Search results for ""Author Jena Friedman""

For fans of the perceptive comedy of Hannah Gadsby, Lindy West, and Sarah Silverman, Academy Award-nominated and acclaimed stand-up comedian Jena Friedman presents a “smart and thoughtful and even a little offensive” (Sacha Baron Cohen) collection of essays on the cultural flashpoints of today.Growing up, Jena Friedman didn’t care about being likable. And she never wanted to be a comedian, either. She wouldn’t discover her knack for the funny business until research for her college thesis led her to take an improv class in Chicago. That anthropology paper, written on race, class, and gender in the city’s comedy scene, was, in Jena’s own words, “just as funny as it sounds.” But it did lay the groundwork for a career that has seen her write and produce for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Late Show with David Letterman, and the Oscar-nominated Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Friedman&rsquo

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For fans of the perceptive 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 inequity 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.

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