Analyzing Writing Style

So this week, I picked up a book to read for enjoyment, not at all related to school, and altough its not a fiction work, the writers (there are two) are hilarious. I literally laugh out loud reading what they write. They have this way of making the details so ridiculous--yet they are real and it makes it all the more interesting.

The book is called "The Ridiculous Race" about two guys in their thirties, who are comic writers for different television programs, who decide to race around the world without using airplanes. The first person who come back to LA wins the most expensive bottle of Scotch they can find in the city. The authors are Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran.

Here are some examples of the details that made me laugh out loud, the absurdity in truth.

Vali describing his companion/translator in Mexico:

" For starters, she was beautiful. I'm not great at describing people. so bear with me. She was somewhere between zero and twenty feet tall and h ad mocha-colored skin. She had either two eyes or two mouths. He hair was long, brown, and luxurious--like a brown Lamborghini. And her personality was even better than her looks. She was funny, smart, and sexy--like a slightly nicer brown Lamborghini. Once, while in mexico, a waiter made eye contact with me, pointed to Juliana, and then gave me a thumbs-up. "Craigslist," I mouthed back." (17)

" She was born and raised in Colombia, the most kidnap krazy country on Earth, with a kidnapping incidence of over 10 times its nearest competitor. I thought I felt a chill run down my spine, but it turned out to just be an ant. The incredibly high Colombian kidnapping rate meant there was a good chance that Juliana had kidnapped someone at least once before." (16)

Steve starting his trip by trying to find a ship to take him across the Pacific:

"With the help of the daring traveler's greatest friend, the Internet, I learned of a German company called NSB (short for Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellscaft Buxtehude, which at no point in my trip did I hear anyone pronounce.)" (31)

"Aside from trying on my snug, plush orange survival suit and getting a seat assigned in the lifeboat, Hanjin Athens seemed about as exciting as a giant floating Kinkos." (34)

Vali's attempt to buy a jetpack in Mexico to get across the Atlantic ocean:

"As he strapped the pinnacle of modern engineering to my bnack, he told me three things: 1) The jetpack can hold only thirty seconds worth of fuel. Adding more fuel makes the jetpack to heavy to take off. SO until another safe fuel with better weight to stored energy ratio can be found, thirty seconds in the max amount of time a jetpack will fly. It turns out that's why NASA abandoned its jetpack program. I asked Juan if it would take longer than thirty seconds to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. He said yes." (50)

Anyways, there are lots more examples, but I think its the seriousness or the "realness" of the ridiculous or tone that these writers use, that just makes it so funny.