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Hey, its books!
Books have a lot going for them.
His first book, however, was this hilarious sort-of memoir, or rather autobiographical novel.
It keeps you guessing, like, did hereallybring out morphine and a syringe during hisSNLaudition?
After all, hes the son of Bob Elliott of the classic comedy duo Bob and Ray.
(Dratch meets a guy and has an unplanned baby late in her child-bearing years.)
This collection was adapted into the perennial Christmas classicA Christmas Story,which Shepherd narrated.
Lets Pretend This Never Happenedby Jenny Lawson (2012)Isnt that just thebesttitle for a memoir?
But what if the material is just a bittooembarrassing?
Theres also an afterword by God, which is quite the get.
In 1945, MacDonald, best known for theMrs.
JacobsMy Year of Living Biblically,but its a classic fish-out-of-water and culture-clash story.
Notaro is more or less a likable, funnier, more populist Charles Bukowski.
Then she can hear all dogs talk.
(Her relationships tend to not go well, and she had a love/hate relationship with substances.)
Along withPostcards from the Edge, this is Fishers most vital, soul-baring, and charmingly self-deprecating collection.
She madeSNLa better place to work, and better in general!
She anchoredParks and Recreation,a comedy that defied conventional wisdom to be both incredibly sweet and incredibly funny.
Zombie Spaceship Wastelandby Patton Oswalt (2011)This is a variety of fun stuff for the Patton completist.
This involves some high school kids, single parents, a maid, a dog, and hallucinogenic toads.
Carry On, Jeevesby P.G.
Central to the book is the titular premise, which subsequently entered the vernacular.
A Cold War/arms race satire about Dr. Felix Hoenikker, a Nobel Prize winner for inventing the atomic bomb.
Its literally about a lady hitchhiker who has giant thumbs.
Robbins extends his premise, improbably, to nearly 400 pages.
His cynical quest, of course, succeeds at every turn.
Plus, everyone is an asshole.
You know,college.
A media circus ensues.
Its like a really wacky episode ofScandalset in 1998.
Goldman interrupts the story often to tell the reader all of the lame and boring bits he wisely excised.
For example: I dreamed I was in the jungle, holding a lighted stick of dynamite.
I tried to throw it, but it stuck to my hand.
Then I noticed the brand name: Sticky Dynamite.
Hes also written and self-published a series of novels about a bumbling private detective named Frank Burly.
Frank is immediately lost and overwhelmed, but that doesnt make himquitor anything.
(This has to be the first novel based on a podcast, right?)
Its like an H.P.
Lovecraft novel if Lovecraft suddenly became extremely self-aware.
)What in Gods Nameis about the only time its been pulled off free of cringiness or clumsiness.
Bernadette Fox is a matriarch of a large, powerful, seemingly happy Seattle family.
But apparently not, because one day, without telling anybody, she disappears.She has her reasons.
That is, before it, and Kenney, fell apart.
Its a must-read for any fan, student, or creator of comedy.
This will be the only time you laugh out loud about how poor William McKinley died.
Here then is the definitive work-biography of the tormented and revolutionary comic, perhaps the greatest comedian ever.
What a couple of squares!
But while those dudes took themselves and Thompson ultra-seriously, they somehow missed that Thompson is really funny.
(Perhaps its because Letterman is so famously self-loathing and reclusive.)
Its the definitive book on the definitive American comedy show.
Cast members and production staff contribute stories in addition to photos from the shows archives.
Such is the quick pace of this history ofThe Daily Show much likeThe Daily Showitself.
On a more base level, the backstage controversies are fun to hear about, too.
Also, its exhausting just reading about just how grueling it is to put an episode together every day.
That battle has been going on forever, of course.
Show, The Ben Stiller Show, SNL, and the Chicago comedy scene.
Odenkirks anthology is all of that.
You know exactly what youre getting in this, but thats just fine.
Baxters cartoons look like illustrations from early 20th century adventure novels for kids, or scouting magazines.
One standout: A man and a penguin are about to box.
The caption: There remained a cynical minority who believed our contest rigged.
I Am America (And So Can You!
This book is a full-length exploration of that.
For example, did you know that two-thirds of Canadians own summer snow pants?
Before they madeAnimal House,Lampoons writers delved into and mocked nostalgia with this parody of yearbooks.
Its still worth a read today, because high school is universal, and high school never really changes.
