Customer Reviews

Spoiled Rotten America: Outrages of Everyday Life

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I'm not much of a reader but I love to listen to audio books and "Spoiled Rotten America" is great!
I just wish it was a little longer, 3 CD's was not enough.

This is a REALLY funny book! As a comedian and writer, it is sometimes hard to find things funny anymore, however I laughed out loud many times and really enjoyed every part of Larry's book. When people ask me who my favorite comedian is, I always say I don't have just one, but Larry Miller is certainly on my top 10 list of the best comics of all time! Thanks for writing such a great book!

The words used by most of the reviewers do a good job of reviewing Larry's book. However, it is not a 5-star book.

Spoiled Rotten America is smart. It's funny. It's touching. I like Larry's perspective. It seemed to get better as it went on. However, it is good but not great.

I heard Larry Miller on a local radio talk show and he piqued my interest to read this book. I was not disappointed. He is funny, smart and comes at the reader from all angles. It is intelligent and very basic at the same time. My daughter saw me reading it and I read her some of the passages --she in turn shared some of it with a friend of hers and both of them couldn't wait until I finished so they could borrow my book. I loved it!

Larry does something with this book that is a rare feat. He captures the imagination and takes you on a journey that wraps you up and tickles you like a baby. His insights are so moving that you will be crying one minute and asleep the next, but then you will wake up and laugh your butt off. A definite recommendation to anyone who loves life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Gary

If you're a fan of comedian Larry Miller (WAITING FOR GUFFMAN,
SEINFELD appearances, etc.), then SPOILED ROTTEN AMERICA:
OUTRAGES OF EVERYDAY LIFE is the book for you.

It contains a series of 17 essays that present Miller's views on
what's funny in our daily lives . . . it seems that is just about
everything, at least according to the author, and I found myself
both chuckling and thinking about many of his observations.

For example:

* The American pendulum only swings to extremes.The news is on all
day, but we know less and less; there's music in every mall, but we don't
hear it; everyone has a phone but nothing to say. The chubbiest of us have
the strictest diets, because we can't learn to modulate and moderate. It's
all or nothing. One bite of a cookie, and suddenly you're on a plane to Vegas
with a hooker. To the Cranky Nitpickers of America--a club I'd join in a
second if I weren't already its president--it's long been understood that
the world is going to Hell in a handbasket.

Then there was his take on middle-age drinking:

* When you're in your twenties, you can drink all night and bungee-jump off
a bridge the next day. If I drank all night, I'd want to go off that bridge
without the cord.

Perhaps best of all, he includes his classic routine on the 5 stages
of drinking--written when he was much younger.

One other line really caught my attention:

* Money can't make stupid people smart, but it often makes smart people
stupid.

I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to listen to this
book on CD . . . this is one time when I preferred that option
(to the written version), in that Miller also did the narration--so
I got to hear his great delivery.

I first became aware of Larry Miller in that sperm bank movie with Shelly Long. I don't want to give away his character, but he's terrifically funny in an innocent and understated way. That one scene where he's at his desk had me rolling on the floor.

His book is much the same way - he doesn't go for the cheap laughs. His essays are intelligent and insightful with wry looks and observations mixed in with thought provoking views. One minute I was reading over a paragraph for the third time and still cracking up hard enough to bring tears to my eyes, the next minute I was wrinkling my brow to think about my own view on something.

He's irreverent and understated and what makes him so amusing - to me - is that even when he's commenting on humanity's misplaced priorities or foibles, he juxtaposes himself almost self-deprecatingly. Only, it's obvious that he's got greater understanding and awareness than what he's speaking of. But you never get the feeling that's what HE thinks.

So the mix is masterful: intelligence, humility, irreverence, thought provoking-ness (I couldn't think of the word so I made one up), understatement, and a certain unflappability....it's definitely a repeat read!