If It's Not Funny It's Art

by Demetri Martin

The New York Times bestselling author/comedian of This Is a Book and Point Your Face at This is back with another collection of hilarious drawings.

Genres: Humor, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comedy, Art

192 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2017

About the author

Demetri Martin is an American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. Martin is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, contributor on The Daily Show and for his Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin.

Martin is known for being an unconventional stand-up comic. He uses extensive wordplay (particularly paraprosdokians), one-liners, and drawings on a "large pad", as well as accompanying his jokes with music on either guitar, harmonica, piano, keyboard, glockenspiel, toy bells, ukulele, or tambourine, sometimes all at once. He has cited comedian Steven Wright as an important influence (both use deadpan one-liners in their acts) and he is also a fan of Bill Cosby.

Reviews

[Hamed]

این کتاب و کتاب قبلی دمیتری مارتین، Point Your Face at This ، کلا نقاشی های بامزه، با مغز و بعضاً تفکربرانگیزی هستن که اگه از سبک استندآپ آقای ماتین خوشتون بیاد این کتاب ها رُ هم خواهیدپسندید.
اگرم ایشونو نمیشناسید کافیه ۵ دقیقه از حضور ایشون در تاک شو های مختلفو ببینید. همین ۵ دقیقه کافیه برای تصمیم گیری.
و اینکه کل کتابو میشه یک ساعته یا کمتر خوند/تماشا کرد.

[Vonia]

This one is not as great as several others from his collection of graphic novels slash sketchbooks. Take note, however, that since this is the always awesome Demetri Martin we are talking about here, in other words, it was very good, but not amazing.

[J.C.]

It only took ten minutes to read. I just never got around to reading it till this weekend. I love it when something simple and obvious becomes genius and hilarious. This book is full of that.

[Eva Gachus]

I thought the images were pretty funny, but some were a little too true :( haha!

[Sierra Hansen]

2.5 stars

this felt like it was trying very hard to be deep. i would have loved this and posted excerpts to my tumblr when i was a young teenager. i will give this credit for not having jokes made at the expense of women (although that really shows that the bar is in hell when it comes to men’s comedy)

[Amanda]

3.7465 stars. It was mostly funny. And sometimes art. Made me smile.

[nini]

fun read real read would like it color it in 🧲 :)

[Mitch Hudson]

It’s like a modern day far side collection and honestly, that’s what I need sometimes

[Claire]

Much funnier live....

[Matt]

Quick 10 minute read featuring Demetri's dry, deadpan style of humor. A mix of witty wordplay and commentary on society and culture. $21 (CAD) is overpriced for the brief entertainment it provides and I felt this would have worked better in a webcomic format. One or two drawings may be relevant to friends and worth sharing, but I'm not going to recommend they get the book just for that.

[Alten]

Etwas dahin geworfenes haben die Cartoons und humorvollen Bildideen Martins schon, denn es sind ganz einfache Fineliner-Zeichungen – unschattiert, unkoloriert und auch etwas unbeholfen. Vielleicht ist es kein Buch zum Behalten, aber ich muss dem Autor schon lassen: Er hat Witz und Humor. Trifft oft, nur manchmal daneben. Manche Bildideen würden sich auch hervorragend als Poster-Grundlage eignen, wenn sich ein fähiger Grafikdesigner dieser annehmen würde. Sehr, sehr schade finde ich, dass die Zeichnungen nicht im Stile der tollen Coverillustrationen eingefärbt wurden. Das hätte das Buch definitiv aufgewertet.

[Cole]

This is standard Demetri Martin fare, with drawings insightful, funny, jarring, and often, some combination of the three. To say I 'read' this book is not quite an adequate description. I flipped through the pages in approximately 20 minutes, chuckling at some, immediately flipping past others, and thinking deeply about a select few.

"This Is A Book" or "Point Your Face at This" may be better for Demetri Martin rookies, but "If It's Not Funny It's Art" will please fans as much as they probably expect.

[Ashley]

I'm really not sure what was going on in most of the art. I appreciated a few pictures (like 5, out of what, 100?) I'm not sure if the intention was supposed to be for me to analyze each individual picture as art to try to find the humor in it or what, but I honestly hated most of the art and only continued flipping through the entire book so I could add it to my challenge. I was ready to stop after page 3 when I realized this wasn't really for me.

[Tina Rae]

Absolutely loved this one!!! Demetri Martin is one of my absolute favorite comedians so I knew I couldn't pass this one up. His drawings are always spectacular, hilarious and have some kind of deeper meaning. This is a fun little quick read that made me laugh so many times. I really enjoyed this and will definitely be flipping through it again when I need a fun little pick me up. Definitely recommend!

[Aaron]

Wow. Bought this on a whim and am delighted I did. It takes a special kind to notice the absurdity all around us and then to be able to turn it into a single funny comic panel. Martin has a knack and talent for it for sure. While I would say not every comic is a winner, there is more than enough here to keep you snickering every few strips (which is way more than can be said for most comics out there). Bravo. I'll be first in line to buy your next one!

[Tiff]

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I am familiar with Demetri Martin's work and his comedy, and I would say that this book lives up to his usual standard. I would recommend it to anyone already a fan. It's a quick, entertainin little book that you could probably thumb through in one sitting!

[Joanne]

* I won my copy of If It's Not Funny.... from GoodReads *

I liked this book, but I'd only give it 3 out of 5 stars. I know it's Demetri Martin's style but I get a little bored with the more silly and simplistic jokes and graphics. My mom really liked it and says it is right in line with his other stuff, so I'll give it her rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

[Kate McGhee]

Good. Incredibly quick read. Fun ink drawings from a clearly talented comedic illustrator, but also quite dark at times. Stylistically similar to David Shrigley, whose work I love. For me it suffers from ‘joke-book syndrome’ - pretty funny stuff and some gems in there but, in book format, just too much in one go to provide the space you need to appreciate them fully.

[D]

It's hard for this book to compare to "Point Your Face At This" and "This Is A Book." This was like flipping through a collection of New Yorker cartoons. Most of the pages won't make you laugh out loud. Instead, you'll likely nod knowingly or turn to the person next to you and say, "Hey, look at this."
Whenever I get the chance to support Demetri's work, I'm there.

[Karenclifford61]

Not sure if i should count this as "reading" since there are very few words in this book. However, there are a LOT(!) of creative comic panels that required imagination on his part and thought on my part. Several of the panels are used in the Netflix movie DEAN, also starring Demetri Martin, and this book makes me look forward to "reading" more of his stuff.

[Martin]

Dementia at its most genius. Granted, this isn't as consistently funny as his other books, and there's no way the well has run dry, but the gems are outrageously clever, and a trip inside his head would be a spectacular experience I'd pay for.

[Doug]

Martin's drawings are both clever and fun, even if they sometimes seem derivative. But since this entire book can be 'read' in less than an hour, it is worth checking out (as long as you didn't pay for it! LOL! I got it from the library!)

[Amber]

An entertaining, oddball comic. Right up my alley, and maybe yours. Quick and fun to read. I didn't always get all the little strips, like what is a 4 on a chair even mean??? But still, overall really fun.

[Roozbeh Daneshvar]

This was a quick and easy read (well, it was all drawings, not a read really). I like Demetri Martin's humor. I think he is a very smart observer who has knowledge of diverse fields. If you like his stand-up comedy style, you will probably like this book, too.

[Mark James]

There are some gems in this book, but as the title suggests, many of the gags misfire. Many drawings are meta, but without any broader purpose.

Still though, peering into his mind is always a treat.

[Liesl]

Not Martin's best work. This book took a mere 15 minutes to read and is unfortunately only sporadically funny, much of it featuring a depressing undertone. Martin's drawings work best when presented by him during his stand-up act.

[Dianna]

literally every illustration in this book could work as either the cover art for a lightly pretentious indie band's sophomore album or the stick and poke tattoo on the forearm of that aforementioned lightly pretentious band's lead singer

[Leah]

Yet another riveting and hilarious collection of drawings by Demetri Martin. I appreciate his wit, sass, and sheer attention to detail. Very little people have made me laugh more when describing the human experience or plays on words. I highly recommend this collection to all.

[Kaileigh]

Book one of reading from the stash of books I have at my mothers…

A quick read for sure. Some doodles were funny, some weren’t. I had a really bad habit of buying whatever books urban outfitters had on clearance so yeah. I won’t be keeping this. To the unhaul bag it goes!

[Ash]

Again, this type of book was a first for me. Not something I would've ever picked up on my own but was participating in a reading challenge. Some of the pictures inside were clever and funny. Nice quick read that is something different.