Racist driving book written by Balloon Boy dad

Richard Alan Heene, best known for orchestrating the Balloon Boy hoax in October, once wrote a really bad supposed-to-be-funny book called The Official Offensive Driving Handbook. It includes racial stereotypes illustrated by exaggerated photos of buck-toothed "Orientals," turbaned "Towelheads," and "Bros" in Cadillacs. The book appears to be no longer in stock on Amazon. Balloon Boy's dad — not smart, not funny [TMZ]

Previously:

I'm a contributing editor here at Boing Boing. I also have a blog (TokyoMango), a book (Urawaza), and I freelance for Wired, Make, the NY Times Magazine, PRI's Studio360, etc. I'm @tokyomango on Twitter.

MORE: Weird

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor

Anonymous

I think it’s hilarious that the “customers who bought this book also bought” section consists entirely of books on acting and auditioning.

Methinks that Richard Heene and wife — actors extraordinaire — were the only customers who bought the book on Amazon… FAIL!
Brainspore

Maybe we could track down a few copies to send to the other people on his cell block to show them what an OK guy he is.
- mdh
  
  you’re an evil genius
- Steamboat_Sister
  
  Brainspore,
  
  You’re evil. I like you.
ESQ

@toolbag:

That would be ‘Brahs’. ;-)
chgoliz

Snopup @ #6, it’s more common than you might think. The ignorance and sexism that makes them believe Asian women are subservient and want only to please a man (think: geishas) unlike us American-born “man-hating feminazis” overrides even their racism. Women not really being fully human anyway, so it doesn’t matter if our skin is darker. We’re born to serve.
Anonymous

“Author of Herp-AIDS Detector/Deflector Kit” is in fine print on the cover of that book. NICE.
Anonymous

I wonder if Mayumi Heene knows about his book?
madsci

#1: Initial reports of the size of the balloon suggested that the volume of helium might conceivably be enough to lift a small child. I can’t fault the media too much for that, since I was doing the math myself and couldn’t conclusively disprove it.

What’s really damning though is that there’s no mistaking a balloon with 40 lbs of free lift from one with just enough to make it to a few thousand feet altitude and drift lazily along. When the kid didn’t turn up in the balloon, it was pretty clear that the family had to know from the start that he couldn’t have ever been in the balloon. If it’d had that much lift and had been released empty, it would have shot straight up to its burst altitude and come back down in pieces.
VagabondAstronomer

Richard Alan Heene. Super-genius.
You know, it is still conceivable that he may get a reality TV show, seeing what levels some networks will stoop to.
Anonymous

Let’s not forget about how he has his kids sing about throwing rocks at “F*ggots”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KHwhQUxUvc&feature=player_embedded
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Anonymous,
  
  How am I supposed to unwatch that?!?
Dave Faris

This was written for that couple who crashed the White House last week, but it applies equally to this guy.

No, you’re not famous; you’re infamous. You’re situated squarely at the bottom of an already too-deep and increasingly murky barrel of celebrity culture, celebrity journalism, and (un)reality TV, the depths of which are probably making even Andy Warhol cringe in his grave. I want this to be your fifteenth minute. I want your egg timer to ding now, so you can exit our national discourse as swiftly, completely and permanently as possible.

And, you know what? We can do something about it. We can let the producers of whatever crap program agrees to pay these creepy, pathetic, attention-starved goons for the rights to interview That Couple that not only will we tune out that specific broadcast, but we will tune out that program in the future as well. We can compound the effect by identifying the companies that sponsor the airing of the interview, and boycotting their products or services.

source: Tom Schaller on FiveThirtyEight
DJBudSonic

I’m sorry he is using a such a nice Toyota truck for such a lame series of gags…
i_prefer_yeti

that granny on the hood is showing a lot of hoo-ha.
Anonymous

As a bro I find this deeply disturbing. I thank you boing boing for bringing this incredibly important information to the attention of the bro community.
keithware

In the “towelheads” section he refers to a fancy restaurant as having “eloquent” surroundings, so apparently it was self edited as well. Of course maybe he is referring to a well spoken restaurant in which case feel free to charge me with a felony for false reporting of a usage error on a comments section.
VagabondAstronomer

@DavdFaris…
Well commented! Thanks for the link there, and by golly, this seems like a really good idea!
unruly katy

OMG, will this man never go away? Seriously, there’s just nothing interesting about him. He’s just a sad little hack with nothing to offer but his naked need for fame. And those suckers? Are a dime a dozen.
Zadaz

Please stop posting about this guy.

Don’t feed the trolls.

Seriously.

You should know better.
Anonymous

sorry, but even with this coming to light the Media is still stupider for not figuring the lift of the balloon with all the thousands of people and computers at their disposal.

A guy this stupid hoaxed every network. Why has not a single department head of any new agency been asked to clean out their desk?

I guess reporters are just hired for their looks.
- peterbruells
  
  @anonymous #1 If you’re care about the children, you apparently don’t care about about physics.
PatrickInNC

So this guy whose 15 minutes of fame have come and gone also once wrote an offensive book that nobody bought? Got it.

Nothing more to see here, folks. Move along …
Anonymous

Well….it’s worked for so many TV “news” reporters…I guess he thought racism is his big ticket to reporting the news.
I hear there’s an opening….
i_prefer_yeti

Well, I mean, it is titled the “Offensive” Driving Handbook. Whadya expect?
Stefan Jones

Haw haw haw! He’s a rebel who isn’t afraid to take on political correctness!

Also a total fucking asshole who I hope serves time for his pathetic kid-exploiting publicity stunt.
Halloween Jack

That is one sad, strange little man. (What does that say below his name on the cover? Something about AIDS…)
Anonymous

What in the hell is going on in the upper right corner?
mgfarrelly

“Terrible Person Does Something Terrible…film at 11″
hobomike

Hard to see, but I think the “Orientals” page reads something like this:

“Zipperheads. Andrew Dice Clay put it best when he said, ‘You don’t give car keys to someone you can blindfold with dental floss.’ Andrew, that’s a killer line. What the hell is it with the Orientals anyway.”

So…if it’s supposed to be humorous, he only tries to be by quoting a shitty comedian. Otherwise, it’s just reads as an angry rant. Ironically, he married a Japanese woman, didn’t he?
snopup02

…Anyone else find it funny that he wrote a racist section on “ORIENT ALS” (nice kerning, idiot) — and then married one?

http://www.mahalo.com/mayumi-heene

Flawed worldview fail.
toolbag

I’m such an idiot. When I read “Bros” I assumed it meant be wary of pot smoking Hawaiian surfers driving wood paneled Cadillacs with surf boards hanging out the back window. Now I’m laughing at myself. At least something good came of this book.