Andy Riley is a genius

Some years ago, I was wandering around a bookstore, and I just happened to run across some books by Andy Riley - "The Book of Bunny Suicides" and "Return of the Bunny Suicides". There was a running joke with a friend that's too long and complicated and weird to go into, so the titles themselves caught my attention. But after flipping through the books, the warped sense of humour that goes into making the books just called to me. I bought the books for the friend, but recently, I was reminded of them, and I needed to get some for myself.



This is the one that started it all. It's basically a book of fairly simple black-and-white drawings of different ways that bunnies can commit suicide - sometimes, it's even almost the Darwin Award for Bunnies.

Most of them are fairly simple, but descriptions don't do the pictures justice. Here's an example from near the end of the book. A dog is sleeping on a rug, and the tip of his tail is between the "teeth" of a stapler. A bunny is in mid-leap onto the stapler.



The second book has more twisted suicides. My favorite, and one that made me literally laugh out loud, is from about the middle of the book. It shows a bunny with a hand-held grater - and it has already grated off most of its head.

Both books also have various pictures that use elements from famous movies/TV shows, like the transporter from "Star Trek", Darth Vader from "Star Wars", a familiar eye from "Lord of the Rings" and the creature from "Alien".





The next series also has two books and involves outrageous lies to tell kids. These also have various drawings to accompany the sentiments.

Some of the ones I like:

If you put a slice of ham in the DVD player, it will play a short film about pigs. A slice of cheese will play a short film about cows.

Keep a chicken nugget in a shoe box, leave it some water and corn, and soon it will grow into a live chicken.

Goldfish can send text messages. Drop your mother's phone in the bowl and you'll see.


And this one is my favorite:

Penguins spend a lot of time wondering why pixar have never made a movie about them.


Enjoy!