The tone of criticism overall was described as "near universal derision". Tibor Fischer made one of the most quoted statements in a book review of modern times saying in "The Daily Telegraph" ""Yellow Dog" isn't bad as in not very good or slightly disappointing. It's not-knowing-where-to-look bad. I was reading my copy on the Tube and I was terrified someone would look over my shoulder (not only because of the embargo, but because someone might think I was enjoying what was on the page). It's like your favourite uncle being caught in a school playground, masturbating." "The Spectator" said "excellent flourishes rise like buried treasure from the mud far too much of "Yellow Dog" is filled with weak reruns of old material, implausible and unengagingly laborious working-out, and promising narratives which come to embarrassingly weak conclusions – the last 40 pages are a sequence of feeble punchlines, almost as if the author is by now as bored by his own material as is the reader. "The Independent" said "unimaginative and un-entertaining [...] Over-written, overcrowded and underpowered, "Yellow Dog" is a joyless, boring long-haul flight to nowhere [...] you'll find more humour – and sophistication – in a single issue of The Beano."