Spoiled Rotten America: Outrages of Everyday Life [Hardcover]

Larry Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2006

Larry Miller is one of the most enduring and stand-up US comics at work today. Hundreds of appearances on "Leno", "Letterman", "Conan O'Brien", and other TV shows, and his unforgettable roles in films as diverse as "Pretty Woman". Now, in "Spoiled Rotten America", he fixes his gaze on the outrages of contemporary life - from "pop stars thinking deeply and sharing their thoughts" to "pillow-soft Americans who stop by the Pizza Hut before collapsing into the Wide-O-Lounger just in time to watch 22 pimple-faced steroid-eaters slam into each other at 14 miles an hour". Among his targets: The Car Radio Beat Brigade: "Their parents buy them an Explorer, and suddenly they're out all day and night, the bass beat so loud that it fluffs the shirt off your body when they pull up next to you. Here's what should be said to them: 'Young man, you're too green and feckless to be annoying people like this. Go home and clean your room. Don't roll your eyes at me, just do it.' On second thought, perhaps they could be taken to a secluded glade and garroted, slowly, with Mozart in the background." Mixing the political with the personal as deftly as P. J. O'Rourke or George Carlin, Larry Miller is today's new voice of outrage for the little guy - for "anyone who walks into the backyard at night, lifts a proud chin, and screams, 'I am not wrong!' before going back inside to resume getting quietly hammered while his wife sits in the next room watching figure skating."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Positioned as a smart volume on modern life in these here United States, these 17 essays from comedian Miller (whose career highlights include roles in Seinfeld and Waiting for Guffman) often read instead like a collection of random thoughts in need of an editor. Fortunately for Miller, he's got a fine-tuned comic sensibility and a winning personality, and his object-"to be funny"-is realized to fine effect. To find a subject, on the other hand, Miller has cast a wide net: the "contrasts" and "opposites" that make contemporary American culture like a "pendulum that only swings to extremes." As such, he takes on varied but familiar topics such as politics, movies, family and alcohol, with forays into the entertainment industry and multiculturalism, in a haphazard, digressive manner. In "What It's Like to Be in Show Business," for example, Miller turns the spotlight on the Emmy Awards, only to deliver a roundabout discussion of foot massages, formal attire, the Titanic, product placement in movies and TV shows, fictional 555 telephone numbers, and swag bags. Though almost entirely unenlightening, Miller's thoughts are often entertaining, written in an arch, conversational tone that fans will recognize from his stand-up; those fans, along with patient and open-minded readers, will find Miller's authorial debut a diverting pleasure.
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About the Author

Larry Miller is a well-known US comedian who has made unforgettable appearances in more than forty films, including Pretty Woman, The Nutty Professor, Waiting for Guffman and many others. Recently his writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Maxim, and in his own regular column in The Weekly Standard. He has also appeared regularly on TV series including Seinfeld and Mad About You, and has had a recurring role on Law & Order. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman and other shows.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: HarperEntertainment; First Edition edition (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060819081
• ISBN-13: 978-0060819088
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,242,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh-outloud funny, but wait - it's great writing, too!, October 5, 2006

By 

Paul Engel (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spoiled Rotten America: Outrages of Everyday Life (Hardcover)

That Larry Miller is a crafty one all right. You think you're reading a book of comic essays but then it suddenly dawns on you: this is really good! Impressive! It's got my brain - and my heart - pumping. How'd he do that?

I'll tell you how. This is intelligent writing that speaks to his core. Miller is not going for the short-term cheap laugh. Well, at least most times. But in order for the humor to kick in, the message has to traverse deep through the brain and take surprising twists through the heart first. So when the laugh hits, it's a full-body slam.

One device he uses is simple: he respects you. He respects that you're a smart person, that you're educated, and that you're decent. It helps if you have a love for history and classic movies. I must admit that I don't get every reference he throws in, but let me ask you this: outside of reading Sarah Vowell, how many books are you going to read that reference the Whiskey Rebellion?

Another aspect of these essays is how, at their core, they are very sweet. Not sickening sweet, just plain ol' sweet. A kind of sweet from a different grainy era, before color was invented.

One more thing: the book is also filled with life lessons Miller has learned and one chapter in particular, about the yogurt, should be required reading for a certain resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And I don't mean the cafeteria worker.

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not only delightful writing and fun reading, it is wonderfully funny!, October 5, 2006

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spoiled Rotten America: Outrages of Everyday Life (Hardcover)

I love Larry Miller. Ever since I heard his "Five Levels of Drinking" years ago, and his comment that woman is the most powerful magnet in the universe and all men are cheap metal, well, I knew we had found a mind that could tell the funny truth. This is not a simple thing. Most of what is passed off as comedy is just awful and obscene twaddle that gets laughs by punching the audience in the gut. The laughs are more explosive exhalations than expressions of delight and joy. Miller brings delight and joy.

And he can write. This is another talent that is not pulled off easily. Most books by comics are not funny. It is one thing to get a microphone, stand on a stage, and curse at people for an hour. Writing it down is similar to being drunk, coming up with profound insights and writing them down for humanity. The next day, if you can even read the writing, you are embarrassed at what you wrote. How can it be that this wonderful insight is inane and too stupid for a twelve year old to take seriously? Well, the power of booze to addle the brain. The point is, that saying funny things on stage is a much different talent than writing funny. Miller can do both. Although his stage act is more literary than most.

I don't know how much Miller drinks in real life, and maybe he milks that cow a bit much, but he uses language beautifully well and provides us things to enjoy on a few levels. Let's start with the stories he tells. They are funny. Well, a few are poignant, but even there he gets some funny observations in along the way. He even gets a few lines in that are quite memorable. In discussing a friend of his who had been sober for quite awhile through the alcoholics anonymous program and then fell off the wagon and then got back on, he notes that his friend told him, "There is nothing worse than a bellyful of liquor and a head full of AA." I am sure that is not original with Miller or his friend, but it is still a great line. At another point Miller notes that, "money can't make stupid people smart, but it often makes smart people stupid". I mean, AMEN. You've seen this, right? Even lived through it?

This book had me laughing out loud almost every page. Another of its delights is Miller's making little references to old movies, political figures, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew writings, and literature (Dickens more than once). You will just read over them if you don't know what he is referring to, but it is quite nice the way he works in "with the same glee as Madame De Farge waiting for the next blade to fall" when discussing his delight at watching little league foul balls land on the cars in the parking lot (including his own). This makes for fun reading because you can keep your brain on and this makes laughing even more joyful. When your brain is awake and can still find that things are funny, well, it doesn't get much better.

The book covers many delightful topics including the aforementioned drinking (with the official version of the "Five Levels of Drinking"), teaching his kids that Lou Costello is funny (great parenting advice, by the way), Brooks Brothers (his preference) versus Saks (his wife's preference), indoor golfing against a newly and expensively plastered wall, Moses discussing the absolute ban on adultery with God for those 40 days, wishing Merry Christmas (from the point of view of a Jew - as he puts it), and a lot more including a wonderfully touching story about his old friend in comedy, Jerry Allen, who died too young. Of course, one might argue that dying at any age is too young, but we know that under forty or thirty or twenty is really too young.

This is one great read and it is so much fun to laugh even though the people around you might make rude comments. Of course, I don't read much comedy (for the reasons I mention above), but this is REALLY good.

Enjoy!

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Joy, October 10, 2006

By 

Lilly W. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spoiled Rotten America: Outrages of Everyday Life (Hardcover)

I have always enjoyed Larry Miller's stand up, and now I am delighted to find his point of view in book form. I love his take on marriage and family (his wife is a hoot!) to the everyday nonsense that we all do. I feel this book is very relatable and smart -- even though there where times I didn't understand one of his many historical refrences, I still understood what he was saying. Mr. Miller is a terrific writer, who is not afraid to reveal all sides of his personality. If you want a good laugh, then get this book! You will not be dissapointed.