Rough Draft
by Modern Humorist
Three Rivers Press

There are four websites that regularly nail satire to the wall. The Onion is their lord and master. Its incredibly funny and sensitive reaction to the horror of September 11 only cements its claim to supremacy.

The Brunching Shuttlecocks boasts a fine, funny, reliable film critic and the deft comic genius of Lore Fitzgerald Sjöberg. Sweet Fancy Moses is the Midwestern challenger, consolidating hot new talent from its base in the frozen wasteland of Chicago. And Modern Humorist, the Web's polished badboys of satire, regularly bring forth big-city, Hollywood-ready attacks on the inanities of modern pop culture.

Aside from crisp writing and strong, consistent editing, what MH has going for it is simple — a working business plan. Fortunately for us, that plan seems to mostly involve producing extremely funny books and then promoting the living hell out of them on its well-maintained website.

The latest extremely funny book has arrived. "Rough Draft" is MH's compilation of the satirical and fictional first failed attempts to create the pop culture hits that have defined American entertainment throughout the 20th century. Where MH's previous book, "My First Presidentiary" was a tightly focused laser beam aimed at the dry, rattling peabrain of our Commander in Chief, "Rough Draft" is a shotgun fired at American mass culture. Gloriously, most of the pellets sink deep into the doughy flesh of our nation's films, TV shows and stupid consumer goods.

If "Our Dumb Century" is the Excalibur of bathroom books, then "Rough Draft" is worth at least a couple sets of Ginzu knives. It's a more ambitious book than "My First Presidentiary" — it's considerably longer, considerably more ambitious and far more graphically polished. But while the end product is essentially terrific, it's not without some stumbles.

In a few cases, the humor is off-key, and it's almost exclusively in pieces where the jokes are off-color. The When Harry Met Sally foot-fucking-in -the-restaurant storyboard is hilarious, but the Nintendo 63 with genital feedback wires is just plain stupid. The lipstick lesbian Indigo Girls album cover is an absolute hoot, but the outlandishly obscene Playboy interview with Jimmy Carter is one dirty concept hammered flat into a 400-word pancake.

Much better are the places where "Rough Draft" comes completely out of nowhere. A Notorious B.I.G. album entitled Liberal Media Bias is Pervasive contains tracks like "Making Your Own Smoothies is Surprisingly Easy," "I'm Starting to Have Some Doubts About Susan Sontag," and "The Ongoing Media Neglect of International Affairs {feat. Lil' Kim}."

Fat Albert Camus (whose trademark chant is "Hey hey hey, I reject the notion of responsibilitay,") is a smash success, particularly with its accompanying vintage Cosby illustration. And the book's "Killed in Space" rejected line of postage stamps (featuring Christa McAuliffe, Laika and Obi-wan Kenobi) crosses the border from funny right into the realm of the distastefully hilarious.

As good as the book's writing is (it scores considerably more often than it flops), "Rough Draft's" real genius may come from its graphic design and illustrations. More than 10 illustrators (including hardcore cartoonists like Ivan Brunetti and Danny Hellman) contributed to this book, and their work gleams. Whether they're expertly imitating the work of Dr. Seuss (covers for "The Wombat Who Was Killed in Combat," or "The Horse Going Through a Painful Divorce") or crafting brilliant knockoffs of vintage Superman cartoons, "Rough Draft" boasts illustrations that alternately shine above and support the book's crisp copy.

Granted — it's arguable that "Rough Draft" doesn't necessarily have a grander purpose beyond pointing out the silliness of so many of America's fads, marketing sensations and crazes. So it's "merely" diverting. But at a time when many of us are hungering for a bit of real diversion, "Rough Draft" fills a void.

— James Norton (jrnorton@flakmag.com)