Worst Ideas Ever

A Celebration of Embarrassment

By: Daniel Kline, Jason Tomaszewski

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Mistakes so big they seem like fodder for The Onion - but they really happened!

From memorable disasters such as New Coke, the XFL, and Tiger Woods’ marriage to less-remembered failures such as Yugo, Cop Rock, and Microsoft’s BOB, Worst Ideas Ever revisits history’s biggest blunders. Whether it’s a pop culture failure the likes of Dennis Miller’s disastrous run on Monday Night Football, a political one such as John Edwards’ odd decision to run for president while cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, or a technological misstep such as Apple’s Newton OS, Worst Ideas Ever uncovers the ridiculous stories behind mistakes so huge, you’ll have to constantly remind yourself that they actually happened.

Moving from Mariah Carey’s “performance” in Glitter to the Minnesota Vikings decision to trade away their future for an aging Herschel Walker, Worst Ideas Ever offers the real stories behind some of the dumbest things ever done. Whether it was ego (Michael Jordan leaving basketball for baseball), greed (nobody questioning their impossibly high returns when investing with Bernie Madoff) or simple stupidity (Jay Leno moving to 10 p.m.), Worst Ideas Ever brings it all back in hilarious detail.

©2011 Daniel B. Kline and Jason Tomaszewski (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Entertaining!

I don't know why it has so many bad reviews. I found the book entertaining for what it was. Narration was good, and stories were interesting.

Meh

This Is obviously a list of very modern "Worst"s, and predominantly US "worst"s. New Coke, XFL, LeBron James' public slight of Ohio upon his move to Miami, Esperanto, the "FRIENDS" spinoff "Joey", Time Warner's acquisition of AOL...that kind of thing. I listened to the whole thing, so it's definitely not the worst, but there are almost certainly better things to do with your time. It was several hours of the kinds of information available on those baitclick sites, but without all the excessive page jumping and ad blipping, and some expansion on the actual info. Could have been a lot worse. Still, if you're cleaning your basement and you aren't feeling anything deep or complicated, if you just don't want to feel deeply about what you're 'reading', if you want something that you can come back to if your attention shifts without feeling like you missed anything, this is a good pick.

Short, sweet, entertaining

This was pretty entertaining. Lots of stories and trivia about some of the worst products, foods, ad campaigns, political moves, policies, and to top it off -celebrity baby names. I didn't particularly care for some of the sports content in the later chapters, but a few of the mentions did give me childhood flashbacks. The entertainment industry section was pretty funny - failed tv shows and movie flops, from Cop Rock to Godfather 3 and others. I was entertained by the long lists of microwaveable and fried foods and some of the terrible product launches that had to be retracted.

Some of the stories (like the evolution and failures of the Yugo, certain game consoles, and laser disks) were long and detailed histories. Other topics were given shorter blurbs, or even just listed anecdotes without giving full detail. In any case, they were all wonderfully bad ideas that just had to make you wonder -how did this get marketed/made public?

The narration wasn't remarkable, nor was the content demanding that. His tone had an appropriate sarcastic tone when called for, and delivered a lot of the lines about our biggest goofs (prohibition, Esperanto, New Coke ... ) in a deadpan and with an understood "can you believe somebody really invented the ___?" I mean, I would hardly want to try a segue after hearing its company owner died when he drove his over a cliff, nor will I have an apatite for the Krispy Kreme burger anytime soon.

A fun, if short, interlude in ridiculous mistakes of all kinds.

Book Should be Added to the List

What disappointed you about Worst Ideas Ever?

I was familiar with almost all of the ideas. I had just never bothered to list them.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Not so much monotone.

Any additional comments?

This would be a good book ti listen to while performing a more important task.

Reliving famous poor choices.

This is a relatively short but interesting listening experience, narrated adeptly by Patrick Lawlor. I enjoyed the appealing wry humor of the authors. However, I did not appreciate the occasional comparisons offered in terms of negative female stereotypes. Did the authors really need to get sexist to make their points? Those comments should also be counted among the worst ideas ever!

Funny, but definitely not original

What did you like best about Worst Ideas Ever? What did you like least?

The book is funny, the narrator has a way to make the worst ideas the world has ever created. On the other hand there is nothing original about the book. I have already seen a lot of stuff in this book on TV. The author just made it in written form. But on TV was more fun.

Described as a funny laugh out loud book....NOT!!!

Any additional comments?

If I hadn't only paid 99 cents for this book I would have returned it

Short, Trashy, but Amusing in Places

Any additional comments?

I got this on the daily sale for very little money, so it was a low risk gamble.

There were some amusing stories and it was kinda fun to listen to while I did household chores, but it mostly covered events in American pop culture, which most of the western world is already familiar with.

The research seemed to extended only so far as what the author could think of off the top of his head in a single stream of consciousness. For example, many are about related movies and then related sports events.

Cerebral this aint. Mildly amusing when it was on sale? Sure.

A poorly constructed listicle

This book didn't age well, but even when it was fresh it was still poorly done. Your average clickbait article has as much thought and reason as this book. There is also way too much opinion masquerading as facts, reasonable people can disagree whether something is bad or not, but don't disguise your opinions as foundational truths.

Nothing to die about

This book is, as to be expected, a list of anecdotes and silly stories regarding bad ideas in several aspects. It can't be expected to be a deep book.
I was personally expecting this sort of book as I do enjoy them but you gotta keep in mind it is more of a time filler.
Also, not to quote the information provided as actual facts as many (MANY) of them are either false or exaggerated.