NOT FUNNY

BY JENA FRIEDMAN

Some insight into what it takes to make people laugh.

4 stars out of 5 stars

The first time I heard of the name Jena Friedman was on the show The Beat with Ari Melber on April 28, 2023. She was one of the guests in the segment “Fall Back”, which is a regular feature on The Beat on Fridays. Ari asked Jena what her fallback for the week was. She said it was Clarence Thomas and said that “I don’t think there will be justice on the Supreme Court until Clarence Thomas steps down and is replaced by Anita Hill.” The statement was both serious and funny, and I was impressed. The show ended with a photo of Jena holding her book “Not Funny”.

I was interested in the title of the book. Reviews of the book were largely positive, Samantha Bee considered it “hilarious and much needed book”, and Larry David considered it “pretty funny.”

I soon learned that Jena was a comedian doing standups. She was also a field producer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and her writing credits included The Late Show with David Letterman. She has also appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Conan.

Shortly after her appearance on The Beat, the writer’s guild of America was on strike. All the late-night comedian shows were off. I decided to buy “Not Funny”, hoping that I would get some good laughs from reading it, to compensate for the absence of the late-night comedian shows.

The book was mainly an account of how, against her mother’s wishes, she decided to be a comedian and her various experiences on the rocky road to gain recognition. She said that the 9/11 event played a major role in her choosing to be a comedian and “if you like what you read, thank Osama bin Laden”.

In the Prologue, she described the scene on election night of 2016, when she was on Late Night with Stephen Colbert and the “joke” she burst out when it became apparent that Trump will be elected. It was sad and poignant.

It has not escaped the notice of this reader that the author was quite comfortable in the use of the f word and other profane words, which are scattered throughout the pages. She was equally comfortable with writing about sexual matters, most notably in the chapter where she described her experience as a sex columnist for a men’s fitness magazine.

As stated earlier, my main reason for deciding to read this book was to hope for some good laughs resembling those in the monologues of Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, which have been silenced by the strike of the writer’s guild. I must admit that the book did not quite deliver in this regard. To me, “not funny” may not be an inappropriate adjective for a significant fraction of the book, which took me some effort to get through. Nevertheless, the author has given the reader an unusual experience of learning what it takes to be successful in one of the most challenging fields of human endeavor – to make people laugh.

Link to Amazon Review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2RV8QQSHQEXIS/ref=nav_ya_signin?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0B4Z8M3WX&captcha_verified=1