5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (and Other Useful Guides) (The Oatmeal, #1)

by Matthew Inman

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Reviewing comic books like 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth is tricky because it all comes down to sense of humor and personal preference. Immediately from this title, I’m sure you all are thinking “she found a book about punching dolphins hilarious? She’s a monster!”. … This book isn’t really about punching dolphins so much as it is full of observational humor and a lot of clickbait-sequel titles. I, yes, found it hilarious, as I often do with Matt Inman’s comics. My husband, on the other hand, was not amused when I kept handing him the book with, “hahaha read this one about the cracked up T-Rex”.

So you know. Humor is humor and I have the sense of humor of a thirteen year old boy, apparently.

5 Reasons is a collection of Inman’s early work, so if you’ve been following The Oatmeal for as long as I have been, you’ve probably seen a few of these things before. If you’ve only been following him the last couple years and haven’t combed through the archives in his site, then you are missing out on some funny stuff. I think it’s funny, anyway. As aforementioned, my husband does not.

The art style is a bit different in most of these as he was settling in and finding his way to how he wanted to draw everything. Some of the comics are complete rubbish randomness, like the pterodactyl one… I have no clue where that came from. Some, like the web design one, is clearly personal to Inman’s experience in life (although in accuracy – can confirm. My father’s a web designer and I grew up watching this craziness go down). I personally found it to be a well-curated collection, particularly keeping in mind the time frame this book represents and that many of his pet-related comics had not been drawn yet, the arrangement is good too so you don’t get too many informational comics in a row.

Generally speaking, 5 Reasons is a solid collection for anyone who enjoys The Oatmeal and if you want a funny coffee table book that will either make people laugh at its ridiculousness or offend them with a completely un-understandable sense of humor, then this is a great book.

And, honestly, it’s just great fun to pull out a comic book every once in a while to decompress. For me, The Oatmeal is a good way to do it.