Just a Typo: The Cancellation of Celebrity Mo Riverlake

by John Bennardo

Never click send without proofreading. When a personality falls from grace, can he crawl his way back from an ostracized wasteland? Mo Riverlake always dreamed of the limelight. And now that he's the dazzling host of America's favorite game show, he's certain he has it made for life. But when a fat-fingered tweet accidentally triggers the wrath of cancel culture... nothing he does can stop his perfect world from turning into a brutally vindictive social nightmare. With the police banging down his door and his entire history dragged into the public eye, Mo's shocked by the speed of his downfall. And with the media twisting his innocent past into prejudiced poison and former friends conducting damning paid interviews, every backpedaling effort the man makes tumbles into an avalanche of insane accusations. Can the most hated star of the week hit undo without suffering irreversible damage? Just A The Cancellation of Celebrity Mo Riverlake is a hilarious tale taking aim at the dangers of mob mentality. If you like side-splitting humor, poignant societal examinations, and satirical genius, then you'll love John Bennardo's page-turning story. Buy Just A Typo to spell disaster today!

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2021

Reviews

[Bill Flanigin]

What a fun read! The author takes us on a crazy ride through the eyes of poor Mo Riverlake, whose simple mistake, a typo, on Twitter causes him a ton of problems. If you want an entertaining story, grab a copy! Mo could be any of us!

Note on 12/25/2022.
I’ve suddenly had a bunch of folks “like” this review after over a year. A little surprising and if you’re reading and liking this as well, I’d love to know how this surge happened. As an author myself, I need this kind of promotion!

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious view of our contemporary culture - laugh out loud funny!

Florida author John Bernardo has served as a college professor and now writes novels focused on contemporary quirks with which we all can identify. In a world now dominated by social media, texting on cellphones, reality television shows, and other reoccupations, John finds satire, parody, and a keen sense of delivering comedy to this hilarious new book. A hint of his skillful prose opens the book: ’To think my whose life turned on a typo…The anxiety of losing both my reputation and my livelihood had caused me to revert to old eating habits. I’d dug out six boxes of Pop-Tarts from my earthquake preparedness kit when everything started, and I thanked them daily for supporting me…’ John distills the plot as follows: ‘Never click send without proofreading. Mo Riverlake always dreamed of the limelight. And now that he's the dazzling host of America's favorite game show, he's certain he has it made for life. But when a fat-fingered tweet accidentally triggers the wrath of cancel culture... nothing he does can stop his perfect world from turning into a brutally vindictive social nightmare. With the police banging down his door and his entire history dragged into the public eye, Mo's shocked by the speed of his downfall. And with the media twisting his innocent past into prejudiced poison and former friends conducting damning paid interviews, every backpedaling effort the man makes tumbles into an avalanche of insane accusations. Can the most hated star of the week hit undo without suffering irreversible damage?’

Brimming with hilarious humor while commenting on our nerdy cancel culture, John Bernardo steps into the limelight as a significant contemporary philosopher with a superb sense of humor that somehow not only entertains but also provides some keen introspection. Very highly recommended

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last year was undoubtedly its own era of extremes. Every day, the headlines called attention to political polarization, violent outrage, and catastrophic health advisories. Our society's troubles were not magically resolved with the arrival of a new calendar year, but no one can argue that 2020 will go down in history unlike anything our modern civilization has ever experienced. Sprinkled among the countless stories about the election and the pandemic was another hot topic: Cancel culture.

Cancel culture is not a new phenomenon, and if you are not entirely sure what it is, author John Bennardo's uproarious novel "Just a Typo: The Cancellation of Celebrity Mo Riverlake" teaches you everything you need to know — and then some. Cancellation is not always unjustified (see Kevin Spacey), and "Typo" satirizes an extreme example where the ensuing calamity is hilarious on the surface, but also a grim reminder that social media gives a voice and credence to those who otherwise should not be taken seriously.

Mo Riverlake, whose real name is Mauro Basilio, hosts a game show, "Hats Off," on the Game Show Network. His celebrity status is not quite that of Alex Trebek or Pat Sajak, but he is a public figure with enough name recognition to cause a commotion when he tweets the word "flags" and inadvertently leaves out the letter L. By the time he realizes his mistake the network has fired him, camera crews are parked on his lawn, and the police have come to arrest him.

In a matter of hours, everyone Mo has ever crossed paths with weighs in on the allegations against him, appearing on outlets such as Oprah, Dr. Phil and The View, to name just a few. Mo tries (mostly in vain) to ignore the slanderous and libelous statements made by his former acquaintances — including an old roommate who falsely accuses him of statutory rape, his creative partner from a comedic stage troupe where Mo cut his teeth as a performer, and the elderly residents of an assisted living facility where Mo hosted weekly bingo.

While Mo cannot altogether deny some of the racist, stereotypical, arguably offensive remarks, the majority of which were made in jest, the homophobic slur hits especially close to home because of his gay brother, Todd. Given their historically turbulent relationship, Mo is determined to make things right with him.

"Just a Typo" is a highly entertaining, enjoyable read, filled with laugh-out-loud moments. As the pages turn, Mo's helpless, albeit amusing, predicament becomes increasingly ridiculous, and the narrator's self-deprecating candor proves how much fun the author had crafting this novel. Nevertheless and despite the tongue in cheek presentation, the premise is not altogether outlandish, so you may think twice the next time you read an unfavorable comment online.

[Leslie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book at all. This is intended to be a take on how ridiculous "cancel culture" has become and how, if left unchecked, it could lead to the the literal ruin of society. The premise isn't a bad one, but since the world we are actually living in has taken cancel culture, microaggressions and individual outrage to such an extreme already, there really isn't much left to mock. This is proven by how poorly the story is set up; the main character ends up vilified by society and arrested for...hurting people's feelings. Even the typo of the title is a bit ridiculous; it is so clearly a typo (the resulting tweet doesn't make any sense whatsoever) that only someone looking to be outraged would take it as something someone intentionally wrote. Perhaps that is the point, how nonsensical it all is, but I think the author could have made his point much better and in a much more subtle manner. All of the characters come across as incredibly unintelligent and unlikeable. Without anyone to root for, not even the protagonist, it is hard to care about how the story ends.

Nothing here is funny and the need to ground this in our reality by name-dropping real celebrities, movies, TV shows and songs doesn't help; it actually makes it more difficult to lose yourself in the story. Maybe this book just wasn't for me, but thanks to BookSirens for an ARC - this is my voluntary and honest review.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just A Typo is a fairly quick read that can make the reader think if they take time and want to go deeper.
Mo Riverlake finds himself in hot water with everyone in America. And all because of a typo. The story starts with his fall from fame. Then, Mo proceeds to share his rise to fame with his lawyers as he awaits trial.
I appreciate the message about offense. I think the author does a good job of pointing out the absurdity we're heading toward in our country as we try to avoid offending anyone, which is impossible. Really, we can take offense at anything. The key is to regulate ourselves and manage our emotions around an offense rather than forcing others to adjust their behaviors or words so we are comfortable.
The book also delivers plenty of one-liners that made me laugh. And the author has a way of connecting words that's clever. Some of the content is overly sexual and childish, though.
The ending is quite surprising, and it frustrated me. Also, Mo quite honestly is a terribly selfish character. I didn't really find anyone in this book to root for, unfortunately.

[VT · Rating 2 out of 5]

A satire that didn't quite hit the mark for me.

I chanced this book because I believe there is great scope for satirizing the excesses of social media reactions and so-called cancel culture.

Unfortunately I found the main character in this book too silly or stupid or naive, however you want to put it - to be believable. I didn't find anything about him that I could really like, and so I couldn't really root for him as he worked his way up, and then was dragged down under false accusations. He also didn't come across as particularly witty or intriguing, he was not a nice person, and while he didn't 'deserve' to be arrested due to a typo in a tweet, I didn't find that I cared much one way or the other what happened to him next.
Some of the situations that evolve over the course of this story struck me as simply absurd.
It may be that the absurdity was a form of humour that I couldn't appreciate - although I did find this book a little funny at times, it never really made me laugh.

I appreciate the concept behind this book, but found that the execution was lacking, for me. Someone else, better versed in social satire and parody, may enjoy it more.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Grymm Gevierre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Florida author! I love seeing these books on my shelf! Cancel culture boomed in the pandemic era. If there’s a silver lining, it shows that we can cause tremendous change when banded together. This book is a social commentary on that, but it’s also much more.

Social commentary aside, the book is well-written. Mo Riverlake’s fall is probably one of the most humorous things I’ve read in a while, and that’s all because of Bennardo’s writing. The wit and humor in this book, and how blown out of proportion things can get, are extreme caricatures of society’s response.

This book doesn’t take long to get through, a few days at most, and it’s worth the read just for the humor. It’s a bit dark at times, but overall it’s good. It’s a book to check out if you want to have a light, humorous read or to really dive into society and how we work as a social whole.

[nat.]

dnf @ 15%

i thought this would be a book that dives deep into the cancel culture and its impact—good or bad—on the cancelled, the emotions and how easily social media is able to influence the course of someone’s life in today’s society while being labeled as accountability.

i can’t seem to connect with the main character—he seems a little silly and too naive to be true and the book goes into redundant and extensive details of his life which does nothing to move the plot along. to the extent that i find myself reading quickly through each paragraph just to move on.

i might revisit this book again in the future, idk since i’ve seen many good reviews about this. but for now, i don’t think this is for me.

[Sivara Dorel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This looks like a funny, biting take on cancel culture. Can’t wait to read it!

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading this book for the second time this year, so it deserves a short review from me. A game show host named Mo Riverlake gets in trouble for inadvertently misspelling (more like mis-typing) a word in a post on social media that goes viral when the typo word offends a certain kind of people. Mo is arrested, and while he waits for his attorneys and the courts to help him, he sits in jail. The story explains what his grandparents were like (where his mother's name is from is especially hilarious) and tells different flashbacks of events of Mo's life, all of which are seemingly innocent events until the typo ruins his reputation and he becomes a victim of cancel culture. (It really does give you pause to wonder what past events in your own life could be misconstrued nowadays.)

This book is incredibly funny, particularly the first ninety percent. The last few chapters when it goes back to Mo being in jail (and beyond) felt shorter and a bit improbable but maybe it's just because I didn't want the book to end. There is some cursing but I bet the author can't help it because he is from New York and is Italian. Don't be offended, haha!