The Annotated Richard McBeef

April 22nd, 2007

SomethingAwful.com! Thy silliness–and cutting wit–is greatly to be praised! Witness their latest bit o’ comic genius:

I cite the opening paragraph of the new “standard edition” of McBeef as one of the most uproarious and ironically potent examples of contemporary satire:

Richard McBeef, written in late 2006 by playwright Cho Seung-Hui, remains one of the greatest domestic tragedies ever produced in English. Originally titled State of Virginia Exhibit 14-A, Richard McBeef was not accepted by the public upon its completion. Similar to the initial release of Catch-22, it took American audiences a few years to warm up to the complex plotting and rich dialogue of Richard McBeef. Combining the post-modern techniques of Robert Coover and Don Delillo, the suburban theme of quiet desperation from Something Happened and Death of a Salesman, and a dash of Eraserhead, Richard McBeef was met with disapproval by a reading public who preferred books about dragons written by the children of people who own book publishing companies. Even The New York Times, famous for its scholarly reviews, called McBeef “utter pig shit,” with guest columnist John Updike claiming, “The only McBeef Seung-Hui’ll be familiar with after this stinker is at McDonald’s. Because he’s going to work there. And serve beef.” Luckily, Richard McBeef has stood the test of time, and, five years after its original publication, is now taught in English classrooms alongside classics such as Romeo and Juliet and The Giver 2: Give Harder.

Good lord, just go and read it. Particularly if you are either, like me, a member of academia literaria, or merely an English major with a Monty Pythonesque taste for silly intellectualism. This is required reading. You will be quizzed later.