"Stuff You Should Know About Stuff: How to properly behave in certain situations" is definitely a book, and I have read it. If you are not familiar with Tripp and Tyler's work, they are a top-notch comedy duo. This book is filled with practical, yet hilarious tips and observations about life and the situations we all find ourselves in.
I first encountered Tripp and Tyler's comedy at Catalyst Conference, a conference for church leaders. This book is an accurate reflection of their work. SYSKAS takes it up a notch from the previously, independently, released book Everyday Absurdities by Tyler Stanton. (Though some of the content was familiar to me.)
If I am going to be honest about Tripp and Tyler's work, this book included, I always leave a little disappointed in certain aspects of what they do. In my context, church leadership, I always think "That would make a great illustration...except for that bleeped out cuss word or the fact that they aren't wearing any pants while they play basketball." It's almost as if they want to take it a step farther or push the envelope a little more. I find some of their videos perfectly clean for my context, but others...not so much. There are parts of the SYSKAS book that are perfectly clean (most all of it, in fact), but then there are a few parts that I really wish they'd left out.
In my context, I cannot recommend their videos to people because I cannot recommend all of them. I cannot tell a group of kids to check out their YouTube page because I don't want them to think I endorse everything. The same is true in very few part of the book.
Before you write me off as an old prude and point out the face that I am a total hypocrite, I recognize this book isn't written to a ministry audience. It is not any more offensive than anything I see on network television. I think it would have been just as funny without those passage and would not have diminished anyone’s feelings towards their God-given gift of comedy.
That being said, if you are cool with mildly offensive language sprinkled through your reading, this is an very funny book, but speaks volumes of truth through simple observations. It communicates perfectly so much of what we were thinking anyway.
**Full Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from Tripp and Tyler in return for writing an honest book review. The above was exactly that.
