what is a “comedy book”? that’s not a distinction used on the signs that hang over a shelf in many bookstores, if any, nor is it used to limit a search in any online bookstore, and it’s not something used by publishers, publishers or critics. it is a kind of general title that we use here to describe a book about comedy or an adjacent figure or theme. like obscenity or passive-aggressive behavior, it is difficult to define in the abstract; we just know it when we see it.
a comedy book is a book about being funny; or what is fun; or what it takes to be funny; or about the business, industry, or process of being funny, usually written by someone who has made a decent living and/or has become a living legend through ongoing acts of comedy: comics, comedic actors, screenwriters, sitcom showrunners, self-author. proclaimed “humorists”, and such. a comedy book could also be a book that is just funny, on purpose, like a comic novel. we basically mean any book a voracious comedy nerd would enjoy, the kind of book for someone who reads vulture comedy coverage on a regular basis. In other words, these are books you’ll enjoy. And luckily, the comedy books published so far in 2022 that we’re writing about here, arranged chronologically by release date, are all pretty fantastic.
You are reading: Best funny books 2022
so you have to decide, by beth lapides
In recent years, audio comedy has emerged as a viable format for things funny. An outgrowth of stand-up comedy and podcasts, entries in this medium add structure and polish to observations and stories not usually offered by those freer activities, packaging humor and storytelling into what is essentially an audiobook: the tropes and the configuration of a physical. book plus the delights of the theater of the mind. One of the best audio-comedy productions in recent memory, no doubt propelling the nascent format into its relative infancy, It’s So You Must Decide, conceived and directed by Beth Lapides. the project is a collection of probing interviews in their original audio, so none of the intensity or intimacy is lost in a print translation. Lapides, comedian and creator of the legendary Los Angeles cabaret show, not only interviews funny people about his craft, the subject of many books and podcasts, but also explains the hows and whys, big and small, of making of decisions. The decisions we make have consequences, good and bad, and Lapides has some really fun people like Margaret Cho, Merrill Markoe, and Baron Vaughn to weigh in on the subject, comically and otherwise.
how to be perfect: the right answer to every moral question, by michael schur
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Michael Schur, one of TV’s smartest and most thoughtful creators and showrunners of sitcoms, followed the parks and recreation of enjoyable mining with the ambitious philosophical fantasy The Good Place, a show about ethics and what it means to be a good person. . somehow such an intoxicating, cerebral and compassionate show ran on network television for four seasons. how to be perfect is the companion piece to schur the good place; it’s like an epilogue, a dvd extra in book form. it’s a clearinghouse for all the big, random, funny, heartbreaking thoughts about the silliness of being an animal forced to have a foresight of its own demise that couldn’t fit into the strict confines of a sitcom about dead souls. the title isn’t even that ironic; is almost exact. schur uses humor to invite and disarm the reader into what feels like a conversation about ethics, and they walk away feeling pretty good about themselves and humanity’s inherent goodness, like you do by watching a parks and recreation episode with a good place hunter. it really works as a life guide while still being extremely fun.
Eating Salad Drunk: Haiku for the Age of Burnout by Great Comedians, Edited by Gabe Henry
You can read this joke book in an hour or two, it’s well worth the purchase price because it benefits charity. it is twitter minus the toxicity and the relentless implacableness and instead more art, delicacy and precision. Haiku, editor Gabe Henry tells us, is essentially one-line art, arranged in a three-line system and a 5-7-5 syllable scheme. working within the parameters of the world’s shortest poetry format challenges comedians to be funny in an extremely inexpensive space. it’s amazing that they can be so smart and so sharp. and no, this isn’t like high school when you had to write a haiku and do something stupid to be a know-it-all; According to Eating Salad Drunk (named for the first line of an entry by comedian Josh Gondelman), haiku originated as a scatological form, so this book is a back-to-basics deal. the jokes here are elegant and strangely beautiful as well as ridiculous.
passing right, by skippy “batty” battison (mike sacks)
Mike Sacks is a master of a particular type of writing that he probably invented or at least perfected: a dazzling and deceptive act of written performance art, composing an entire manuscript from the point of view of a fictional character. in doing so, he lampoons suffocating literary conventions and revolting segments of society at the same time. Following Stinker Loose, the novelization of a late ’70s smokey and bandit knockoff that doesn’t exist, and Randy, a self-published fake memoir of a Maryland scumbag, Sacks takes on the all-too-familiar and aggravatingly toxic phenomenon of the failed comedian that becomes a self-styled “anti-pc” right-wing pundit who pretends to tell it like it is, a career path born of professional desperation that gives voice to the rage and anger they have always felt for women and non-whites. skippy “batty” battison, the first person “hero” of passing by on the right, sure thinks he’s funny and drives you crazy, except he’s not terribly funny but rather dangerous and horrible, so profoundly pathetic and sad that it becomes the other side of fun again. Passing is a sly and provocative character study of a guy who wants desperately to be Greg Gutfeld, and Sacks’s first-person engagement with the role is a masterclass in postmodern meta-comedy.
comedy comedy comedy drama: memories, by bob odenkirk
Finally, one of the greatest comic minds and comic actors of his generation wrote his memoir. Following genre mainstays like Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up, the comedy-drama offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a next-level genius who is usually inscrutable and lets his work speak for itself. . Now read how Odenkirk rises through the ranks of the Chicago comedy scene; Through Saturday Night Live, The Ben Stiller Show and Mr. show with bob and david; and guiding tim and eric to television. his sensibilities have shaped comedy and television, and this memoir shows how he blazed his way into the comedy mainstream and bent it to his flawless level, then as a second act became a television icon with his complex portrayal of shady lawyer saul goodman in the last hour. wrong and better call saul.
ten steps to nanette: a situation of memories, by hannah gadsby
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that title is totally in line with gadsby’s blunt, deconstructive/reconstructive approach to comedy and acting, but this book is so much more than an explanation of nanette, the 2018 comedian’s landmark special that questioned and redefined the comedy and inspired a billion people to think. pieces by people who didn’t like nanette or thought it was bad because they didn’t understand it. Ten Steps to Nanette not only helps explain why Nanette worked, as well as outline Gadsby’s goals for the project, but it’s also the sweetest, warmest, funniest comedic memoir in a decade. yes, gadsby addresses trauma and frightening moments in her years as an unabashedly sensitive girl and young woman, but the book is, by and large, the answer to the question most memoirs never address because the author remains too cautious: who is this? person, really, and why do they do the work they do? For someone who did something as polarizing as Nanette, this is a book we needed.
sickest in the head: more conversations about life and comedy, by judd apatow
apatow is the creator, curator or producer of some of the most defining comedies of the last three decades. He is known for his character- and emotion-focused films, such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The King of Staten Island, as well as progressive and arthouse television, such as The Larry Sanders Show, and Geeks and Geeks. Even from his position as the ruler of funny Hollywood, Apatow remains a student of comedy: He interviews luminaries the same way he did as the host of his high school radio station. After 2016’s Head Sick: Conversations About Life and Comedy, Apatow has compiled Head Sick, another anthology of his lengthy, open-ended, probing interviews with funny people about the how, why, and what of their lives. particular style of comedy a couple of interviews from the 80’s era are true gems, but the most riveting moments come when apatow lets budding legends like bowen yang and ramy youssef do the talking with the least bit of help and direction. /p>
cash grab, by andy spain
If there’s any book that sorely needs a mockery, it’s Atlas Shrugged, the didactic polemic of an Ayn Rand novel that has justified the behavior of generations of cocky, self-serving types. Andy Spain’s first novel, Cash Grab, is a long-awaited dismantling of the inherent themes of Atlas but also of blind and well-meaning idealism, as it follows Buddy, a TV-loving daydreamer who is overwhelmed to learn that the The entertainment industry is hollow, nasty, and free of art and magic, and selling out might be inevitable.
in joke: the original queens of stand-up comedy, by shawn levy
Film critic and showbiz biographer Shawn Levy devoted his deft investigative skills and delightfully fascinated point of view to a subject that had hitherto been atrociously unaddressed in the form of a wide-ranging print story. ambitious: women in stand- up comedy. Sure, there are plenty of books on the history of comedy acting, including at least one passing reference to early form icons like Moms Mabley and Joan Rivers, but the joke takes the time to explore the comic’s unique perspective. Women’s. , including women of color, in the early and mid-20th century. Levy provides a historical and cultural context to explain not only why Belle Barth and Phyllis Diller were important, but also why they were so much fun.
hello molly!: memoir, by molly shannon
Ideally, a comedian’s memoir should help explain the motivations behind the subject’s unique work, and this one does. that funny title that obviously refers to hello, doll! it’s apt, like hello, molly! it feels like a mid-century musical, albeit much darker, actually funny, and about the indomitable human spirit in the face of tragedy and the brave individual rising above with charm. Molly Shannon is a fucking national treasure. it’s a funny book and it’s about funny things, but it’s really about how comedy and humor can be used as a vehicle of escape, identity and support. the thesis of many of her saturday night live characters is to live life with defiant joy, and permission to go find that joy is the main theme of hello, molly!
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