Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsI WANT to like Sarah Silverman
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2015
Here's the thing. I WANT to like Sarah Silverman. That's why I read this book. I've always been aware of her. We're close in age, she's wildly successful, I love comedy. It would make sense for me to like her. I don't dislike everything she's done. I've enjoyed her on podcasts when she's sort of "off the cuff". But I feel like anything she does pre-meditatedly just sort of falls flat-at least for me. I liked parts of this book. I appreciated her willingness to share her struggles with bedwetting. I would have liked her to go more in depth about her depression and loss of her brother. I felt she didn't really give all of that it's due. Maybe because it was supposed to be funny but I didn't really get that either. Maybe it's just an issue of me not connecting with her specific style of humor. And let's be clear. I'm not opposed to blue humor. If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. Yes, humor is subjective. I'm not here to prove I'm right, I'm just sharing thoughts. Another thing I still struggle to understand, and this is probably because it doesn't affect my own life, is how she talks so much about feeling that her Jewishness is so noticeable. Maybe because I spent most of my life in the Midwest I never really understood or was aware of the stereotypes; I didn't know Jewish people had a certain look or type of name. As I've gotten older and especially through comedy I've learned some of the references. I even went through a period of exploration in my 20s where I read a lot about Judaism and became rather fascinated with the faith and underlying beliefs, as much as I could understand not having been raised in the faith. I guess the part I really struggle to understand, still, is how you can be Jewish ethnically and consider yourself Jewish even if your family was never religious. For example, I am Catholic. For me that means I was raised Catholic but no longer go to Mass. But you see I just capitalized the "M" in Mass. That's because even though I am no longer religious it has been so ingrained in me that certain rituals never fade away. I guess what I'm saying is I don't know how it goes to identify with a religion your family never practiced except I guess it's also an ethnicity but to me I could never just meet somebody and think, "Oh, they're Jewish," unless it was a man wearing a yarmulke or something.
Ok, that was a bit of a tangent. Much like Sarah's book! I will say I enjoyed the first half of it, which was much more about her history and struggles growing up, than the second half when it was a bunch of stories about comics back in the early days, hanging out in New York, just cracking each other up. I mean, that's great if you were there. But it's not as interesting to hear about it as an outsider 20 years after the fact. And then the saga of TSSP. Yes, we get it. But please continue to give us the blow by blow of how each minute of getting the show, the writers strike, almost losing the show, declining the show, accepting the show....oh my God! And yes, we know you love poop jokes and penis jokes and fart jokes and vagina jokes and somehow it's a feminist issue that you can talk all about dicks but then the censors are up in your business if you want to graphically describe a labia because they don't get how hilarious it is. Whatever! I feel like a lot of her career has been built on her just being as extreme as possible, somebody gets pissed off, calls her on the carpet, she explains how the joke was a social commentary, the people get angrier, and on and on. She does admit that defending a joke is one of the least funniest things a person can do. And yes, I'm sorry, but I do think her being gorgeous has helped her to be as successful as she is. She can go on for days about being hairy and looking "Jew-y" but forget it, you look like you're in your 20s, you are a truly slender, beautiful woman, and I can't help but think that has helped you-just a tad.I mean, let's think of someone else who enjoys shock value and isn't nearly as pretty-how about Roseanne Barr? What is she up to these days? Exactly my point.
