#ShilpaShettyReviews is trending as I write this. Our award-winning journalist Manisha Pande is not amused. Even as I write this I have been reprimanded for joining in the Twitter mob which is “so mean”. Twitter mobs usually are. Manisha is right when she says this. Also Manisha goes on to add that people use an opportunity such as this to trash a much weaker person (Shetty) to show how well read or intellectually evolved they are. Right again. Shilpa is being used as a punching bag for under-appreciated intellectuals to feel good. But all that aside, this is too delicious an opportunity to pass up for three reasons:

• because it is tooooo funny. Some Twitter humorists have come up with spectacular lines. #Respect
• It is trending so it will lead to traffic on the site, and while I am under no illusion that people will pay to keep news free based on a silly trend riding piece like this one, it might help them discover other meaningful stuff on Newslaundry such as this. And get them to subscribe to Newslaundry, which you can do by clicking here.
• I am weak like that.

The Times Of India supplement on Sunday, November 27 in Delhi (Delhi Times) and today in Mumbai, (Bombay Times – that the Shiv Sena has not insisted it be called the Mumbai Times is news to me) carried a piece where celebrities were asked to recommend books for a hypothetical school’s “syllabus wish list”. In the Delhi edition, Adil Hussain suggested graphic novels of Indian mythologies like Ramayan, Mahabharat. In the Mumbai edition Vivek Oberoi came up with The Jungle Book. Additionally, the Mumbai edition had Shilpa Shetty suggesting Animal Farm because it “can teach the little ones to love and care for animals”. For those who are nervously laughing at the joke (but are not sure why because Animal Farm does sound like a children’s book about animals), Animal Farm by George Orwell is political satire and commentary. It is considered one of the finest of its kind of the last many decades. I have not read it but I have heard it quoted so often, by so many people and read excerpts in articles that I feel no need to read it now. Like that colleague that people in large offices talk about so often that you feel that you already know them? Like that. But yes, I know enough about it to get the jokes and the ones listed below are the finest as selected by our alert intern Tushar Swarup. See how fun internships at Newslaundry are? You can apply by mailing contact@newslaundry.com. But read the funniest contributors to #ShilpaShettyReviews first.