While the book was written as a guide to college graduates, I jumped the gun and read it after my junior year. The advice that Franken dispenses is both hilarious and poignant, and would have most definitely been perfect had I just stepped into the real world. There was not a single chapter (well there was one chapter involving a "safeword") in which I could not identify with the problems Franken tackled, and his suggestions were brilliant and thoughtful as well as silly and stupid. As a newcomer to the genre of self-help books, I found it quite refreshing that Franken candidly admitted at the introduction of the book that he would, on occasion, give absolutely terrible advice, and to disregard some of his writing.
Some of his lessons are incredibly funny, such as "Oh, Just Looking at Your Spouse Will Make Your Skin Crawl!" or "Oh, the Violent Television Your Children Will Watch!" I imagine that everyone will be able to fall back on his advice in those chapters at some point in their lives. However, other chapters, while less funny, are also very helpful and meaningful. My personal favorite chapter was "Oh, the Books You'll Read!" because he basically suggests to the reader that they should read biographies of important people (like I do); in fact, nearly the entire chapter is dedicated to trashing other self-help books as useless and a waste of time. Instead, Franken offers a kind word to Oprah and endorses her book club as a way to improve your life. Of course, Franken also works in his silly sense of humor as he insists that the only nonfiction genre with any value besides biographies are political satire. To prove his point, Franken recommends to all his readers that they buy a copy of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.
Franken's humor is very successful because of its self-deprecating and silly nature. In fact, there is no one in the world who has better mastered self-deprecating humor than Al Franken as evidenced by his alter ego Stuart Smalley. His knowledge of other books as well as the political climate of this country is also very funny as he can (and will) make fun of virtually anything. In one chapter he will be make light of your future donation to the NRA, then he will turn around and talk about how grateful he is for the Nixon presidency (I will not give away the punch line). Anyway, this book is very funny from start to finish, causing me to laugh out loud several times, and it is the perfect way to kill time and avoid actually thinking.