Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
Worst Ideas Ever  By  cover art

Worst Ideas Ever

By: Daniel Kline, Jason Tomaszewski
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.95

Buy for $14.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Editorial reviews

Listeners smarting from a recent humiliation can take solace in Worst Ideas Ever: A Celebration of Embarrassment, a compendium of the biggest blunders in recent history. Some of the wretched ideas listed here will live forever in infamy for their negative example - say, New Coke or Bernie Madoff. Others are rescued from obscurity by authors Daniel Kline and Jason Tomaszewski, like the idea to put record players in Chevy cars, or Cop Rock, the (thankfully) forgotten musical police procedural by the creator of NYPD Blue. Narrator Patrick Lawlor's droll, winking descriptions of the worst that sports, entertainment, and pop culture have to offer is an antidote to a bad day. Those prone to noisy laughter might want to listen to this one in private.

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.

What listeners say about Worst Ideas Ever

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    197
  • 4 Stars
    257
  • 3 Stars
    332
  • 2 Stars
    171
  • 1 Stars
    116
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    251
  • 4 Stars
    312
  • 3 Stars
    258
  • 2 Stars
    83
  • 1 Stars
    63
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    176
  • 4 Stars
    213
  • 3 Stars
    288
  • 2 Stars
    169
  • 1 Stars
    119

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not very good

What would have made Worst Ideas Ever better?

More better bad ideas.

What was most disappointing about Daniel Kline and Jason Tomaszewski ’s story?

After a few amusing stories it went downhill fast.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite, I confess, was that the guy who invented the Segway rode his own off a cliff.

What character would you cut from Worst Ideas Ever?

The bad movies had, inherently, the potential to go on forever, which I started to be afraid it would

Any additional comments?

This was meant to be some light fare between real books, but it was too dull to listen to another minute.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining

I enjoyed almost all of this, there was a lot about sports which didn’t interest me but if you like sports you may really like those parts! Overall a fun easy listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Cost too much at free.

This book is genuinely overpriced at free.
It's just a long-winded opinion piece.
Pretty much consists of nothing but things the author does not like. which I did expect. However I also expected the back stories behind these horrible ideas. Things such as why did ANYBODY think changing the formula for Coca-Cola was a good idea?
Nothing but crickets.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A generous 3 stars

Luckily, this book is fairly short. Lucky also that I have a chapter advance on my Clip player, as I didn't really care for the sports and politics chapters.

Other than that, it had a few funny moments, good for a couple of chuckles at the beginning, but it progressed to being somewhat uninteresting and mean-spirited. I did not care for the tone the narrator took.

A daily deal--easy come, easy go.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
  • A
  • 04-09-14

Not impressed

I fell asleep while reading this one and didn't even bother to go back to read what I had missed. The stories felt very repetitive and even though I slept through some of the book (not unusually for me), I didn't feel like I had missed anything. I didn't feel like I learned anything that didn't already know. I just was not impressed by this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Just complaining

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Actual investigations into how these decisions were made

Any additional comments?

This just seemed to be someone complaining about a lot of dumb decisions that were made and did not provide the insight into how/why they were made.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Worst Book Ever

Brings nothing new to the any of the truly bad ideas and throws in a few that aren't even really that bad. The narration is decent but can't save this truly bad book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Bad ideas on center stage

A quick look at everything from Jordan leaving Basket Ball in his prime to try his luck in a sport he never had excelled in, to New Coke, to Governor Sanford's mythical hike on the Appalachian trail. The quick hitting format doesn't go very deep into the reasoning behind the in hind sight bad decisions but still it is a an interesting look at very public example where reason has failed big.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Pretty darn funny

I like a short, well-priced book that will make me laugh as I drive down the street. This one did it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Short and mildly interesting.

Exactly as described in the publisher's description. The authors provide a list of various public failures in categories like Sports, Advertising, Products, and Entertainment. There's nothing incredibly compelling here, but it's worth the few dollars I spent when it was a Daily Deal.

I would not waste a credit on it or pay full price.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!