Star Wars: The Unofficial Joke and Riddle Book
The Force of humor is strong in this book.
Star Wars: The Unofficial Joke and Riddle Book is filled with groan-worthy puns and silly jokes designed to appeal to fans of George Lucas’s epic Star Wars series. The book is intended for ages ten and up, with humor that is fairly clean and innocent and jokes that are easy to understand. This means that the volume will likely appeal to even younger fans as well.
The book is organized into nineteen short chapters, most of which deal with specific characters. Though a chapter isn’t devoted to every single character that fans might want to see, most of the major ones—like Han, Luke, Leia, Darth, and Yoda—are covered. There are also chapters on several groups and places, including Ewoks, the ice planet Hoth, Jedi Knights, and even a miscellaneous chapter titled “Odds and Ends.”
The author, who goes by the name of R. U. Kidding M.E., relies heavily on forms and devices that most people will be familiar with. For example, there is a whole section on “Jar Jar is so dumb that” quips and a number of weight jokes about Jabba the Hutt. Most of the jokes require at least a passing familiarity with the Star Wars saga, but there are a fair number that are focused on outer space in general and simply use the characters as convenient objects.
The jokes are uneven in quality. Some are clever and amusing, like:
Why didn’t Yoda finish college?
Failed the English test, he did.
Others seem unlikely to get even a few chuckles. For example:
When Princess Leia was a senator, what bill did she introduce to the Senate?
None, because she didn’t have a bill, she had a regular nose.
Scattered throughout the text are several crudely drawn pictures depicting the characters in a variety of whimsical ways. For instance, one picture shows Boba Fett wearing Mickey Mouse ears, while another shows Princess Leia pouring vinegar onto the slab of carbonate in which Han Solo is trapped, in order to make a volcano. The images are poorly rendered, but they are also amusing and add to the whimsy of the book.
Ultimately, the volume is well put together and provides enough laughs to appeal to a broad range of fans. Though many of the jokes are far from stellar, there is enough punny good humor in Star Wars: The Unofficial Joke and Riddle Book to provide a brief, silly escape to a galaxy far, far away.
Reviewed by
Catherine Thureson
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
