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By Sharon Hori

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Nine out of 10 book critics will agree that “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” the still-growing collection of feel-good stories that promise sunshine on any rainy day, will leave you with a warm-hearted, squishy feeling inside. On the other hand, author David Fisher may just assume that you sat in something.

Cynics who wonder where the fat and grease left out of the virtuous “Chicken Soup” series will snicker at Fisher’s latest concoction, a 149-page parody which refreshes the doubt in all disbelievers of hope and happy endings.

With 50 overripened anecdotes and a splash of vinegar to bring out the sarcasm in everyone, “Chicken Poop For the Soul II” marks Fisher’s second strike at appealing to the sick-minded hypochondriac who refuses to digest “Chicken Soup” – even with a spoonful of sugar.

That’s right -- “Chicken Poop II” is the sequel to the sarcastic surge that began with the original “Chicken Poop for the Soul: Stories to Harden Your Heart and Dampen Your Soul.” And if you’re still searching for the final touch to your toilet-side library collection, then “Chicken Poop” has found its rightful home.

The parody, filled to the brim with sarcasm, may not appeal to nutritionists who deem chicken soup the cure. But Fisher implies that others may develop a taste for his style.

“Chicken Poop” is a people book that focuses on the misfortunes and ironies that occur to everyday people with everyday bad luck. Readers will establish heroes like Jack Kevorkian, whose fantastic fascination with life (or the lack thereof) was seemingly sparked by his early science fair project, “The Effects of Electricity on Goldfish.”

One of the more profound excerpts, “Amazing But True! The Incredible Similarities Between Abraham Lincoln and Jim Carrey,” is truly as remarkable as it is factual.

Who ever would have thought that “Both Abraham Lincoln and Jim Carrey were born to both a mother and a father!” or that “Neither Abraham Lincoln nor Jim Carrey ever served a single day in the U.S. Senate or won an Academy Award!”

And that’s about the extent of “Chicken Poop’s” educational value, unless you count the wisdom of high school history teacher Jessica Reichler in “The Good Teacher.” According to Reichler, whose development of knowledge-based learning brought a new teaching style to the classroom, “the best way to teach history is to use what teenagers already know about.” Try a three-question pop quiz:

“The Declaration of Independence was signed 223 years before the release of the Backstreet Boys album titled ‘Millennium.’ When was the Declaration of Independence signed?”

Question number two: “In 1803 the United States purchased 600 million acres of land from France, doubling the size of the nation, for $15 million. Named for the state that would eventually be the birthplace of Britney Spears, this was known as the Purchase.”

And finally: “Who am I? My first name is the same as that of the actor who plays Dawson on ‘Dawson’s Creek.’ My last name is the same as that of the actress who plays Andie on the same show. I’m the fifth president of the United States. Call me.”

The humor is cheap and stale, like the kind of jokes told in forwarded e-mail messages that have already been recycled, mangled and mass-mailed two hundred times too many. In perspective, it’s one step above a Pauly Shore movie and a flight of stairs below old Saturday Night Live reruns.

And although the stories are a breezy two to three pages long, the breeze off of Fisher’s cynical twist is not that of a lovely waft over the city sewage department, perfect for the satirists who are fed up with feeding chicken broth to their souls. And in the cynic’s mind, three words will sum that up: Mmm mmm good.