Not Funny : : Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, et Cetera

Locations
Call Number: 792.702 Fr, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Friedman, Jena, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Friedman, Jena
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	792.702 Fr	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Friedman, Jena	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Friedman, Jena	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Friedman, Jena	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Prologue -- Not Funny -- 1,500 Words -- An American Girl's Story -- Dead Baby Jokes, or, How to Talk to a Fetus Lawyer -- Too Soon -- Cutting My Teeth -- Sex Pays -- Bad Art -- Girl Having Sex, or, What We Talk about When We Talk about Likability -- Brief Interviews with Hilarious Men -- Canceled comedians Say the Darndest Things -- Stand Down -- One of the Good Ones -- Oh, the People You'll Meet! -- The Night Before Covid -- On Making It.
"NOT FUNNY is a FUNNY, whipsmart essay collection on gender, politics, the entertainment industry, and work. Jena Friedman is an acclaimed writer and performer, with multiple credits to her name in the fields of tv comedy (The Daily Show and The Late Show with David Letterman), film (an Academy Award nomination for writing on Sacha Baron Cohen's 2020 blockbuster Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), humor writing (The New Yorker), and live performance. More recently, her skill for keen social observation is seen in her acclaimed tv series Indefensible-a comedic takedown of the true-crime tv craze. With incisive cultural criticism, acerbic wit, and an interdisciplinary mind, Jena sheds light on her life as a millennial woman, treated as too smart, brash, and fearless for her own good through this collection of essays. We see her at her highest highs and lowest lows. We see her struggle to accept mistreatment in exchange for career advancement. We see her cope with "cancel culture" first-hand, as mentors she trusts are called to account for misdeeds she herself did not witness. We watch her unpack the roots of humor, and her lifelong goal to change minds through political incitement. And we see a bright-lights big-city version of a classic young women's career struggle; an immensely talented creative who refuses to soften herself for others. In her debut essay collection NOT FUNNY, Friedman fearlessly jousts with a label so often placed on women like her-perceptive, opinionated, ready to call out hypocrisy wherever she finds it, and... funny! Friedman pushes just past the edge of comfort on matters of gender, politics, decency, and class: Why do we look to celebrities to decide whether other celebrities deserve forgiveness? Why don't we ask men whether their careers might get in the way of starting a family? What does it mean to still hold admiration for a mentor you learn in hindsight to have been a predator? And what's so wrong with telling a dead baby joke? As she notes, one of the first jokes in recorded history was just that. Friedman challenges us to reconsider why we do and do not laugh, with whom we choose to empathize, and when we decide to grant attention in a world that demands we laugh to keep from crying. At once brainy, insightful, and absurd, NOT FUNNY reclaims power using the sharpest tool in bold satirist's arsenal: humor"-- Provided by publisher.

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