This Is a Book

This is a very silly and funny book. I loved it. This is the kind of book I’m always looking for but so rarely find—one chock-a-block full of smart silliness and intellectual goofiness. (It gave me the same joy as reading Woody Allen’s Without Feathers or Side Effects.) It was love at first browse.

I first saw the book at an airport book store. I thought to myself “Demetri Martin. Is that the guy from The Daily Show?” I picked up the book to see if it was (it was) and started paging through. From the very first page of the introduction called “How To Read This Book,” I was hooked:

If you’re reading this sentence then you’ve pretty much got it. Good job. Just keep going the way you are.

Flipping to the next page, I show more started reading the first essay called “Announcements.”

Thank you for coming to the show. Before tonight’s performance begins there are a few announcements. Please pay attention.

Flash photography is not permitted at any time during the show. Also, there is no recording of any kind allowed during the show. This includes both audio and video recording, as well as sketching, journaling, documenting, making mental notes, reminiscing, reviewing, or remembering anything at all with your mind. Any recording devices that we find will be taken away from you and juggled recklessly by the clown you see standing near the left exit.

Too well trained by Mr. Jenners to buy the book for full price from an airport bookstore (sorry, Mr. Martin), I waited until I got home and ordered it from Amazon. It was fun from beginning to end. This is the kind of book that will either grab your funny bone or it won’t. So, to give you a better idea of the kind things you’ll find inside, here are a few excerpts.

From “Palindroms For Specific Occasions” (Seriously, how can you not love a book that includes five full pages of palindromes?)

GENTLY INFORMING A DJ THAT THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE SOUND SYSTEM: No music is, um, on.

THE HEAD BAKER AT A BAKERY INSTRUCTING A NEW EMPLOYEE ABOUT HOW TO DEAL WITH CUSTOMERS AND THEN SUDDENLY NOTICING WHAT THE NEW BAKER HAS MADE: Snub no man. Nice cinnamon buns!

A GUY EXPLAINING TO HIS FRIEND HOW HE FEELS ABOUT OPERAS AS HE ACCIDENTALLY RUNS INTO A BEEHIVE: See, bro, operas are poor—Bees!

From Honors & Awards (for Which I Would Qualify)

National Champion at being the ex-boyfriend who is most consistently awkward around his ex-girlfriend and/or anyone who is even a casual acquaintance of hers.

A scholarship awards to Greek Americans who have done very little for the Greek American community but definitely look Greek American, no matter what outfit they are wearing.

Top 40 people under 40 who live in my apartment building

Award for Perfect Attendance on Earth for Whole Life So Far

Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Very Cute Women Who Turn Out To Already Have Boyfriends

I could sit here and type excerpts that cracked me up all night long but that would be silly. Hopefully, you’ve gotten a feel for the book. (You could also watch him on The Daily Show or his stand-up comedy act.) But let me just share a few of the essay titles with you: Optimist, Pessimist, Contortionist; Frustrating Uses of Etc.; A Capella Group Freak Accidents; Confessions of a White Guy with Dreadlocks; Excerpts from My Often-True Autobiography. Plus there are funny drawings and charts included.

So, to sum up, this is a very funny book and you should read it. show less

Misogynist, and actually misanthropic sometimes too. I thought this kind of humor went out of fashion with those nasty mother-in-law jokes I grew up on. (Shish ke-Bobs is men on a skewer....) Some bits of cleverness, some insights, but nothing we can't get from other humorous memoirists.

Two stars, not just one, because there are a few bits I enjoyed, like the pictorial chart of character attributes signified by beard length (cool, wise, crazy, crazy wise, wizard) and the epigram, "Never be less interesting than your refrigerator magnets" (aren't most of us?).

I'm a bit at a loss of what I think of his use of page 66 to say "Thanks for buying this book, by the way." I say, thanks to the library so I didn't have to!

Demetri Martin's brain has to be the most interesting place in the universe. This is humor on a completely different level. There can't even be a proper categorization for his style. There cannot exist anything like it. I was more impressed by his skill and his twisting of the mundane into gold than I was amused by his humor. Wow.

Comedian Demetri Martin's book is a weird collection of one-line jokes, cartoons, and strange (almost surreal) short stories. It's funny, in a kind of existential way. There really aren't any punchlines and the humor is, at times, so subtle that it can pass you right by. However, it is clever, witty, and most of all, highly entertaining.

When you laugh at Martin's jokes, you instantly feel superior to everyone else who didn't laugh at them because those people, obviously, just aren't as smart or precocious as you and therefore don't understand the humor. And you, of course, can't explain why you're laughing because if you did, it would spoil it.

Martin's one-liners are the kinds of things you wish you were clever enough to post as your show more FaceBook status updates because they would make you seem so cool and thoughtful. As it is, if you read the book, you'll probably just use his ideas on your FB page because it's not like he's your friend or anything and so won't be checking up on you.

So just read it. It's funny. show less

I've been a fan of Demetri Martin's stand up for a long time and I love his humor. That being said, I did not love this book. Of course, it had its moments--moments when I bust a gut laughing out loud--but it also has long, boring, unfunny moments.

If you like his Comedy Central show, Important Things with Demetri Martin, or his stand-up comedy, you'll probably like Demetri Martin's new book This Is a Book. Even if you don't know his previous work, there's a chance you'll like Demetri Martin's new book; it's just harder to tell you to what it's comparable.

Fans of Martin's comedy routines know that he has a quirky, sometimes surreal, sense of humor and a fondness for palindromes. His bits regularly feature one-liners (often completely unrelated to one another in a stream-of-consciousness fashion), drawings, music, and skits. All of that is here in one way or another, except for the music, which really doesn't translate to print.

I generally love Demetri Martin's clever jokes and show more his deadpan delivery, and I feel like this comes through in the book as well. However, I'm not always the hugest fan of his longer skits and, likewise, the longer fictional stories in the book were the weakest points for me. Overall, however, I found this book very funny and laughed out loud uncontrollably at points. And, don't be deceived by the length of the book; it can easily be read in a sitting or two, although you might want to take longer to give yourself something funny to read each day. show less

I love a good stitch-inducing laugh, and Demetri Martin is one of my all time favourite comedians. I had the pleasure of seeing him live in Melbourne a few years ago and laughed so hard it hurt. As well as being an amazing entertainer, I was also struck by his observations on the mundane as well as the bigger themes in life.

This Is A Book is Demetri's first book and is a collection of all sorts of jokes, short stories, poems, graphs, sketches and even palindromes.

If you can't see Demetri Martin live then This Is A Book is the next best thing although of course doesn't include Demetri's musical talent and on-stage presence.

Every year I check the Melbourne International Comedy Festival program in the hope of seeing Demetri Martin's name show more included in the list of international comedians and live for the day I can see him on stage again. show less