The First Ever Christmas: And Who to Blame by Gray Jolliffe
| The First Ever Christmas: And Who to Blame by Gray Jolliffe | |
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| Category: Humour | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: Some of the funniest cartoons about Christmas I've ever seen. The virgin birth is viewed with some scepticism and the commerciality of the season is soundly punished. Great stuff! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 96 | Date: October 2016 |
| Publisher: Amberley | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1445663500 | |
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If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone? Well, I really don't like Christmas: it's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down to the day itself, I look forward to that point when I can say that it's all over for another year. It's all too commercialised for me, with a coating of faux religion. I've never found it in the least funny - that is, until I found Gray Jolliffe's The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame. Amazingly, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe either, but I'm a convert to his skills as a cartoonist (if not to the idea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive.
The secular and the religious festivals both come in for equal fun poking. Mary can't quite believe what she's hearing from the Archangel Gabriel: You're asking me to be a surrogate mother for no money? You're having a laugh, right? Or, there's Father Christmas in pensive mood, thinking about the commerciality of the season: Are we in danger of forgetting Christmas is all about a little prophet? Rudolph, lounging comfortably with a bottle of champagne and his calculator replies We're already 7% up on last year.
I've picked up books of cartoons before: I usually find one or two very funny, a few mildly amusing and the rest leave me cold. It also scored highly on the you've got to have a look at THIS scale. Rudolph and Santa are taking a lunch break on a snowy rooftop, when Rudolph looks a little surprised: There's a cheque for half a million in my snack box. Some poor banker must have got a cheese sandwich.
People with a strong religious faith might be offended. There's a reason why Mary is still a virgin - and it's not down to Mary. She's feisty: the Archangel Gabriel is told to tell God that he's lucky he got away with a black eye, and she's not entirely satisfied with the deal she's getting. Joseph is a little, well, ineffectual and it might be that Mary's name was actually Traci. On the other hand, bankers, Father Christmas and the reindeer all come in for some debunking. This is an equal opportunity book and I laughed my way through every page of it. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending me a copy for review and for helping me to tick so many names off my Christmas present list.
I also laughed at Just My Typo: From 'sinning with the choir' to 'the large hardon collider' by Drummond Moir (compiler). We can also recommend Lets Compromise and Say I'm Right: Calman on Love & Relationships by Mel Calman and Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022 by Tim Benson.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The First Ever Christmas: And Who to Blame by Gray Jolliffe at Amazon.com.
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