A launch for book of Mormon humor

A launch for book of Mormon humor
By Lynn Arave
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650206072,00.html

Deseret Morning News
The latest take on Mormon humor is at bookstores this fall —
"The Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer: LDS News, Advice and Opinion."
A launch party is planned for the new book Thursday at 7 p.m.,
at Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore. The party will feature a Jell-O and
casserole competition, with the grand prize being a trip to Moab.
The new book is a compilation, done by the staff of the Sugar
Beet (an LDS version of the satirical publication The Onion), of their
best efforts. The book is edited by Christopher Kimball Bigelow,
co-author of "Mormonism for Dummies" and co-founder of The Sugar Beet.
A review of the book by Publishers Weekly stated:
"If a mature religion is one that can laugh at itself, then
Mormonism is growing up ... Bigelow and his staff of Sugar Beet
writers, whose identities are hidden behind ultra-Mormon pseudonyms,
ferret out the delicious humor tucked away in Mormonism's quirkiest
doctrines and cultural extremes ... readers will find the Enquirer's a
tie-loosening, glue-gun-melting pleasure."
The Sugar Beet Web site says:
"The ranks of the heretofore slim world of LDS satirists
(dominated by cartoonists Pat Bagley and Calvin Grondahl and columnist
Robert Kirby) have been swelled by the next generation: this
compilation of ruthlessly funny articles is as irreverent as the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir is decorous."
Some sample headlines from the book are:

• "SpongeBob receives mission call."

• "BYU offers scrapbooking degree."

• "Gladys Knight to release 'Midnight Train to Kolob."'

• "Vegas win attributed to obeying the law of tithing."

• "Hofmann forges letters from self."

• "Arnold Friberg body-building program announced."

• "Three Nephite identities revealed" (the Bee Gees).

• "Elvis Presley accepts posthumous baptism."

• "Log flume ride announced for Nauvoo."

• "Members urged to store a year's supply of entertainment."

• "Zions Bank offers financing for scrapbookers."

• "Boston resident finally convinced co-workers he has only one wife."

• "Provo man votes Democrat 'just to see what it feels like."'

• "MTC now powered by its own methane."

Published by Pince-Nez Press of San Francisco, the book sells
for $14.95 and is 165 pages long. Ordering details are also available
on the Sugar Beet Web site, sugar-beet.blogspot.com/ or at
www.pince-nez.com.

E-mail: lynn@desnews.com