Naked in the Rideshare: Stories of Gross Miscalculations – Hilarious Satirical Essays on Coming of Age, Sex, Politics, and This Generation

by Rebecca Shaw, Ben Kronengold

From Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, the youngest comedy writers ever for  The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon  and masterminds behind the viral 2018 Yale graduation speech, comes a hilarious collection of short stories taking on coming-of-age, memes, sex, politics, relationships, and Goop, with satire, self-deprecation, and utter irreverence.

Showing off their trademark humor and writing chops that have made them a viral sensation, Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold provide a collection of startlingly funny short stories that will keep readers laughing.

Naked in the Rideshare is a riotous collection of comedic short stories, bursting with the safe spaces, shrooms dealers, and Notes app apologies that define growing up right now. The essays take a drunken cannonball into this generation’s hopes and anxieties. A camp color war ends in ritual sacrifice. A twenty-something enters a sexual relationship with his childhood fairy god milf. A summit outside of space and time brings together a teen's selves from ages 1 to 81.

Irreverent, disturbing, and surprisingly rife with hope, Naked in the Rideshare aims to shine a light on the generation we can’t stop talking about—and all the ways we get them so wrong.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
REBECCA SHAW is a comedy writer and director based in New York City. She graduated from Yale in 2018 and together with Ben Kronengold, she's writing for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, a book for HarperCollins, and that funny thing your parents need you to explain to them.

BEN KRONENGOLD is a writer based in New York. He has written for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as well as the New Yorker and McSweeney's. He writes with his writing partner Rebecca Shaw, with whom he co-parents several elderly plants.

Genres: Short Stories, Humor, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Essays

288 pages, Hardcover

Published November 14, 2023

About the author

Rebecca Shaw is a comedy writer and director based in New York City. She graduated from Yale in 2018 and together with Ben Kronengold, she’s writing for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; Naked in the Rideshare, a book for HarperCollins; and that funny thing your father needs you to explain to him.

Reviews

[Eila Mcmillin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Authors seem to be trying way too hard to be...funny? Edgy? Irreverent? Intellectual? Surrealist? Though the actual surreal nightmare is that this actually got published. Seriously though, it was a hostage crisis to finish and the trying too hard makes this feel simultaneously naive and cynical, and just overwhelmingly immature. I think I have a relatively well developed sense of humor, and I didn't really find it funny. Just kind of sad and pathetic.

[Jami · Rating 5 out of 5]

**Urgent note to authors**
Please do not sleep, eat or bathe until another book like this one is in my greedy little hands!!!
I truly wasn’t sure what to expect here, not typically a fan of short story collections, but oh. my. lanta - this just created a love affair anew. The snark, the tongue-in-cheek, the “Heeeeyyy, did they bug my life for this one??” I was also a smidge concerned that age disparity might be a hurdle, as I’m old enough to be their parents, but nope: this humor transcends all age.
Does everyone do like me & watch Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy” at least once a year & think “Holy Prophetic Poop Nuggets - this is our world?!” If so, stop reading this review & grab this pronto. If still unsure, finish this review & THEN go grab.
This comedy duo are added to my “faves” & I want to go find every script, joke, bathroom-wall-missive they’ve ever penned. While some of the stories are ROFLMAO, some are “snicker & snort” funny, some are pretty introspective, ALL of them are great. The “Fun Guy” piece made me think that’s exactly how my grown daughter & son-in-law would be with their new Bestie drug dealer…. “The BuzzFeed Orgy” snicker-snorting through…. All the characters are freakin’ relatable &/or entertaining.

Pick this up, y’all - you can thank me later! & you 2? Get back to work on another please!

[Lyds · Rating 3 out of 5]

52 Book Club 2023: written by a comedian

This was interesting! Some of the stories were really enjoyable and many were just strange background noise for me under the circumstances in which I listened to them so I can't tell you a lot about them because I simply wasn't paying attention. 😂 However, I did find the couple of sci-fi type stories to be really fun, like the kid who meets himself at every age, and the one about the error message in the sky. Some of the stories were super short and I couldn't get into them but I can't fault the skill and wit of the writers here. That said, I could have lived without the fairy godmother MILF story. 3.5 stars.

[Kim McGee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars
A collection of essays and comedic whatnot from a pair of late night laughanados. While I missed some of what others will find hysterical due to my age I must admit that I was on the floor laughing reading an ode to Dr. Seuss teaching Sex Ed and how to tell if you are a former gifted child. The sections are divided up by milestones from childhood and beyond and offer a comical look at life of the GenZ generation. The perfect book to giggle while waiting for life to happen or if you need a break from true crime and reality tv. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some are funny, some are dumb - which IMO is inevitable for a book like this. It’s basically like reading a bunch of short SNL skits, so I enjoyed it for quick/light spurts of reading

[Cris Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some funny, some not for me.

[Lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud this many times reading a book. I had to pause and wheeze and go back and read entire chapters out loud to my partner. Not every story got me, but the ones that got me got me so good.

Would absolutely recommend these wild tales for anyone who needs a good laugh.

[Matthew Schulz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked We Have Your Son. That's all I'm going to say.

[Claire Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is exactly my sense of humor

[John Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun quick read! The short story format was great and some were better than others. Eustace, 1-84, see you in hell, and clarity were without a doubt my favorite short stories in the book!

[Jamie Speheger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird, creative, and hilarious.

[Michael Lent · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sensibility is fun especially early on, but some pieces overstay their welcome to the point of boorish like a drunk person who thinks they are hilarious.

[ktyermatey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐️

I didn’t not like it, but I also just didn’t love it. I might have to revisit this one when I am in a true silly goofy mood.

[Edward Hockaday · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped reading halfway through.

[Sarah Hammond · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a handful of stories I enjoyed but largely I skimmed this and that’s being generous

[Addy ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty insane, finished in one sitting.

[Jurgen · Rating 2 out of 5]

utter woke nonsense

[Allison Damico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this if you’re in need of some laughter! Some stories are so relatable (building a couch, color war) and some stories I didn’t know what was going on but was still somehow laughing. But that’s the beauty of this type of collection of stories, there’s a little something for everyone. I also enjoyed the mix of longer and shorter stories.

My absolute favorite one was Clarity - a story from the perspective of the ring on a season of the bachelor. Never read anything like it, so good! Dr Seuss Teaches Sex Ed - I wish this was as long as a Dr Seuss book because it was so clever and funny. Actual things Ben’s mother has told her friends he does for a living was incredible - do our parents ever really know what we do?

All jokes aside, I honestly just needed a book that would make me laugh right now after the passing of my father last month and this did the trick. Thank you Rebecca and Ben, seriously. I was able to finish this book relatively quickly which was nice to feel like I accomplished something. It’s the little things, right? Also the reference to Paramus, NJ, we’re practically neighbors! #goodreadsgiveaway

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

So ridiculous! On a good way. From page 1 I laughed at the absurdity til I choked, repeatedly. Reading it feels like watching a spot-on stand-up routine crossed with those awkward open mic nights where people read their high school diaries. From their hypothetical hipster battle not-so-royale to Caesar being relieved everyone was just regicidal, not hanging out without him, the stories are delightfully zany. The virtuoso authors can take a horror movie throw away line like "see you in hell" and spin into the start of a beautifully bizarre afterlife friendship between slaughtered and slaughterer. They aren't all winners, but a solid percentage are literal-lol funny.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amusing, often funny, sometimes hilarious package of essays and short stories. The selections are grouped into sections beginning with Childhood through Teen years all the way to The End with several stops in between. Topics include: well, almost anything! The authors' relationship with one another, kidnapping, Hell, college angst, fairie godmilfs, sex ed from Dr. Suess...and so much more. I really had fun with this one. Thanks to William Morrow and goodreads for the chance to review.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of small snippets, stories, jokes, and ephemera separated by stages of life. Some of these will resonate and make you laugh, others might fall flat. I suspect that those closest in age to the authors will relate most to this but that doesn't mean others won't enjoy it as well. Thanks to edelweiss for the ArC. As with all story collections, read this one or two at a time over a period of days.

[Spencer Mirabal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this in the San Diego airport on our way to Florida, where our flight was then delayed for 6 hours, so I read half of this book in the airport. This context seemingly has absolutely zilch to do with why I liked this book, but if a flight being delayed twice over somehow didn’t feel as stressful or catastrophic because I was out loud chuckling from reading this, it’s a pretty good sign that it was pretty good.

[David Baer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sort of got the humor in the opening sketch, featuring Ben and Rebecca literally killing each other. After that, I just didn’t get the humor, even when I recognized the cultural reference points being satirized, which was about 50-50. It was kind of like the experience I have watching Dan and Phil videos with my daughter – not altogether unpleasant, but, after a dozen iterations of completely random nonsense, I crave the deeper solace of watching network TV or mowing the lawn.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be warned: I found myself sitting in a coffee shop laughing out loud at times. Each story is not only hysterically funny but often touching, surprising or completely deranged (in a good way)! Though written by and for Gen Zers, I think the humor works for people older than that cohorts—and the writing transcends age. I highly recommend this book if you need a good laugh.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a real gem. A friend gave it to me for my birthday, and I couldn't have asked for a better gift. It's chock full of hilarious, and often insightful, stories—with titles like "Fair God Milf" and "My College Friend the Pope"—that anyone can enjoy. I can't wait to see what Shaw and Kronengold write next!

[Rebecca Bahabri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge laughs out of this book!
Everyone in the family can enjoy -
You haven't read anything like it honestly.
I've read quite a bit of humor.
To be honest, I've never read anything like this!
Shaw and Kronengold are brilliant.
Very much recommend purchasing ASAP
Acknowledgements were honestly my favorite part.
Love this unbeatable collection from two of our funniest modern writers!

[Michael McEwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of absurd short stories. Most can be read in a few minutes and actually LOL’d quite frequently. Some favorites include “Clarity” about a Bachelor style show written from the perspective of a diamond ring and “See You in Hell” where a movie catchphrase is taken to its illogical extremes. Looking forward to more from these two.

[Deborah Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious send-up of Generation Z. I'm not part of this particular age group, but I laughed out loud at the coming-of-age stories and felt the empathy the authors have for their peers. A strong recommendation and great for a beach as the stories are very punchy and digestible. Didn't know what to expect going in but very impressed and craving more from this duo!

[Sean Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw them on The Tonight Show talking about the book and decided to purchase. Very fun (and fast) read with lots of surprising chapters. The stories are great at pulling you in with big premises and then taking a turn for the sweet/human/personal. Kept me guessing and laughing at loud at various points per chapter.

[Lexi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this collection! As a twenty-something I found it incredibly relatable, funny, and uplifting at a time in life (and in the world, let’s be honest) when I needed it most. I audibly laughed several times, which has never happened to me while reading - 10/10 will be reading any time I need a pick-me-up