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Book review: Hayibo: The Best of Hayibo.Com
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June 18, 2009
By Angela Jakins
HAYIBO: THE BEST OF Hayibo.Com
Publisher: Jacana
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With political satire once again an endangered species, the release of this collection, taken from the cult satirical website (hayibo means "wow" or "no way" in Zulu ) is like manna from heaven.
The site, with former Mail & Guardian columnist and author Tom Eaton at the helm, has joined the ranks of Zapiro, Evita, Justin Nurse (founder of Laugh It Off, credited with the book's design) and, yes, Nando's in playing court jester to the order of the day, which seems particularly sensitive to the gentle art of lampooning. And with the national broadcaster too chicken (sorry, Nando's) to even entertain a discussion on the subject, it's still far from becoming a national sport.
Anyway, the word is that if you can't beat the system, the truth will out on the internet, hence Hayibo "the second-best source of made-up news after the SABC". The satire here works best online, where breaking news is swiftly held up to Hayibo's hilariously distorted mirror, and the reflex is to laugh out loud. It's that sort of humour. So the book is very much a spin-off, but a great introduction to what Hayibo does best.
There are no sacred cows. Everyone from Madiba to Helen Zille, Leon Schuster, Steve Hofmeyr, Shaun Pollock, U2 , Barack Obama, Che Guevara, Stephen Hawking and Ray McCauley get a good ribbing, as well as the usual suspects - "Mugabe and Mbeki are hottest new celebrity couple", "Emboldened Lekota to add more vowels to name", "Motlanthe chosen for ability to stroke beard just like Mbeki", "Carl Niehaus admits he is divorced mother of four" and more on Malema, Boesak etc.
And then there are some gems - a down and out, chain-smoking "Liewe Heksie'' (of 80s SA children's TV fame) packing for Perth; setting the record straight that 2010 mascot "Zakumi" is not an STD-ravaged lion; and OBE matrics rejecting the "colonial" alphabet.
For the politically aware who really do like to laugh it off, it's a riot.
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