There are few things Americans like to do more than eat. No one knows that better than comedian Jim Gaffigan. He has made a career celebrating and poking fun at our national obsession. In his new book, Food: A love Story, Gaffigan collects many of his stand up bits and expands on them, adds more, and delivers a consistently amusing, wry, and laugh out loud funny book.
What I liked best about the book is that as much as Gaffigan professes his dislike for fruits and vegetables and celebrates fast food and junk food, he still knows he’s eating unhealthy. This isn’t a pro-all-things-that-will-kill-you treatise. Gaffigan is well aware his food choices are horrible, bad for him, and likely killing him. However he accepts this fact which allows him to come at the comedy from a neutral position. Big Macs are bad, we all know that. McDonalds is horrible for you, we all know that. Yet nearly everyone at one time or another eats there anyway. So much of Gaffigan’s comedy is built around those shared experiences and guilt that his observations are fresh and very funny.
If you are a fan of him already this is a must own. If like me you hadn’t been all that exposed to his comedy you will likely come away a new fan with the need to track down as many of his stand up specials as you can find. The day I finished the book I found a 2005 stand up special on Netflix (Beyond the Pale) and a day later I watched the other one available (2012’s Mr. Universe). Some of the jokes from the book are in the stand up specials so you may be familiar with them. His famous Hot Pockets bit makes an appearance of course but the book greatly expands on the known routines making this a worthwhile and breezy read.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.
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