Dog Oil Press

Monthly Hiatus & Bobby Peru

As mentioned previously, Dog Oil Press is going to break from our usual weekly publishing schedule for the last Saturday of each month. Fret not, however, we've got a bunch of darkly humorous gems in storage and we'll be back in action next week. 

Dont forget about the Dog Oil Press Extreme Bodily Harm Humor Contest, which is currently underway. More here.

Speaking of darkly humorous works, amuse yourself with this excerpt from David Lynch's darkly humorous Wild At Heart, featuring one of the scuzziest villains of all time - the great Bobby Peru.

Famous Last Words

One can't help but wonder if some of the clever final statements attributed to great people aren't a bit suspect. But the best of them - real or not - make for great reading and sometimes even a few laughs. One of my all time favorites, Henry David Thoreau, who uttered the cryptic words "moose" and "Indian" before proceeding to shuffle off this mortal coil.

For more of this sort of thing, check out Last Words, where they have a Real Last Words Index and a Fictional Last Words Index, among other things. More along the same lines at Brain Candy, Mapping.com's Real Last Words From Famous People section and World of Quotes.

New Yorker: Memo from the C.E.O.

From The New Yorker, one of the last high-profile bastions of prose humor, comes a piece by Patricia Marx. Memo from the C.E.O. may not quite fit into the category of black humor, but it sure is funny. 

It is with deep regret that we inform you of certain cost-cutting measures that will be taken in the coming days so that we can remain competitive. But first some good news. 
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Ghastly Medical Texts

On the Diseases, Injuries, and Malformations of the Rectum and Anus: With Remarks on Habitual Constipation
By Thomas John Ashton

Whether or not there's any dark humor to be found in this medical text from 1865 is obviously a matter of individual preference. But after skimming through its harrowing pages, we should all be thankful that we have healthy and undamaged orifices. For some truly eye-opening reading that'll doubtless have you squirming in your seat, skim ahead to Chapter XVIII - Foreign Bodies In The Rectum. Click here for the Google Books electronic version. 

Dragging A Stiff: Six Movies

A friend, as the saying goes, is someone who will help you move, while a true friend is someone who will help you move a body. Here are a few comedies in which dealing with an inconveniently located corpse makes up a significant portion of the plot. First on the list - and arguably the best - a rare comedy outing by director Alfred Hitchcock.

If you know of any other Dragging A Stiff comedies, feel free to leave a comment. 

The Trouble With Harry (1955)
Weekend at Bernie's (1989)
Weekend at Bernie's II (1993)
Shallow Grave (1995)
Very Bad Things (1998)
Throwing Stars (Who's Your Monkey) (2007)

A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift

While we breathlessly await the arrival of the next installment of Dog Oil Press, here's a bit of classic black humor, in the form of an essay by Jonathan Swift. Most of us know him better as the author of Gulliver's Travels, rather than an early practitioner (sort of) of the dead baby joke. 

Read Swift's essay at Project Gutenberg.
A Modest Proposal
by Jonathan Swift