Everyone's favourite filthy agony aunts and Joan and Jericha are back, with more of their judgemental, filthy and absurd wisdom. The perfect gift for fans of the hit podcast, Dear Joan & Jericha.
Really sensible and helpful relationship advice from the always-reliable Joan and Jericha, even though one has lost three husbands by suicide and the other’s spends 98% of his time tending to his scout troop in Thailand. With chapters such as ‘Why you’ve failed as a mother’ and ‘Why he wishes you were dead’, all women can be helped in their desperate attempts to find a balding saggy man.
From making the first move (“enfold his member in a lacy lady’s hanky”) to knowing how many sexual positions to offer (“twelve to twenty”), the book moves on to essential advice for holding onto your man during difficult times such as pregnancy (“always stay heavily made up and be sure to get on all fours”), sheer boredom (“seven-hour daily workouts, life-threatening cosmetic procedures and regular bingeing and purging”), or simply stepping aside gracefully to a younger more curvaceous model. Always sensitive and accurate.
Neither does the book shy away from taboo areas such as coping with your disappointing or homosexual child, menopausal symptoms such as boob cheese, anal bearding, or the downstairs ‘messy omelette’, and the best way to pull in a care home.
Joan and Jericha provide their no-nonsense approach throughout, telling women how it really is, and should be applauded for doing so. Fans of their podcast will be used to their remarkable advice for elderly would-be role-players, and godmothers tempted into canal-boat showers, and will not be disappointed here. Of course he will still be turned away, but at least we can understand why and wish him well on his journey.
Like the podcast it has some hilariius moments but there are times when I find myself thinking, ‘bloody hell, that’s a bit close to the bone’, particularly with references to sultry child bridesmaids and the likes.
That said, part of me delights in the fact that the implied authors (and by extension Davis and Pepperdine) don’t give a flying fiddler’s fuck about perception.
Anyway, I’m about to celebrate my 12th wedding anniversary so it’s paramount I keep hubby interested by instigating a session of vulva punching. Cheerio!
Some good funny bits, but part of what I love about Joan and Jericha is hearing them tell these tales. Don’t think it works as well as a book. If you’re a fan of the podcast it’s definitely worth a read though.
It was rather difficult to read (although some bits were truly brilliant) - this book was supposed to be funny but turned out to be utterly filthy. The struggle was real. On the other hand - have learnt a lot of new vocabulary 😅
Listened to the audiobook to get the closest experience to that of the podcast but sadly it didn’t scratch my filthy improv itch in the same way. The best part of the podcast is hearing them trying not to laugh at their own and each other’s wild improvisations but as it was seemingly prewritten it just lost the magic.
I still had some occasional big laughs but definitely found myself getting a little bored waiting for the chuckle.
The sales pitches throughout became repetitive as did quite a lot of the structure which became tiring really fast. Sorry J&J you’re still my favourite agony aunts but this missed the mark.
For what is essentially a one-joke book (they're the worst people on the planet and anyone who asks them anything is given the worst advice imaginable) this is absolutely hilarious. The joke doesn't get tiresome, although some sections are far funnier than others. Switching the format from podcast to book means that we lose the improv but gain tear-inducingly funny passages too intricately designed to be reeled out off-the-cuff as on their show. Absolutely not for sensitive readers (or listeners if you're doing the audiobook) but if you enjoy biting satire, worrying innuendo and general vulgarity this is a treat.
I love the podcast and the characters, but I don't know that book form is where they belong. It's funny of course, there are lots of laughs, but this works much better in audio where they are improv-ing and trying not to crack up and there's an air of it being escalated and made up on the hoof. Here it's written down and diagrammed and the comedic thrill is lost a bit. It also feels much more calculated to push the boundaries and to shock when it's in book form - I think it jumped the shark at times and just got ludicrous.
Still, I love these characters and chuckled throughout, periodically laughing like a drain.
I listened to the audiobook. Joan & Jericha offer wise advice on how to navigate this life. A tome I will refer back to in future, I'm sure. Extremely enlightening.
This book is by far the funniest I have ever read. The laughs per page were plenty. They even brought out quite a range of laughs: the standard chuckle, the hohohoh shock laugh, the cackle laugh, the disgusted laugh, the clever comment laugh. So many laughs.
The book is based on the podcast, ‘Dear Joan and Jericha’. I would recommend listening to one episode first to see if it’s your type of humour (here’s the link https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZNj... ). Joan and Jericha are exaggerated characters who provide advice to people who write in, needing help with their relationships, or more likely, their sex life. Joan and Jericha act like experts but they actually give horrible advice (which is the comedy). They really pile it on the undeserving and completely excuse the undeserving. Here’s a random snippet from the bit called, “The Prowling Spinster”, ‘There are women much like yourself, who are well past their sell-by date (often in their thirties and beyond) who simply refuse to hang up their boots and throw in the towel…’. Any women with grey hair are defiantly independent to spite themselves and have little chance of snagging a guy, unless he’s mentally impaired. However, a man with greying hair is a spunky silver fox, capable of attracting any woman or women they desire. The double standards are hilarious. And there are so many. If a woman is complaining to Joan and Jericha that their husband is too demanding or kinky in the bedroom and they’re not into it, well it’s too bad, the poor man is working hard all day to provide for her and her expensive shopping habits, and the least she can do is…
I am selective with my GR friends, and I feel that they know what I’m like, but for the new friends, or general public who come across this review…don’t worry, I’m not sexist or anything. Quite the opposite. Though the real Joan and Jericha won’t admit it, the whole thing is a feminist book. They go about it by highlighting and exaggerating the double standards placed on women, to the extreme. And in the meantime, they are hilarious.
What’s the difference between this and the podcast? The podcast typically talks back to four or five writers seeking advice from Joan and Jericha per episode. These are quite random. However, in the book, it is more structured to explain why it’s so difficult for women to find anyone of consequence whilst pointing out the many errors made by women in the quest for achieving that goal. Also, the book version has lots of scribbled pictures of the writers seeking advice, as they are required to send photos of themselves (and their naughty bits so that Joan and Jericha can tear them to shreds). Imagine what drawings would be on a primary school desk, and you will get the idea of what kind of drawings predominate.
Is the book better than the audiobook version? I don’t usually listen to audiobooks, as I love music too much to go without it. However, I also listened to the audiobook for this one. I liked them both, but the audiobook of course is funnier as you can hear Joan and Jericha let rip in it. They put on the funniest posh accents and mix snippets of their own lives between ‘helping’ their writers.
Not as funny as the podcast, dare I say it a bit of a cash in? Some of the jokes feel repeated and over used which in a spontaneous partly scripted part ad libbed podcast is less likely to happen. It still made me cry with laughter at some points though. I wish they would do more podcasts I’m not desperate for another book.
If you enjoy the Joan and Jericha podcast you will know what to expect. Shockingly filthy with the added bonus of drawings and adverts for products. I think it would work best hearing their voices deliver the book - but it was still a guiltily enjoyable read.
I love this podcast! It's often the funniest 20 minutes of my week. So I was so happy to discover that Britain's filthiest agony aunts had written a book with even more tips for us ladies, who need all the help we can get.
Just like the podcast this is disgustingly funny. Some bits are a bit too repulsive and that actually put me off reading it for a while! The best bits are the conversations between Joan & Jericha. My wife read it too and I can't wait for her to start following all the wise advice.
There are some terrible things written in this book. There are some funny things written in this book. There are some terribly funny things written in this book. If you've ever been in agony watching an old-fashioned agony aunt you'll like this satire of the genre available here.
I loved the podcast but the book didn’t do it for me. The genius of Joan & Jericha is that it is largely improvised and spontaneous. Having a script took that away and many of the jokes felt overworked and fell flat.
Just like the podcast, this is filthy and irreverent and definitely not for the faint hearted or easily offended. Loses something being in print rather than hearing Julia Davis and Vicky Pepperdine speaking but still affords plenty of laugh out loud moments for fans of this kind of humour.
downloaded this as an audio book for a flight and i gobbled it all down in two days. just as hilarious as the podcast. glad i had my mask on so no one could see me laughing. sksksk.