve as a reminder of who you are in the eyes of your cat.

5. My absolute favorite parts of the book are the "dear diary" and "deer dairy" chapters. They're a series of diary entries written from the perspective of a cat and a baby.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who bought a copy. You’re the reason I get to do this for a living.

Hugs,

-The Oatmeal

[Hannah Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't have a baby or a cat but still think this is one of the funniest books ever. I can't imagine it getting any funnier, but if you have a cat and/or baby, it's possible you may never stop laughing. It's definitely crude and full of offensive images, language, and ideas, but if none of that bothers you, I highly recommend it. I'm trying to think of a favorite moment and it's just so tough, because nearly every page was a favorite moment. I think I relate the most to the "how to hold a cat when you are not used to holding cats" page. Basically the advice is don't do it. Do not pick up the cat. I am definitely the person in the comic who has picked up the cat and is trying to escape a suddenly unhappy and possibly murderous monster who did not want to be picked up.

[Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake) · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, this was just meant as a fun diversion I picked up from the library on a whim, and it totally did that. It fits into my dark and twisted sense of humor, I can relate to how Inman views the human-cat, human-baby and human-dog relationship (I didn't expect that much dog content from this title but it's in here.) When this was funny it was hilarious. But it also has a fair amount of poop and fart jokes, it does get repetitive and some jokes fall flat as I would say is to be expected with this type of literature. I'm not sure this ever had a chance to rank higher than 3* for me because of its nature but I also would pick up another fun Inman comic in heart beat if I feel like I need a good laugh.

3.5*

[Katrine Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just delightful

Gotta love The Oatmeal. I'm a believer. Consistently smile producing plus I directly relate to the title topic! Good fun.

[Andreu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucking hilarious, a must have if you like Matthew's comics and stories.

[Kerry Crabbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accurate.