Does This Make Me Funny?: Essays

by Zosia Mamet

From the singular mind of Zosia Mamet, a collection of charmingly witty and achingly vulnerable essays about the challenge and magic of growing up in show business

You may know Zosia Mamet from her singular role as Shoshanna on Girls, or for being one of Hollywood’s original nepo babies (or as she says, “a B-minus nepo baby, a nepito baby if you will”).

What you might not know is that as a toddler she visited theaters where her mom was rehearsing, crawling around on the floor and scrunching herself between seats; that she earnestly believed in Santa Claus for way too long; that she spent years navigating body image issues in hopes of finding elusive self-love; and that she was so overwhelmed and overjoyed when finally meeting her idol David Sedaris that she hid in the bathroom and melted into a “puddle of glitter.”

By turns charmingly witty and achingly vulnerable, the essays in Does This Make Me Funny? introduce us to Zosia Mamet in all her glory—from her early days growing up in literary and dramatic circles, to her years as a young adult pining for acceptance and love, to her first attempts to make it as an actor, to where she (and Shosh) are now. A gripping, funny, and earnest look at what it means to be a girl in the world and how to define yourself amid the bustle of show business, Does This Make Me Funny? is a captivating debut from a natural-born storyteller.

Genres: Memoir, Essays, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Humor, Biography

256 pages, Hardcover

Published September 9, 2025

Reviews

[Amanda W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I will admit that I’ve never seen anything Zosia Mamet has been in besides Girls, and I’ve never read anything she’s written previously. I found her character in Girls to be kind of frantic and too much for a good portion of the show, and I find it interesting she takes the time in this book to say that she’s nothing like Shoshanna from Girls, because half the time these stories feel like Shoshanna would be telling them.

I’m sure Mamet thinks her “nepo baby lite” comment, as well as her repeated insistences that she had to just claw and scratch for everything she was given, come off as tough and self-deprecating and funny. However, when she spends time discussing all her famous relatives, tells the story of how she got an agent (her dad just told someone to start representing her), and how she spent so much time as a kid on sets and therefore knew how the ins and outs already before she started her career…the assertions that things were so much harder for her than someone who didn’t count two playwrights, an actress, and the president of Julliard in their family just doesn’t ring true.

The same goes for some of the stories in this book. Mamet’s stories about her childhood and teenage years seem…off, and contradictory, and the story about her real life mirroring an exact storyline from Girls seems way, way too coincidental to be true.

That being said, Mamet absolutely shines when she tells stories about her adult life. Stories about bad relationships, depression, body dysmorphia, and her husband are all raw and almost compulsively readable. If the whole book consisted of these stories, this review would be a glowing one, instead of just so-so.

[Alyssa Savino · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard because at its best, there are moments in here that are real and visceral, and even beautiful! Unfortunately, at its worst, this is an ad for an eating disorder and almost beyond insufferable. But if I had shut the book forever after the Toothpaste essay (Zosia, PLEASE - that should NOT exist), I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the fun little bits about Martha Stewart and Anna Wintour and arguably (to me, I guess!) the best essay, It's In Your Head (about the challenges of simply seeking medical care as a woman).

I did like that she was so feisty in some of these - no punches held for her childhood bullies and those aggressive personalities in Hollywood.

Zosia, even you can't make me hate you.

[Maria Marmanides · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In the introduction to Does This Make Me Funny?, Zosia Mamet tackles the “nepo baby” label head-on, insisting she doesn’t see herself as one and that she’s worked hard for her success. While it’s clear she’s trying to engage with a cultural conversation, the point feels overemphasized and doesn’t acknowledge that both things can be true at once: she may have had access through familial connections that others did not while also working hard to carve her own path. One truth doesn’t cancel out the other. It left me wishing she had trusted her perspective more—rather than starting on the defensive, simply letting her stories speak for themselves.

When Mamet does lean into storytelling, her voice shines. Essays on relationships with addicts, struggles with body image, and reflections on her most memorable role, Shoshanna, carry both humor and poignancy. These glimpses remind the reader why she’s an insightful performer and writer, willing to share her perspective with honesty.

Interestingly, she also contrasts herself point-by-point with Shoshanna, listing all the ways they are different—but I found myself wishing she’d dug deeper here. At times, her descriptions of her own childhood persona feel like the raw beginnings of where Shoshanna could have started. Exploring that overlap—how one path became Mamet and another might have led to Shoshanna—could have been fascinating.

While the collection didn’t entirely land for me, readers who are fans of Mamet’s work or who enjoy celebrity essay collections will still find moments of wit and candor worth the read and I certainly found enjoyable parts myself.

[Kim Rubish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zosia Mamet is a charming, smart storyteller. Many of these stories give fascinating insight into her career, her past, her roles, her experiences with the medical system, etc. That being said, it also felt disjointed, and despite how heavy so much of the material was, the stakes somehow never felt clear. I finished the book feeling unclear on how any of it has actually affected her, or how she’s grown and changed and learned (or not!)

She also wants SO badly not to be a nepo baby and god I get it but babe!!

[Laura Shipman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been told I am a Shoshanna, and now after reading this I know I am a Zosia too. Does This Make Me Funny? is filled with essays that are witty, funny, and surprisingly relatable. Zosia’s voice feels genuine, like you’re sitting with a friend who is telling you stories that make you laugh and nod along.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Lauren Brumley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Zosia and it was fun to learn more about her as a person, because turns out she is *not* Shoshanna. Some essays are much stronger than others. The essays I enjoyed most were the ones that went deep — Zosia talks about her struggles with anxiety, an eating disorder, being a young adult finding herself in wild situations in NYC.

Thank you to Viking Penguin and Netgalley for this ARC!!

[Rosalind Breckheimer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I would have LOVED this & made this book my bible if I had read when I was 18.

[Jill]

DNF

[Kaitlyn Chase]

I don’t like to rate memoirs but for those critiquing Zosia’s incredible vulnerability and chalking it up to an eating disorder ad, I say what a shame to miss all of the beauty and vulnerability in every other page. Her ability to be so incredibly present in her recounts was stunning. She can also REALLY write, I hope she keeps at it.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the experience of reading this book, and I'm giving it three stars for that reason, but quite a bit of the book felt like a missed opportunity. The experiences were there, but they didn't sing as much as they could have. The book was filled with the most overused cliches (popping pills like Tic Tacs, butterflies with crushed wings), and I think Mamet would've been helped by using a ghostwriter. Stories like having your coat stolen from you by Axl Rose should have more impact than they do here.

There's also some filler--I don't think tweezing an errant chin hair or squeezing a tube of toothpaste warranted a chapter each.

[Marnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some famous people truly aren’t interesting enough to have a book. Zosia is one of them.

[annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rounding to 2.5 for the shosh essay….not everyone needs to write a book.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe not everyone needs to write a memoir? Like most essay collections, this was a mixed bag. "Breakfast with DS," which is about her relatable anxiety spiral before meeting one of her idols (David Sedaris), was the standout chapter for me, as was the concluding essay about her character in Girls. I just had to trudge through hours of self-pity and fingerpointing from an admitted nepo baby to get there.

Also, I found the cadence with which the author reads her audiobook to be so odd, like she was rehearsing lines she wasn't familiar with and not performing stories from her own life. By speeding up to 1.25-1.5x, she sounded more like chirpy, overly caffeinated Shoshanna.

[Clare Mulroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious and full of heart

[Cassidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up
It was really difficult to be in Zosia's headspace for a majority of these essays. A lot of insecurity, anxiety, and self hatred...she did a good job at narrating though.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. Fun and short.

Biiiiig trigger warning for eating disorders. Zosia mentions actual numbers and behaviors.

[Ryann McAnelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

honestly, it kinda pissed me off

[Lisa]

I'm finding it excruciating to read about her childhood of suffering - maybe it would be easier to move through if I weren't listening to the audiobook.

[Lauren Gibbons · Rating 2 out of 5]

definitely had potential but ended up feeling like overly romanticized propaganda for eating disorders and dating the worst men in the world :/

[vee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mamet writes “I am terrified that everyone reading this now hates me, thinks i an a hack, a terrible writer, a narcissist, a loser with unfunny stories”…I dont know about everyone but, otherwise, nailed it. What a completely uninteresting and unnecessary book about pointless drivel (believing in santa too long, dating various losers, getting her period during traffic, whining about not wanting to be called a nepo baby while in every way being a total nepo baby) that has no insight, humor or perspective. It’s clear there was plenty to write about and learn from in her life. None of these essays are that.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not enough here for a memoir.

[Mediaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for the good parts, which make up about half of the book. But some of this is deadly dull and reads like a therapy journal that no one else ever needs to see.

Mamet is neurotic to the extreme, very insecure and kind of a basket case. She's also a good writer. That combination makes for some entertaining chapters, but too much of this is devoted to repetitive whining about her weight, poor self-image, drug usage, drinking, non-stop lying, underage partying, and being a little rich kid who was shuttled between celebrity parents. How this differs from most other similar life stories is that here the author doesn't dwell on her vices nor celebrate her debauchery.

There are a lot of unanswered questions as she eschewed a traditional "memoir" in terms of writing "essays" that aren't meant to just spit out her life story. What do we make of her sketchy overview of childhood, barely mentioning her famous parents? Why did this Jewish family send their daughter to Christian school for her formative years? And where were the adults when teen Zosia was doing naughty things she was years away from being ready for? "I threw in the towel on my puritan behavior and stepped into the persona of an all-out hellion." But only in the middle of the night with her other rich wild friends and never at home.

This is all carefully constructed and at times over the top, like a creative writing project from this woman who never went to college (she calls school "prison"). She gives non-stop analogies that often make no sense, she's got the worst memory in the history of autobiographies, and she ties up each chapter with what's supposed to be a zinger but it often seems too crafted instead of crafty.

There are a number of chapters that we could have done without. Her having her period in the car on the way to an audition may seem funny to some, but it was disgusting. Then Mamet mentions what she claims as being raped but in truth after she was supposedly assaulted (which she admits she has no recollection of and blames it on his giving her a drugged drink) she had sex again with the guy when she was fully sober, invited him to stay with her, went to pick him up at the airport, and even stuck with him for a while. Years later she should not be presenting this as her being a victim--she liked his manliness and welcomed him. Either she is mischaracterizing their first sexual encounter or she's really, really dumb (which she's not afraid to admit).

Normal I'd give this three stars, but what elevates this beyond most memoirs is the woman's self-awareness. She knows she's doing all these things but thinks she can't stop herself. As she details her wild period she claims to have hated all the drugs, sleeping around, and eating disorders she had while she was doing them. This is not a celebration of her vices, as are most celebrity autobiographies, but a warning sign to others and her future self to stop the addictions however you can, find help to accept yourself, and have the ability to say "no."

There's a chapter where she tries to get all feminist and anti-male, in her understated way, but it's misguided. First, she justifiably slams the "dozens of" doctors that ignored her vaginal pain and excused it away as just in her head. Mamet is totally correct that these high-degreed medical quacks are bad at their jobs, but being male has nothing to do with it. There are plenty of bad female health care workers too, and male patients are told they're imagining things as well.

Second, when something similar happens at her film shoot she draws the conclusion that she let men take advantage of her "because I didn't want to seem difficult. Because difficult for an actress, or really any woman, is an incurable leprosy." Um, honey, that's true for men too! If any guy at work tries to go against the system or stand up to an unreasonable pushy person of any gender or color, then he is classified as difficult. You are in an industry filled with self-centered wokeism where those that think outside what's politically correct are fired and banned. So put down the feminist flag-waving and take a stand for ALL humans that are mistreated by those trying to classify those they disagree with as being difficult and should be removed.

And most importantly--she clearly states that her abuse of drugs and alcohol led to her memory issues, health problems, and psychological troubles later in life. Almost no autobiographer makes that connection, despite 99% of them being young substance abusers and it being the obvious reason so many supposedly successful people are depressed or suffer as they age. At one point Zosia even states she wished she could do her teen years over and avoid the excess. Another rarity.

The weird part is that there's almost nothing funny about any of the book. And her high-schoolish prose detracts from what could have been more entertaining stories. So if you're looking for a humorous set of essays you'll be disappointed, as you will be if you want her to spill much about her career beyond the audition process. She does tell one major story about an unnamed series where she was verbally abused (online you can figure it out, it's "Mad Men") but this should have been less "woe is me" and given readers more to laugh about.

So to answer the title--no, this doesn't make Zosia Mamet funny, but it does prove she's great at insecure self-deprecation.

[Avery · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was straight out of 2015. Some of the essays were good, the stuff about her health issues was well done, but maybe 2/3 of the book could have been deleted

[Nanaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read like a teenagers diary. Boring. Could have been shorter. The best part was the epilogue

[Jansen Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start off by saying that I don't hold anything against Zosia for being a nepo baby. Or, I didn't until I read this book of essays where she tries to pretend like she didn't have an incredibly privileged upbringing and doors open all around her into show business. The choice to constantly bring up that she had to claw her way to where she is now is a little bit laughable-especially when she talks about theatre-considering she's David Mamet's daughter and the granddaughter of the woman who started the TKTS booth. She clearly had a leg up.

I loved Girls. It was airing during my late teens and early twenties and, as a relatively privileged white woman, I related to it. I related mostly to Hannah, occasionally to Marnie, and often times with Shosh whose frantic energy and awkward charisma made her instantly endearing. The episode where she's determined to lose her virginity without anyone knowing she's a virgin is top tier "insecure-early-twenty-something" content. All that to say, Zosia and I share a soft spot for Shoshanna Shapiro.
I found a lot of these essays reminiscent of Shosh's personality despite Zosia's insistence that she's nothing like the character. The extreme self-deprecation, the people-pleasing tendencies, all of those little things added up to make me believe that Zosia doesn't really understand the scope of her privilege or the quirks of her own personality.

The essays about relationships and body image were heartbreakingly written. That is clearly her wheelhouse: writing about the trauma that cut the deepest. If all of the essays had been as emotionally charged as those, laced with trauma or not, I think I might have come away from this collection of essays with a better sense of who Zosia is as a person rather than all of the things she insists she is not.

A lot of the essays were overwritten and contained sentences that sounded like a freshman in a creative writing class. She is often melting into a puddle of glitter or sparkles or confetti. She also comes off as a perpetual victim. I don't doubt that she was bullied and has never felt like she fits in anywhere, especially given the level of her anxiety, but almost 70 percent of the book is how someone bullied her in different settings at different ages. I'm glad she feels that she wants this career badly enough to put up with all that because I certainly wouldn't.

But, when she's lamenting that Axl Rose stole her jacket after she ran into his girlfriend at an exclusive NYC club which she flew to on a whim because her friends told her to, she loses the "I'm just a normal, shy, awkward, anxious girl" thing that she's trying too hard to convey within these essays. I know she ends the book by saying that she's always been trying to prove something to others and herself and I wanted to say, "We can tell."
There is absolutely no way this book would've gotten through a slush pile if not for the 'Mamet' on the cover.

There were enjoyable and well-written essays in here. I think Zosia just needs to live a little more life and drop the whole 'I'm not a nepo baby I'm just like you' thing. You might not feel like a nepo baby, but the rest of us certainly don't have a last name to fall back on.

I would recommend to fans of Girls, early twenty-somethings, and anyone who is interested in reading about growing up with famous people as parents.

[Brice Montgomery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley & Viking for the ARC!

Zosia Mamet’s Does This Make Me Funny? is a lackadaisical collection of anecdotes in search of a purpose. It meets the uncertainty of its title with more insecurity, undermining the book’s themes before they have a chance to develop.

Whether or not it’s fair, it’s probably impossible to discuss any of Zosia Mamet’s work without addressing the nepo-phant in the room. Her privileged background shaped a lot of the discourse surrounding Girls, and even if audiences have moved past the point of caring, Mamet hasn’t. She opens the book by acknowledging her status, but rather than exploring it with the same nuance as her co-star Allison Williams, she immediately dismisses the criticism by saying she never felt like she fit into her family. And also she fought her way to the top, “crawling” on “hands and knees.”

I’m not sure you can describe something as being “like trying to wrap your head around Anna Wintour doing manual labor” and still write for the masses.

As a millennial, I think we have a generational habit of admitting culpability to avoid accountability, and Mamet’s general reluctance to reflect falls right into that trap. She simply cares too much about what the reader thinks, so each “essay”sounds like it was written by someone who was always told they were the most interesting person in the room. As an example, “Cracked” opens with Mamet explaining that she accidentally smoked crack, and then we read the details about how she accidentally smoked crack, and then she tells us how it was ridiculous that she accidentally smoked crack because then the same thing happened on Girls when her character accidentally smoked crack.

Mamet writes about life happening to her instead of how she has lived, and that can only go so far.

The author is always just outside of the reader’s reach, obscuring herself behind palatable life lessons like, they say don’t meet your heroes, but sometimes you should. Even when Mamet shares some pretty horrific, misogynistic trauma, it feels like self-flagellation because it’s included only to make a toothlessly broad point about the patriarchy, like women’s bodies aren’t respected in healthcare.

This is an important truth, but not at the expense of the woman writing it.

Unfortunately, Mamet reserves her most honest revelation for an epilogue, and it’s one that made me want to read more: she desperately wants to be more famous. She knows she’s not supposed to say that, but it’s meaningful in its crassness. Great personal writing wrestles with the dissonance between reality and how we interpret it, and Mamet starts to do so in the final pages. What does it mean when everything is mediated through performance? What does it mean to be a person when one’s sense of self is defined by how others respond?

These are questions that Zosia Mamet seems to actively reflect on, and I hope she expands them into a full-fledged book at some point. For now, though, I’ll answer Does This Make Me Funny?’s titular question with a simple response:

No, not really.

[Hanna Gil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reached for Zosia Mamet's "Does This Make Me Funny" out of curiosity. I like reading essays very much, and earlier I read a collection of essays written by her father. This time, I expected a somewhat lighthearted collection of anecdotes about Hollywood, written from the perspective of someone younger, a new generation. Zosia's status as a nepo baby looked intriguing and promising at the same time.

The collection is deeply personal and at times heartbreaking, as it recounts the author's teenage years. She was bullied at school and suffered from anorexia; later, her desire to be an actress was not taken seriously.  She also had her share of bad relationships with toxic boyfriends, longing for friends and unconditional love, yet knowing that her character, being unsure and self-doubting, was not easily leading to acceptance.   There was always a hole in her piggy bank, as she beautifully describes the process. Reading about it made Zosia Mamet very relatable: I just felt how hard it must have been for her to struggle. There are, of course, essays that bring a smile and laughter, thanks to the author's great sense of humor. Altogether, the book feels authentic, with the author opening up to the reader, showing her fears, and because, as she writes, "the truth of the matter is that pretty much everything I do in this life is finished with a question mark."

For me, this constant questioning is much more interesting than ending everything with a non-debatable period or an enthusiastic exclamation mark.

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book mostly out of curiosity—having watched Girls and heard snippets about Zosia Mamet and her family, I was eager to learn more about her story. I’m so glad I did, because I ended up connecting with her in ways I never anticipated. The book is filled with honest, vivid storytelling that brings both her small, joyful moments and the raw, vulnerable ones to life. It felt like sitting down with a friend, her writing style was real & witty.

What surprised me most was how “seen” I felt while reading. Even though Zosia’s life and circumstances are unbelievably different from mine, I recognized so much of myself in her experiences. I usually read collections of essays slowly, reading one here and there as a break from whatever fiction I’m reading, but I related to her so much that I had a hard time putting it down.

Thank you to Penguin Group Viking and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book made me adore Mamet and I’ll be keeping an eye out for anything she writes in the future.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This memoir was way more sad than your average celebrity memoir. While I definitely appreciate the honesty about insecurity, relationship challenges, health, and what’s it’s like having an eating disorder, this still reads as someone who very much is suffering in a huge way, not necessarily as someone who has learned certain lessons and came out wiser because of it. Maybe that’s okay, maybe it’s okay to write a memoir before the lessons have been learned but this came across as a person with so much suffering. I listened to this on audio and there was something about the way Zasia read that came across very stiff but dramatized, like she was reading lines rather than telling her own story. This didn’t come across as funny to me at all, not even darkly. There were also a lot of cliche turns of phrase so this played into what felt odd to me. Despite all this, I really do appreciate that she didn’t seem to sugarcoat anything or make herself seem more together than she is.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won an advanced copy of this from the publisher on Instagram; thanks Viking Books for the ARC!

I had no expectations going in to Zosia’s book of essays, but I was blown away. Her unique voice really shines in the way she writes—she is so witty, vulnerable, and funny. This book covers everything from body image, relationships, navigating Hollywood, and stepping in to your truest version of self. Even if you’re unfamiliar with her amazing acting (I personally loved her so so much in The Decameron), you’ll enjoy these essays. Her ability to have her experiences relate to the broader existence of being a woman is outstanding. I highly, highly recommend you check this one out. I read it in two days.