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

Jena Friedman is an Academy Award-nominated and acclaimed stand-up comedian who presents a witty and insightful collection of essays on cultural flashpoints of today. Her essays explore why some celebrities get buried for their indiscretions while others get a second chance, how we should think about lines of appropriateness crossed decades ago, living in the post-#MeToo world, and the power we hand to silence when we're told not to joke about reproductive rights, gender, privilege, or class. The collection is bold and challenging, calling out hypocrisy wherever it finds it and getting a laugh while doing so.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 11 May 2023
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

For fans of the sharp comedy of Hannah Gadsby, Lindy West, and Sarah Silverman, Academy Award-nominated and acclaimed stand-up comedian Jena Friedman presents a witty and insightful collection of essays on the cultural flashpoints of today.

Jena Friedman's life in comedy began with her senior thesis on inequality in the Chicago comedy scene. It was, in short, not funny, but it anticipated her career as a writer and comedian with acerbic wit and a keen, cutting eye for social observation. Now, she brings her trademark whip-smart humor and cultural criticism to this brainy and laugh-out-loud funny essay collection.

Friedman effortlessly takes us just beyond the edge of the uncomfortable with explorations on everything from why some celebrities get buried for their indiscretions while others get a second (third, and fourth…) chance, how we should think about lines of appropriateness crossed decades ago, living in the post- (post-) #MeToo world of today, and the power we hand to silence when we're told not to joke about reproductive rights, gender, privilege, or class.

Not Funny is a witty and bold collection, challenging us to deeply consider why we do and do not laugh, from a rising star of comedy always ready to call out hypocrisy wherever she finds it. And knows how to get a laugh while she does it.

Weight: 401g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781982178284