One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Satirist

“The FBI was right; this man is dangerous—and funny, and necessary.”—George Carlin

“Thanks to Paul Krassner for continuing to be the lobster claw in the tuna casserole of modern America.”—Tom Robbins

“Krassner has the uncanny ability to alter your perceptions permanently.”—Los Angeles Times

“I told Krassner one time that his writings made me hopeful. He found this an odd compliment to offer a satirist. I explained that he made supposedly serious matters seem ridiculous, and that this inspired many of his readers to decide for themselves what was ridiculous and what was not. Knowing that there were people doing that, better late than never, made me optimistic.”—Kurt Vonnegut

Counterculture legend Paul Krassner gazes on the fires of pop culture, politics, and celebrity and returns unscathed to help us make sense of our senseless world, with an introduction by Lewis Black (The Daily Show) and a foreword by Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, Le Show).

From cults to pornography, from Charles Manson to Homer Simpson, from the war on drugs to the invasion of Iraq, from Dolly Parton to Lenny Bruce, from circumcision to propaganda, this collection epitomizes Krassner’s credo, “Irreverence is our only sacred cow.”

Paul Krassner is the only person in the world ever to win awards from both Playboy (for satire) and the Feminist Party Media Workshop (for journalism), to be inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, to receive an ACLU Uppie (Upton Sinclair) Award for dedication to freedom of expression, and to be described by the FBI as “a raving, unconfined nut.”

Satirist and counterculture legend Paul Krassner looks at life, celebrity, politics, war, drugs and porn

Kirkus Reviews

From cultural critic and founder/editor of The Realist, a collection of iconoclastic columns written for several alternative periodicals, as well as The Nation, the Los Angeles Times and other mainstream outlets. Krassner (Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut, 1993) has grouped these pieces under a dozen or so headings, including "Zen Bastard," "Got Porn?" "Under the Counterculture," "Body Parts" and "Brain Damage Control," and has given them such attention-grabbing titles as "The Onanist Quartet," "The Great Foreskin Conspiracy," "Pregnancy and Pot" and "Jews in the News." For Krassner followers, much of this will be a trip down memory lane: recollections of Lyle Stuart and Walter Winchell in the 1950s, Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory in the 1960s, Larry Flynt in the 1970s. But Krassner, now in his 70s, also has a sharp eye on the current scene. He provides a hilarious mock interview with Bernie Kerik's nanny ("for Christmas, his friend Rudy gave me a Green Card"); a piece on tourism and the mishandling of the tsunami warnings in Thailand; and commentary on Prince Harry in his Nazi uniform. Of course, President Bush, Condoleeza Rice and the war in Iraq get his attention, as do Janet Jackson, Madonna, Bill O'Reilly and Hunter S. Thompson. While conservative readers may find Krassner scurrilous, sacrilegious, even obscene, others will see his writing as ribald, pointed satire. The problem is not with the content but with the packaging. The pieces don't work well in a single volume, and reading them in sequence is a mind-numbing mistake. Pick this one up only while waiting for the water to boil or the train to arrive. They are best when dipped into at random and read piecemeal.

Paul Krassner is the only person to win awards from both *Playboy* (for satire) and the Feminist Party Media Workshop (for journalism), to be inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, to receive an ACLU Uppie (Upton Sinclair) Award for dedication to freedom of expression, and to be described by the FBI as "a raving, unconfined nut."