Sh*t My Dad Says - Justin Halpern

Quite some time ago, I began following @shitmydadsays on Twitter. The account was created by Justin Halpern who tweeted one liners his father would come out with on almost any subject in the world, whether his opinion was solicited or not. Common themes and language emerged and more than 3 million others jumped on board; clearly, Justin's dad was hilarious and quickly became a hit. Naturally, a book called Sh*t My Dad Says (2010) followed and captured some of Dad's best one liners while elaborating on others, ending up as a collection of laugh out loud stories. Some contained great advice:

"Listen, and don't ignore what you hear."

 Others were tales of warning:

"My parents had irrational fears of Mexico and assumed that once you crossed the border, drug runners made you swallow a heroin belloon and then within the hour you were in a bathtub full of ice and they were harvesting your kidneys."

All were straight-shooting:

"Hot damn! You're a smart kid - I don't care what people say about you! ... I'm kidding, nobody says you're not smart. They say other stuff, but not that."

The world laughed along with Justin and his dad and they made it to the top of the The New York Times Bestseller List. And that's where this good thing should have ended.

Following the success of the book, a tv series unfortunately followed. $#*! My Dad Says, or simply Sh!t (as we called it), was dreadful. Having not previously read the book, my interest sparked from the Twitter feed. What a disappointment. The first episode was lame, but we figured it must get better. It didn't. Plastic characters with actors who only knew one technique: shouting. The clever one (or two) liners from the book were stretched beyond recognition and consequently got lost in the muddle. Somewhere along the way, Justin's mother disappeared (along with Dad's sincerity) and he gained an annoying brother and sister-in-law in place of his two actual brothers. Artistic license is one thing but stupidity is another. Even William Shatner, the one shining light on the show, couldn't save this one. Thankfully it is no longer on our screens.

My advice is to forget the tv series ever existed (I'm sure I'm not the only one to say this) and enjoy the humour from the book. It's an entertaining read and really did make me laugh out loud.