I could describe this book in one word, it would be wholesome, From Jim's parenting techniques to his style of humor, it somehow made me chuckle yet feel heartwarmed is that a word, I fell in love with Jim's Hot Pocket skitand I've now confirmed myself to be his most basic and undevoted fanand I think that even having only seen such little of his material, this was still enough to get me to laugh and gain more respect for him.
Obviously I can't relate to being a parent, but it put an interesting perspective on a lot of parenting troubles, and it made me empathize with how horrible I must have been as a kid lol.
I do like that this book jabs fun at fathering, particularly how much harder women tend to work than men in parenting, He's very aware of the gender politics involved with parenting, and I like how he nods to it by discussing it ironically but not disrespectfully.
This will definitely be a memorable book and it's so quick and sweet that I'll probably end up rereading it one day! I'm tempted to lend it to my dad but I don't know if he'd get offended upon seeing the title, so we shall see.
Imagine a parenting advice book, then add a standup comedy routine on fatherhood from the perspective of a selfadmittedly fat, lazy fatheroffive who rarely bothers to put down the fork or put on pants.
Enter: "Dad is Fat", a new type of parenting book, written by Jim Gaffigan of three hit standup specials on Comedy Central,
"Dad is Fat" is laughoutloud funny, but surprisingly observant, Gaffigan writes the book in blog style, The chapters are rarely more thantopages, with a conversational style that keeps you grinning, wincing, turning pages, and reevaluating how many children you want if any at all.
Jim explores the sweetness of having "the pitterpatter of little feet" and also laments the loss of silence, sleep and sanity, From fast food, to extended family, to vacations on tour and adventures in questionable New York City parks, Gaffigan covers quite the range of parenting topics with his range of children ageto newborn at time of writing.
Fans of Jim's standup specials will recognize several of his classic bits, and find new comedy gems too, Parents and prospective parents alike will enjoy Jim's rants on his baby battle scars, This is a really amusing book about an insane man who decided to have five children in a twobedroom apartment in New York City.
It's kind of like Dave Barry except it's still funny post, I am giving it three because it is essentially a bunch ofminute standup routines strung together nevertheless, I think the bit about the millions of pictures we take of our kids is suitable for framing.
My daughter is just over a year old and I would conservatively estimate that my computer currently holds more than,pictures of her, plus videos.
I have them backed up on two hard drives but still haven't deleted them to free up space, just in case, So my computer sometimes has to think for three minutes when I open Chrome, because of,pictures I will never look at,
On the other hand, it used to be pictures of the cat, So, progress.
UPDATE!
I "read" this again as an audiobook while driving across country from visiting family in Chicago to, yes, NYC, where I relocated with my family a year after I first read Dad Is Fat.
Now that I am also an insane man raising kids though only two in a twobedroom apartment in New York City, I can confirm that this is all, as the kids say, Highly Relatable Content.
I adore Jim Gaffigan, . . he unabashedly loves and admires his wife and regardless of the snarky kidhumor with which he feeds his comedic monologues, he loves his five children just as much.
I love Jim Gaffigan so much that I actually had a dream about him one night, . . not THAT kind of dream, . . mind out of the gutter! This is a family friendly review! No, I dreamed that he was my husband and I's buddy, We traveled in a convertible in an underground tunnel emerging from under the earth only to realize that we were actually on a roller coaster in some random futuristic amusement park.
Dreams so weird.
But that just goes to show how desperately I would like to be friends with this guy, Of course, I'd expect him to be spot on clever, regularly spouting off one liners for my personal enjoyment,
He's so self deprecating and just constantly clever without resorting to dirty jokes and a filthy mouth, Not that I don't enjoy a good dirty joke but it's easy to laugh about that kind of thing, because it's naughty, and slightly uncomfortable.
It makes great fodder for humor, I think it takes an immense amount of talent to fuel hours and hours of laughter with a routine of clean stories and one liners.
Somewhat comparable to an erotic romance author who fuels her sexuality with sensuality and evocative prose rather than smut and shocking behavior, There are different types of comedians and I think Gaffigan is the tops,
Unfortunately, this audiobook was subpar to his standup routine, mostly because he sounds like he's reading, He loses some of his genuine warmth while repeating the words he's already written, The jokes are still funny, even if I've heard them before, But at the risk of sounding cheesy, not being able to see his twinkling eyes and pale face, not being able to search for that elusive potbelly that he swears he has.
. . he loses a bit of luster under the cloak of invisibility,
Still, well worth the listen, It's broken up into small increments, . . maybe ten of fifteen minute parts so it was easy to pop my earbuds in and get a few good chuckles in before heading back to real life and my own screaming, messy, disruptive children.
A few favorite jokes:
"“Raising kids may be a thankless job with ridiculous hours, but at least the pay sucks.
”
“If camping is so great, why are the bugs always trying to get in your house”
“I used to have a lot of faith in humanity before the advent of the website "comment" section.
”
“Once your baby starts to walk youll realize why cribs are designed like prisons from the earlys, This is clearly because toddlers are a danger to themselves, The main responsibility for a parent of a toddler is to stop them from accidentally hurting or killing themselves, They are superclumsy. If you dont believe me, watch a twoyearold girl attempt to walk up stairs in a long dress, It looks like a Carol Burnett sketch, Also, toddler judgment is horrible, They dont have any. Put a twelvemonthold on a bed, and they will immediately try and crawl off headfirst like a lemming on a mindless migration mission.
But the toddler mission is never mindless, They have two goals: find poison and find something to destroy, ”
““Look, you lost a tooth, Congratulations. Enjoy looking like a hillbilly, Heres a dollar,” ”
“But truly, women are amazing, Think about it this way: a woman can grow a baby inside her body, Then a woman can deliver the baby through her body, Then, by some miracle, a woman can feed a baby with her body, When you compare that to the males contribution to life, its kind of embarrassing, really, ”
This book may not appeal to everyone, but if you have kids, it should appeal to you!
Gaffigan says what every parent is thinking, but is afraid to say out loud.
As a parent of a two year old and a five year old, not only did it feel like he was speaking directly to me, I wondered if he was following me around and taking notesof this book happens to me almost daily!
I did hear that some people didnt care for it and there are a few reasons I think this might be:
Gaffigan is very goofy and sarcastic.
If you do not like this sort of thing, you may not like this, If you do, come on in and stay a while!
Even if you do like goofy sarcasm, it may get a bit too much.
Most stand up acts areminutes at most, This book will taketohours to read, You may need to pace yourself to avoid getting tired of it,
For this particular book, if you are not a parent or have no experience with kids, it may not be your thing.
Try sitelinkFood: A Love Story instead, But, if you dont like food either, Ive got nothing for you,
Gaffigan prides himself on avoiding raunch in his comedy, Not that he is a goody two shoes, or if you enjoy raunchy comedy I am calling you a filthy pervert, but I can see how some may want a little more edge to their comedy than you will get with Gaffigan.
My final note as someone who has only been a father for a few years: I read many parenting guides, Many of them were very helpful, But, now that I have read this, sitelinkDad Is Fat may have been all that I needed!
“Raising kids may be a thankless job with ridiculous hours, but at least the pay sucks.
”
While Gaffigans comedy specials bring plenty of belly laughs, the book was much more subtle, Maybe Im just hilarious, or more the likely scenario all pale skinned people who bear fruit experience most of the same things, I suspect that those without children would have many more guffaws than those whose homes are already filled with the tiny terrorists, Thats not to say the book isnt enjoyable its just not “wet your pants from laughing” funny if you're a female who birthed more than one child, youll understand the reference.
Highlights for me were all of the opinions Gaffigan and I have in common these moments probably confirm I am a huge asshole, but having someone else write them down for all eternity took some weight off my soul.
These things include:
, The annoyance of the Anne Geddes babiesasflowers images
, The joy of watching a teenager wipe out while on a skateboard
, The fear that you will have an ugly baby
, Chiming in when your child is being bullied and feeling victorious when youve made their attacker run away crying
, Needing someone to hold you back from disciplining someone elses rotten offspring
, The dream of having an
option of enrolling your child in a school “for everyone WITHOUT a nut allergy” to make packing a lunch easy again
.
The necessity of an “hour ladies luncheon” every once in awhile with your best friend after which you come home completely inebriated
.
And my absolute favorite if you are complaining about all the things you do with/for your kid it means you are actually DOING things with/for your kid and therefore probably have every right to complain.
Some funny parts, but sheesh, if I wanted to hear some middleaged man complain about his five kids I could just go to my brother's house.
Humor has always figured prominently in my life,
I had a painful and awkward adolescence and my salvation was Monty Python, Mad Magazine, the National Lampoon, the Marx Brothers and my comedy albums I know Im probably leaving lots of stuff out.
Humor was a lifeline and kept me sane Ha!,
It still is today, I try to inject some humor into my writing, especially the graphic novel reviews and I try to bring some humor to my daytoday living.
My son likes Gaffigans take on food, especially Hot Pockets and bacon, so when we bought him an Ipod, one of the first things he downloaded, was Gaffigans King Baby.
He has some medical issues and occasionally we have to drive to Boston for special treatment or checkins, Much of trip is through North Eastern Pennsylvania I refuse to take Iand aside from my son endlessly googling for Chinese buffets “Dad theres a Chinese Buffet in Squirrelballs, if you take the next exit, we can be there in twenty minutes”, we listened to Jim Gaffigan in order to lighten our journey.
It helped tremendously,
Thanks, Mr. Gaffigan! And I bought your book second hand as a show of my appreciation,
Gaffigan has five kids and this is not only a source of his humor but something he gets remarks about all the time "Why so many kids", which is as discourteous, as asking a childless couple when theyre going to have children something Gaffigan also addresses in his book.
Gaffigan brings the funny to his story about going large familywise, but somehow, I felt that this would have been a better experience on audio book than via the written word, but maybe thats just me.
This was a buddy read with the lovely and wonderful, Mrs, Jeff.
.
Gather Dad Is Fat Presented By Jim Gaffigan Issued As Copy
Jim Gaffigan