Not Funny
Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“In fact very funny.” —Cosmopolitan
“[A] hilarious and much-needed book.” —Samantha Bee, Emmy Award–winning comedian, author, and host of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
For fans of the perceptive comedy of Hannah Gadsby, Lindy West, and Sarah Silverman, Academy Award–nominated and acclaimed stand-up comedian Jena Friedman presents a witty and insightful collection of essays on the cultural flashpoints of today.
Growing up, Jena Friedman didn’t care about being likable. And she never wanted to be a comedian, either. A child of the 90s, she wouldn’t discover her knack for the funny business until research for her college thesis led her to take an improv class in Chicago.
That anthropology paper, written on race, class, and gender in the city’s comedy scene, was, in Jena’s own words, “just as funny as it sounds.” But it did lay the groundwork for a career that has seen her write and produce for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Late Show with David Letterman, and the Oscar nominated Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.
Friedman’s debut collection, Not Funny, takes on the third rails of modern life in Jena’s bold and subversive style, with essays that explore cancel culture, sexism, work, celebrity worship, and…dead baby jokes.
In a moment where women’s rights are being rolled back, fascism is on the rise, and so many of us could use a breather as we struggle to get by, Jena applies her unique gifts to pull a laugh from things deemed too raw, too precious, and too scary to joke about. She shares her stories of taking on those who told her she was too brash, too edgy, and too “unlikable” to make it. She deftly dissects how we get coerced into silence on the issues that matter most, until they’ve gone too far afield to be turned back around again. And she shares her struggles to make it (-ish) in a world that, more often than not, would rather tune out than listen to a woman confronting the indignities we’ve been told to bear.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Comedian Friedman reflects on her career in this entertaining and soulful debut. The title essay recounts how the author fell in love with comedy while conducting research for her undergraduate thesis on a respected Chicago improv troupe famed as a pipeline to Saturday Night Live, as well as the backlash after her thesis's revelations of sexism and racism in the troupe went viral. Several essays probe the misogyny faced by women comedians from audiences and colleagues, as in "Girl Having Sex, or, What We Talk About When We Talk About Likability," where Friedman notes that women comics are often "encouraged to talk about our sex lives onstage because it's the only way we can get men to listen." A philosophical strain runs through these pieces, as when the author meditates on comedy's ability to distract, disarm, or unite while examining jokes she's written about dead babies for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Friedman's comedic voice shines, and she tosses off jokes that are often as funny as they are pointed (she deadpans that "for white men, the likability formula is pretty clear-cut: as long as you're not a serial killer, you're likable"). Insightful and humorous in equal measure, this is a blast.
Customer Reviews
Dark humor?! SIGN. ME. UP.
WARNING: YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT THIS BOOK DOWN
To be honest, I’ve never heard of Jena Friedman before in my life. I only got the book because what I read in the sample was absolutely hilarious!!! I’d give her EVERY star in the universe for how much I loved this book!!! Unfortunately, I’m only limited to five (sooo uhhh… who should I talk to about that? Jena deserves at least a 10-star minimum).