is it wrong to find this funny?

i've been going back and forth on whether or not to post this. i decided to do it by first asking, what would you consider "your kind of humor"? do you like slapstick, satire, sarcastic (and why do they all start with "s"?), or some other type?

for me, my humor is sort of all over the place. most times i'd say i prefer sarcasm and self-deprecation. i don't always get satire, which would probably be why (and don't hate me) i usually don't care for the daily show with jon stewart (though, oddly enough, i've starting really loving the colbert report). i'm definitely not a slapstick humor kind of person. "dumb and dumber" went straight over my head.

i bring this up because a few weeks ago, B. and i were browsing around borders, killing time before our afternoon class, and we stumbled upon tucker max's "i hope they serve beer in hell". we paged through it, and i swear to God, i never wanted to laugh so hard at something so horrible in my life.

i mean, it's terrible. truly, honest-to-God terrible. he's out there having what seems to be both highly discriminating and altogether indiscriminate sex with women, and then writing about his most craziest ventures. he's drinking and talking inordinate amounts of crap about people. the book seems almost certainly degrading towards women, it's vulgar, it would never be something you bring up in polite conversation, it begs the question of whether all of these out of control stories could possibly be true...but it's hilarious.

and i've been trying to work out why this sort of humor has so uncharacteristically appealed to me. i think i've realized that it's just so unapologetic, and like it or not, the guy can write and entertaining narrative.

he is also a law school graduate, and i find that even more funny. here's some of what he's said (which can be found in his FAQ section) about that whole experience:

Question: What is your job? Do you work as a lawyer?

I am a best-selling author, which makes me a writer. I also wrote and produced a movie, which makes me a screenwriter and a movie producer. Of course I don't work as a lawyer, I don't hate myself.

Question: If you aren't working as a lawyer, why did you get your JD?

I made a mistake going to law school. There was a time in my life that I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but I was terribly mistaken. I didn't know that you had to give up your soul to work in that field.

that being said, i was wondering what others who may have read his stuff have thought. did it make you laugh, or did it just disgust you? could you see past the utter insult and humiliation, or was it just too much? if you're a woman and found it funny, how did that make you feel?

if you haven't it yet, i guess i'll do my civic duty and warn you. it will not meaningfully enrich you life, i can almost promise you that. and it may make you think less of me as well. to answer my own questions: yes, it made me laugh (a lot), but it was that sort of embarrassed, i-shouldn't-find-this-funny laugh, and it disgusted me as well. no, i couldn't see past the insult and humiliation, but apparently that didn't stop me from being completely curious as to what he got up to next. and as a woman, i was outraged at first, until i realized that these women he's sleeping with are consenting adults (most of the time...there's a story where he doesn't tell the girl he's filming them, and that's sort of wrong...which he realizes), and these stories are as much his as they is theirs.

for those who aren't going to heed the warning, and are just curious, he's posted some of his stories on his blog, which can be found here.