Frequent flyers, rejoice: there’s a new kind of airline catalog, and this one sells reality-canceling headphones. Well, not really. SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy from a Plane (St. Martin’s Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books, $14.95) from San Francisco-based Kasper Hauser Comedy Group is a parody of the ubiquitous SkyMall catalog. The advertised products range from the slyly credible (a magnetic hybrid emblem to stick on your gas-guzzling SUV) to the overtly outrageous (a baby nightlight that displays images of Hitler and a werewolf).
The book, out October 31, is the first from Kasper Hauser, which includes Rob Baedeker, ’93, Dan Klein, ’90, James Reichmuth, ’92, and John Reichmuth, ’92, JD ’96. (They worked together at Stanford Sierra Camp.) For the past six years the group has focused on stage performances and short videos; future projects include a podcast and possibly another book. As for SkyMaul, “There was something about the airline catalog that just needed to be satirized—this whole idea of being one garden gnome away from perfection,” says Baedeker.
