Not Funny

February 1, 2023

Long before Friedman earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for her work on Borat 2: Subsequent Movie Film, she was a student of life and improv at ImprovOlympic. Before she would go on to work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Late Show with David Letterman, she was a wannabe comedian whose best work was thanks to her casual observation of the social landscape around her. Friedman's biting comedy got her ostracized from the stand-up community she loved when she published a research paper on sexual harassment in comedy clubs. She also shocked many with her on-air comments about abortion, miscarriages, and Donald Trump during Stephen Colbert's Election Night Special in 2016. From satirizing American Girl dolls to borrowing a page from the Garbage Pail Kids, Friedman's humor may be inappropriate to some, but it is undeniable in this book as she double downs on the best of her worst impulses. Addressing reproductive rights, gender identity, cancel culture, and injustices, she sparkles with the casual brilliance of fellow comedians and humor essayists Lindy West and Sarah Silverman. VERDICT This perceptive and biting collection of humorous essays offers readers a wild ride.--Alana R. Quarles

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February 15, 2023
A funny but critical look at the depredations of life as a woman comic. Friedman is an acclaimed stand-up comedian, a writer for programs like The Daily Show, and a TV host. While this book chronicles her rise from improv bit player to Adult Swim personality, she stresses the minefields she encountered along the way. As she notes throughout a narrative that emphasizes a litany of grievances, personal and otherwise, comedy is an unregulated industry, which leaves room for sexual abuse, pay disparity, and everyday microaggressions. Being a woman in the business sometimes means bombing when taking on touchy subjects: The author opens with her being met with silence on election night 2016, when Trump's victory was clear and she quipped, "Get your abortions now" on a panel with Stephen Colbert. For a book that turns on taboos and industry humiliations, Friedman is an amusing writer who happily dives straight into uncomfortable territory. For example, she recalls writing a satire of American Girl dolls targeting xenophobia, considers the lasting appeal of dead baby jokes ("a reflection of a traumatized society trying to heal itself through culture"), and transcribes her asking the likes of Jon Stewart and Patton Oswalt the kinds of dunderheaded and/or sexist questions she's fielded--e.g., "What's it like to be a man in comedy?" The author is thoughtful on cancel culture, at once seeing how it can be overblown ("It's always kind of funny when a famous comedian whines about cancel culture on a platform where we all can hear them") while describing how former colleagues and supporters like Roseanne Barr and Jeff Garlin were impacted by it. The prose is sometimes exaggerated, and the text is repetitious and padded in parts, filled with old sex-advice columns, a review of a Jeff Koons exhibit, and other ephemera. Still, Friedman's attitude of refusing to tolerate sexism--and willingness to mine it for comedy--prevails. A serious memoir with jokes, self-deprecating yet rarely self-diminishing.

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February 13, 2023
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.

March 1, 2023
Jenna Friedman wasn't always a comedian. In fact, she started her career as a cultural anthropology major, and readers will see those roots in her first book of essays as she delves into not just her life and experiences, but also provides footnoted analysis into the culture of comedy and its place in the world. Why do we find dark things funny? Who told the first dead baby joke? Why do we refer to women in comedy as ""female comedians"" but men are just ""comedians""? Don't let the footnotes fool you, though; this isn't a dry academic treatise. Friedman is a genuinely funny writer, whether she's sharing anecdotes from her time as a segment producer for The Daily Show (it turns out the cannibal cop was a pretty nice guy, actually) or examining the ""Me Too"" movement and cancel culture (wouldn't you know, Friedman was set to start writing for the Roseanne reboot the very day the star had her Twitter meltdown). Perfect for fans of dark, feminist comedy such as Hannah Gadsby or Samantha Bee.

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