And Other Pop Culture Correspondences

By John Moe

 

Rating: 4/5

Three Word Summary: Funny fantasy letters

 

What if Gillian’s Island were a secret CIA experiment? What are Jay-Z’s 99 problems? What if there really was a Hotel California? What if we took pop culture way too literally?

‘Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth’ compiles imaginary communications of pop culture figures in order to answer these and many other pressing questions.

Each of these fictional epistles reads like an article straight out of The Onion. They’re short, easy to read and genuinely funny. Some were certainly more original than others, but there were a few real gems scattered among several clever pieces.

One downside of relying so heavily on pop culture is that your audience must understand each reference in order for the entry to be funny. However, almost all were prevalent and obvious enough to understand. Assuming that you were born in the 20th century.

Achieving effective satire is not easy. Many try. Most fail. Which is what makes this book even more remarkable for actually being funny. John Moe consistently delivers laughable material in a fast-paced and readable format.

He uses a variety of mediums to allow these pop culture figures to communicate — from emails and to text messages, to interviews and online forums.

Some of the messages rehash age-old questions. Such as why can Goofy talk but Pluto can’t? Others raise a whole new set of questions. Such why did the spaceship leave E.T. behind on Earth in the first place?

Overall, ‘Dear Luke’ was an light, but highly enjoyable read. It provided an off-beat, but interesting commentary on several books, movies and TV shows that we have come to love and question over the past few decades.