eMusic’s Funniest Books
Some books are just meant to be heard. Humorous books might elicit chuckles on the page, but they reach new levels of funny when read aloud by narrators (often the authors themselves) whose timing and inflection can elevate simple texts into high comedy. Check out the titles below for hilarious performances by NPR darlings, dishy celebrities, BBC legends, and Daily Show cast members, past and present.
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The five uproarious pieces that comprise David Sedaris's newest audio recording, Live For Your Listening Pleasure, were recorded in various U.S. cities - Denver, New York City, Durham, Los Angeles and Atlanta - during his latest tour. Though always a delight to read, Sedari s is undeniably in top form when performing in front of an audience. Impeccable timing, uncanny mimicry and facetious parentheticals add luster to the stories' innate hilarity. And, like all truly great comics, Sedaris mines the quotidian for his quips.
more »Social critique is always the uniting factor in Sedaris's writing, and Live For Your Listening Pleasure is no exception. The invasiveness of chatty hairdressers becomes surreal when the stylist is a baboon and her client a cat. But while the recording begins with this ludicrous fable, Sedaris quickly transitions into the realm of humans. There are the professors who, within an academic lecture, pronounce, preposterously, the word "Nicaragua" like a native; there are the French names Sedaris gives to his garden rabbits that translate into English as "moist" and "unemployment"; there is the Australian bird of prey to whom Sedaris is forced to feed raw duck and the woman dining nearby with a babydoll in her lap. We return stateside with reflections upon the giant big-box stores and the value-size boxes of condoms they sell - both so quintessentially American. Always wry and forever self-deprecating, Sedaris evokes for us the queasy image of himself, poised for an unattended reading at Costco, where to add insult to injury, he sits beneath a sign cautioning, "No pictures please."
You'll double over with laughter; you'll nod in solemn agreement; you'll wish that the recording never ended and you'll play it all over again.
FUNNY CELEBS
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No one's safe, not even Griffin herself, in this catty, chatty memoir of a D-lister
"This book is equal parts shit-talking about myself and others," says Kathy Griffin at the beginning of her memoir, Official Book Club Selection- and she lives up to that promise. No one's safe in this funny, revealing and sometimes shocking loo k at Kathy's rise to fame, from aspiring Midwestern actress to sitcom sidekick ("Suddenly Susan") to star of her own reality television universe, "My Life on the D-List." Octomom isn't safe, nor are Kathy's grandparents, Catholics and certainly not any of the myriad celebrities Griffin has met over the last 20 years in the entertainment industry.more »Don't look for too many one-liners in this briskly paced book: Griffin built her stand-up career on her meandering storytelling technique, as part of a wave of "alternative" comedians, including Janeane Garofalo and Andy Dick. Griffin spins tales about her promiscuous past ("My type was pretty much any guy who said hi to me"), as well as her interactions with the likes of Jack Black (big shocker - he liked to smoke pot and play video games all day), Brooke Shields (with whom she occasionally battled on "Suddenly Susan"), Steve Martin ("a douchebag"), and George Clooney, who appears to be the most charming man alive. (As if we needed confirmation on that.)
There's also some intense revelations about her now-deceased brother's abusive past, and a horrifying look at Griffin's ventures into plastic surgery. No matter the topic, Griffin's extremely conversational voice is compelling and clear. As a bonus, Griffin's occasionally diverges from the original print version of the book with hilarious asides - she can't help herself, she's got some good stories.
DAILY SHOW VETS
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When the aliens come to take over Earth, and they will, they'll need an owning/operating manual for their new blue and green sphere. The writers of The Daily Show helpfully provide that with Earth, a humorous comprehensive guide to the planet and the people who screwed it up. Whil e the audio version may lack the visual charms of the hardcover, there are plenty of audio treats for listeners like many familiar "Daily Show" voices (John Oliver, Samantha Bee, John Stewart, for instance) and, inexplicably, the dulcet tones of Sigourney Weaver providing additional narrative support. The book also provides FAQs for the aliens as well as a tittering laughter soundtrack for words like "Uranus" and "Lake Titicaca."
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Stephen Colbert is never at loss for opinions, but still the sheer scope and pace of his first book might surprise you. I Am America (And So Can You!) is a huge, insane send-up of those scattershot book-length rants Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck keep crapping out - sometimes by mimicking their wingnut worldviews to the letter. Colbert is just as qualified to tell you how to raise your kids, get a date, choose a religion or tie a bowtie as those omni-pundits. And so he does. Seriously, he spends a couple minutes talking you through the tying of a bowtie, with predictably miserable results.
more »Why is it so funny? Why does it work? Because Colbert has that sneakily unaware charm that makes you forget sometimes he's just a liberal playing a character. It's a neat trick, making you believe he believes that it's time to take the word "homosexual" back from the gays, or that the wallpaper industry is part of the liberal media, or that performance-enhancing drugs are really enjoyment-enhancing drugs. And is it wrong when you find yourself, you know, agreeing with him? "If you're wondering whether you're in a cult," he says, "the answer is yes." That actually makes a lot of sense. Colbert almost makes you wanna shut off your brain and live in his simple, fascist America. "I look back fondly on the memories I haven't repressed," he says like he means it. And maybe, so can you.
