A review of Vinegar Syndrome’s “Dirty Work” booklet

Written by Matt Long

Edited by Anthony Nijssen of APT Editing

A review of the booklet included as part of Vinegar Syndrome’s deluxe edition package, released in 2025, for Dirty Work (1998). Vinegar Syndrome often includes limited edition books as one of the exclusive features included in their deluxe edition packages.

The front cover of the booklet for Dirty Work, which was released by Vinegar Syndrome in 2025 on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. The release is notable for including the “Dirtier Cut,” a newly-constructed version of the movie.

Professionalism and production quality

The booklet is a 40 page perfect bound softcover booklet with high quality printing, featuring the inimitable Norm MacDonald as he appeared in Dirty Work. The text is very readable, a high contrast of yellow text against a brown background. The font is large, which is good for accessibility, but it stands out as almost too large for the page. The choice to print the essays in dual columns on each page and justified alignment slightly decreases the readability of the text.

There were several typos throughout the text, such as a misspelling of Canada’s capital city Ottawa as “Ottowa.” There are also instances of two dashes being used instead of em dashes.

There are pictures printed throughout the book; all have a fuzzy quality to them that fits the book’s aesthetic.

Score: 7 (out of 10)

Text-to-image ratio

This 40 page book has 15 pages of pictures. There could have been more text, especially given the large font size, but overall the number of pictures felt appropriate. My main question is why every picture except for one featured both Norm MacDonald and Artie Lange? The movie has plenty of cameos and is generally remembered as a MacDonald vehicle, so the focus on Lange surprised me.

Score: 8 (out of 10)

Content

The contents of the deluxe edition of Dirty Work include (from left to right) a hard slipcase, a slipcover for the case, the booklet, and the movie’s case, which contains three discs.

There are three essays included in the booklet. The first, titled “Dirty Work: The Ultimate Inside Joke” by Dan Ozzi, discusses MacDonald’s influence on comedy and how Dirty Work, the only feature film he ever starred in, fits into his career. Ozzi offers a respectful summation of MacDonald’s influence, but some of the choices of what he highlights are puzzling to me. Do we remember his stint on Weekend Update for his Frank Stallone jokes or the relentless OJ jokes? Was the moth joke highlighted by the groaner ending, or was it the way that MacDonald transformed a stale joke into a tragic novel distilled into a few minutes? Although I wanted more, I did appreciate reading a summary of what made MacDonald so special, and it served the material well.

The second essay, “Dirty Dads Directing Dirt Cheap: Bob Saget, Filmmaker” by Jon Dieringer, offers a similar look at how Bob Saget became the director of Dirty Work and what it meant. His passion for the project is effectively conveyed. The essay is a nice tribute to another comedy legend lost too soon.

The third essay, “A Thing or Two About Dirty Work: Finding the ‘Dirtier Cut’” by Oscar Becher, is an interesting view into how the most exciting feature of this release came to be. Dirty Work was long known to be a victim of studios getting scared and demanding changes to the final film. Saget and MacDonald would often talk about a longer cut of the film. Becher and the team at Vinegar Syndrome did the investigative work to find recordings of working prints. The standard practices of the 1990s of shooting on film but editing on tape made it even more difficult than normal, which is highlighted as a surprising challenge for a particular era of film preservation when most people are focused on the difficulties of preserving much older movies. Becher’s explanation of the steps involved in creating and finally presenting the longer version of Dirty Work is much appreciated. This could have been left as a bonus feature on the disc, but I appreciate that Becher took the time to share why this was such an important project to him. 

Score: 15 (out of 20)

Creativity

This is a fairly standard booklet. The range of essays provides useful context into MacDonald, the making of the movie, and the production of the new disc, so it covers the essential material, but it also feels safe. There are no additional sections or significant stylizations outside of a splattered paint effect throughout the book and on the inner covers.

Score: 6 (out of 10)

Final score: 36 (out of 50)

The Dirty Work booklet is a good read that I’m glad to have. It’s not essential, especially because the Vinegar Syndrome release is so loaded with bonus features, but it’s worth a read for those that have it.

This deluxe edition with the booklet was available for purchase at Vinegar Syndrome, but it is now sold out. The standard edition is available at Vinegar Syndrome or your favourite retailers, including Rough Cut Video if you’re in Canada.