You're a Horrible Person, But I Like You: The Believer Book of Advice

Believer Books of Advice

by Eric Spitznagel (Editor), David Cross (Introduction)

A compendium of advice from the producers, writers, and actors of The Office, Saturday Night Live, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Knocked Up, Flight of the Conchords, The Daily Show, Arrested Development, Reno 911!, and The Hangover along with other people who should really never give advice.
 
In these pages Fred Armisen offers help telling your dad you’re a lesbian—give him the phone number and he’ll do it for you. Mindy Kaling provides guidance on ending things with your mistress—dude, you totally have to kill her. Rainn Wilson offers insight on contacting that girl you dreamed about last night—he has created all-purpose web portal for such interactions. Amy Sedaris identifies the best way to a man’s heart—bone saw through the chest cavity.
 
Aziz Ansari, Judd Apatow, Fred Armisen, Maria Bamford, Todd Barry, Samantha Bee, Michael Ian Black, Andy Borowitz, Michael Cera, Vernon Chatman, Rob Corddry, David Cross, Larry Doyle, Paul Feig, Jim Gaffigan, Zach Galifianakis, Janeane Garofalo, Daniel Handler, Todd Hanson, Tim Heidecker, Ed Helms, Buck Henry, Mindy Kaling, John Lee, Thomas Lennon, Al Madrigal, Aasif Mandvi, Marc Maron, Adam McKay, Eugene Mirman, Morgan Murphy, Bob Odenkirk, John Oliver, Patton Oswalt, Martha Plimpton, Harold Ramis, Amy Sedaris, Michael Showalter, Sarah Silverman, Paul F. Tompkins, Sarah Vowell, David Wain, Eric Wareheim, Rainn Wilson, Lizz Winstead

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Essays, Comedy, Short Stories, Unfinished, Adult

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2010

Reviews

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book was sort of like eating a doughnut. Do you ever have that moment halfway through a Krispy Kreme or those old-fashioneds they sell for $1.40 at Starbucks where all of a sudden you're like, "Why am I eating this?" And then another part of your brain—probably more directly connected to your sugar centers (that's totally a real medical term)—goes, "Uh, because it's in your MOUTH? It's a DOUGHNUT? Whatever. Chew, bitch, chew!" So you do, and later you're like, "Well. I did THAT" and you tell yourself it's fine, just you can't have any ice cream after dinner.

This book was like that. It was at least mildly amusing most of the time, and it was pretty easy to just keep turning the pages without having to think very much. Many hypothetical acts of violence were threatened, but no one was actually tortured or killed, which, compared to some other things I've read lately, was a major plus.

Did this book have any real effect on me at all? No. Well, it made me less bored on the bus, but so does this Lady Gaga/Journey mashup I can't stop listening to. But it was fine. Still. Maybe no more humor books for a while.

By the way, I am eating cinnamon babka right now and it is delicious.

[RandomAnthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read You're a Horrible Person, But I Like You because 1) I was searching for Sarah Vowell's new Unfamiliar Fishes on the library website but landed twelfth in the reserve line, while this book showed up under Ms. Vowell's search results as immediately available, and 2) the book seemed light on a weekend when I couldn't read heavy. You're a Horrible Person, But I Like You served its purpose, I suppose, but weakly.

I'm not sure of the book's source but if I'm assessing the situation correctly there's a magazine called the Believer in which hipster celebrities answer fake letters in what they consider to be a clever fashion. I've never seen a copy of the Believer but I looked it up online and it seems ok if not my thing. I did laugh when, after reading a couple lines of an article, I ran into the line, “To read the rest of this piece, please purchase this issue of the Believer online or at your local bookseller.” “Bookseller” is a pretentious word that fits the Believer well. Anyway, I didn't find any advice columns. So maybe they don't do them anymore. I don't know.

The problem with most of the letters and the celebrity-penned responses is a hyper-awareness of their hipster image and sense of audience. So while mocking people who write advice columns and the people who write letters to advice columns the Believer contributors maintain their distance and mock themselves for mocking people who write advice columns and the people who write letters to advice columns and then they became aware of that and then I don't care anymore and most of the text isn't funny. Reading You're a Horrible Person, But I Like You is more often than not like attending an amateurish absurdist play that makes up for its lack of talent and substance by winking so hard at the audience I'm surprised an eye-muscle doesn't break. I guess a couple of the responses are funny (Vowell and Sarah Silverman's are decent) but just about everyone seems out of their element, constrained by the question/answer format, and trying too hard. The questions are often better than the answers. But at least the respondent switches every few pages and I didn't have to pay too much attention on an illness-recovery weekend. In no way, shape, or form would I purchase this book for fourteen bucks, but from the library, for reading in the bath or whatever, this isn't bad. That's a limp recommendation, eh? Best I can do.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of this book is simple: A few dozen comedians provide "advice" to individuals who have written in to The Believer magazine asking questions. The contributor list (Aziz Ansari! Sarah Silverman! Paul F! Zach Galifinakis! Mindy Kaling!) reads like a who's who of my personal comedy favs, so I was certain I'd be at least amused by this book. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The problem is, the book is terrible. Wait, I can get more specific than that: The problem is, both the comediens answering the questions AND the people writing the questions are trying to be funny. If the questions had been funny, but the answers sincere, or the questions sincere but the answers funny, I think the whole thing would have worked, but that way it was done made it read as goofy and absurdist. Some people might like that style. I do not. I was sad to see the collective effort of so many talented comedy folks go to waste, but fortunately, I can't imagine it took more than an hour for any of them to write their responses.

[Krok Zero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for an afternoon's worth of mild chuckles; I read it in one sitting. (Sidebar: if you get up to pee, come back and immediately pick up the book again, it doesn't count as a new sitting, does it? Whatever, I reject your draconian "sitting" laws. I play by my own rules: none.)

It's a little disappointing that this book isn't more LOL-worthy than it is, given the insane constellation of talent involved. Seriously, every living funny smart humor-type person you've ever heard of is repped here, with the curious exception of John Hodgman, who I guess was too busy shooting a 30-second cameo as a librarian or whateverthefuck for some lame studio comedy. But I would have to say a majority of the pieces are more amusing than hilarious, even when the bylines display reliably hilarious names. Another problem is that some of the contributors are more performer-type funnyfolks than writerly humorists, so while I enjoy the likes of Rainn Wilson and Rob Corddry in their proper spheres, they don't necessarily excel at the wit of the written word.

Having said that, some of the pieces--which take the form of responses to advice-column queries--are damn good; you can never go wrong with the likes of Patton Oswalt, Paul F. Tompkins, Sarah Vowell, Mindy Kaling, Todd Barry, Judd Apatow, et al. (It helps if you're a comedy nerd like me who can hear these folks' voices in your head as you read.) Two of my favorites came from surprising (to me) left-field contributors: Buck Henry, screenwriter of The Graduate and a bunch of other stuff, finds a delightfully odd perspective for his "advice," and Daniel Handler, a.k.a. the guy behind Lemony Snicket, comes up with the book's most formally audacious joke: after a series of bland one-sentence responses, he launches into a hilariously overwrought-on-purpose piece of literary flash-fiction that's so breathtaking I'm tempted to embrace it without the implied ironic scare-quotes. But my absolute favorite of the bunch belongs to my personal comedy hero, Bob Odenkirk, late of the genius '90s HBO sketch series Mr. Show, who uses the advice-column form as a platform to raise the non-sequitir to the level of high goddamn art. You can sense some of the other contributors trying to do non-sequitir responses--it's an easy place to go when you're trying to do a funny advice column--but they all pale next to Bob, who concludes a rambling response to a question about the Israel/Palestine conflict with this nugget: "Who won American Idol? I'll tell you who: everyone who watched."

So, a worthwhile laff-'em-up, even if there aren't as many home-runs as I expected. Each contribution is only a few pages long, so the clunkers are over quickly (though, sadly, so are the home-runs).

[Thekelburrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plenty of good laughs.

[Karlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best way I can some up my experience of reading this book is kind of like going thrift shopping, and being so excited because you just found something truly amazing, say a new vintage dress. You get so excited about the dress, and start getting excited about all the places you're going to wear it, and how great it's going to look...and then once you get home and put it back on, you realize that it has this weird stain that you didn't notice before, and kind of like a weird lingering smell that won't come out in the wash. And you try to ignore those things because you really want to love it, because you were SURE you had found your own special hidden gem, but then it just ends up staying in the back of your closet forever because you never really want to admit that you were wrong. How could you have been so wrong???

I've never read the Believer, so I'm not sure how this writing relates to the magazine, but this book was a collection of normally hilarious celebrities writing advice to questions that felt like they were trying way too hard to be funny.

"Dear Sarah,

I have an abundance of dryer lint in all different shades of grays and whites. I usually fashion baby wigs with the stuff. Can you suggest other creative uses for my fuzzy matter?

Gary Brewer
Mesa, AZ"

Those types of questions only set the table for the type of over-the-top or nonsensical answers you would expect from these great writers, but, to me, lost most traces of humour due to the stupidity of the questions. I understand it was making fun of advice columns, but with all the amazing actors, comedians, and writers that collaborated on this book, I figured there was no way to avoid a night full of LOLing. I was very disappointed when there were no LOLs to be had. The closest I came was when I read part of the sentence "kiss a jar of our grandmarm's famous hand-marmed marmalade..." so you can understand how far I was reaching on that one, and how disappointed I must have been overall.

Nonetheless, an easy read that did end up having a few good answers, my favourites being from John Oliver, Mindy Kaling, Jim Gaffigan, Eugene Mirman, Rob Cordry and a few others.

[Kira · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would be hard to decide whether the questions in this book—”Dear Tim and/or Eric, I really want to fight a bear. How can I make this happen?”—or the answers, are more ridiculous (a response from Cera on “what to do this weekend” includes advice on planting an arroyo or soapberry tree, waiting 2-3 hours for it to grow and proceeding to talk to it). Each comedian takes a unique approach to dealing with their imaginary audience, and responses run the gamut from personal anecdotes to deadpan suggestions to blatant (however farcical) insults aimed at the question and/or the asker of said question and or the name and hometown of said asker. But rarely are any of the above disappointing. Bottom line? If you’re in the market for a book to leave around your apartment for 2-minute increments of sporadic time-killing, this is a good one. Just don’t be weirded out when you hear laughter coming from the bathroom.

[V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series of fake letters asking for advice, answered by various comedians acting as agony aunts/uncles.

There's certainly some funny stuff here, and as a book to keep by the toilet to pass those long, solitary, occasionally puncuated moments it is a fine and appropriate companion. The problem is after a while you start noticing that most of these comics tend to approach the letters in much the same way. Misunderstand what's being asked; answer a completely different question; act outraged at the question itself... it all sort of blurs into one long hipster sneer. Which would be perfectly okay with me if it had been much, much funnier.

It's one of the ironies of being hip and different that you end up hanging with a crowd of people all unique in exactly the same way.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

You're a Horrible Person is really hit and miss. The base concept is a lot of fun, an advice column with intentionally bad advice, but the execution doesn't always work. Part of it is if you don't really like a particular comedian's flavor of humor, you probably won't like his or her piece of the book. But a lot of these feel really phoned in. Nevertheless, some of it is really funny, like laugh out loud even though your coworkers in the break room are giving you weird looks funny. And it's a quick read, so even if only half of it is worth reading, it doesn't take too long to get through the boring bits.

[Lhell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah I read this book. Who are you to judge me? The river does not always have to run deep. Oh because you only read the classics, and my books don't count as reading. Well that is very pedantic of you so why don't you abscond away from me. Yeah I know GRE vocab words too motherfucker. So I guess the real difference between you and I is that I have friends, get laid, and people are capable of loving me. Your over concern with the English language just proves how unattractive you are. Keep showing off that brain, because no one likes the outside of the package.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have only read the first few sections and I already know I need to buy this (which is rare!). If you like weirdo humor that is very out-there and snarky, you will love this book. This book seems to contain every single person I think is funny, like, they got them all!!!! Creepy.......

[Lucia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aggressively unfunny. I chose this because it was free and I needed short, funny reads. The pieces were indeed short.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I wanted this to be hilarious. So much talent in one book. But it just wasn't very good. Too forced?
It would have been much better if each author had read their section aloud.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The questions were funnier than the answers

[Matthew L]

I chose the book, You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You honestly, because it showed up in my amazon recommended. I have never read a book written by The Believer before, but after seeing its bright and interesting cover for this book, I was interested. I decided to look into the preview of the first couple pages, and after reading the introduction by David Cross and the chapter written by Zach Galifianakis, I was hooked.
This book is a mish-mash of interactions between famous comedians and professional funny peoples, and random, everyday folks. It’s interesting hearing the kooky, quirky, and well thought out responses comedians slap together in order to answer to the normal, mundane questions of a civilian. It adds a little interesting kick to our ordinary lives as non-famous people, no matter how much of a D class comedian might answer your question.
I really liked reading the chapters written in correspondence with my favorite actors/comedians. Aziz Ansari had an interesting chapter, touching base on all interesting topics such as: wives with beards, grandma tattoos, and true love. Jim Gaffigan really hit it out of the park in my book (get the joke? Because he IS in my book, this book, I’m reviewing currently) with the discussion of being a picnic table, the vegetable of the day, and ex-college roommate killing sprees. Finally, Sarah Silverman left me in pain with laughter, after touching upon being unrelentingly gay, comebacks to your mother, and adjusting to new places. It might just be me, but I really just enjoyed hearing the prepared responses these “horrible people,” as the book refers to them, have come up with.
I had little I disliked about this book. I didn't find Todd Barry to be very funny (sorry Todd), in addition to Andy Borowitz, and Michael Cera just wasn't that funny. I feel bad because this is stuff written by actual people, but it’s not like they are just a story that needs work. So all I can say is a very awkward, “just keep practicing your writing.”

[Amelia Cook]

This book is very funny and a quick read if you need something light.

[H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really sure where they were going with this book. I'm not familiar with 'The Believer' or 'Sedarisms' specifically, but I am familiar with Amy Sedaris' brand of non-sensical humor and am pretty sure this is exactly what they were aiming for.

When I read other reviews for this book, there were lots of references to 'hipsters.' This is a term that I've heard thrown around for the past eight years or so, and I still don't know exactly what it means. And more importantly, I don't know if I am one. I know one thing, though, if this is the sort of thing that makes a hipster laugh, a hipster I am not.

The problem is that every writer/actor/comedian in this book is just trying so very desperately to be funny. Each one is practically screaming, "of all the semi-celebrities in this book, I'm the most smarmily intellectual of the lot!!!" And as anyone who has ever witnessed an awkward person trying to tell a joke knows, when you try too hard, the result is rarely funny, at least not in the way you intended to be funny.

Ways to be funny, according to the authors of this book:
-include as many distasteful references to murder, grievous bodily harm, and bodily excretions as possible
-intentionally write non-grammatical answers, as though you are a ESL student
-If you can't think of an answer that's appropriately funny, writing a off-the-wall response totally unrelated to the question is completely acceptable
-Show how aware you are of your own ironic maybe-hipster status by constantly calling out The Believer for its 'off-beat' intellectualism
-use the word ironic a lot
-too lazy to piece together a coherent paragraph? One-word zingers are the answer!!


Of course, the writers are not the only ones at fault here; The whole idea of the book is just ridiculous. Fake advice-column queries answered with fake answers? What could go wrong there??

The book had it's moments; I found Sara Silverman's answers to be the best out of the whole book, and Sarah Vowell's were pluckily snarky and politically relevant. Still, only one sentence in the book managed to make me actually laugh out loud. It involved the mention of glue, grass clippings, and yelling of the phrase "I'm a sticky wicket!"

I got this book at the library and finished it because it was fairly easy to mindlessly keep turning the pages. I wouldn't buy it, nor would I recommend it.

[Niklas Pivic · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this one was going to be funny, considering the wealth and breadth of the writers. These fictional Q&A's mostly aren't funny, which is sad. Also, a lot of the answers are written in the same style, which made me feel as though one person was responsible for writing the entire thing.

There were, however, some exceptions.

Samantha Bee

Dear Samantha: I was wondering if you could give me some investment advice. I’m about to retire and I’m a little freaked.
Leah Dawson Sarasota, FL

Dear Leah: I’m freaked for you. I’m so freaked I don’t even have any jokes. I was trying to think of a kind of jokey answer and then I just felt like a horrible person and I deleted it. I am really scared for you. Seriously scared. You are in serious trouble. I hope you’ve been hoarding conflict diamonds and Cipro, because you are about to enter the s-h-i-t, the Heart of Darkness. Take everything you ever thought you knew about investing and do the exact opposite. The currency of the future will be heirloom seeds, so good luck with that one. Panic. Learn how to field dress a wild pig and distill your urine into potable water. Most important, if you take anything away from this response at all, just know that the best thing for you to do is to exercise a lot and stay really sinewy, so that when the cannibals come they will not want to eat you. I should probably also mention that I just finished reading The Road. I don’t know if that makes a difference at all. Samantha

Amy Sedaris

Dear Amy: How should somebody go about bathing themselves? There are people on the street who smell horrible but you know they must shower. Is there some special inside thing we get that they don’t?
Courtney Ivo Chicago, IL

Dear Courtney: Take a visit to your local animal shelter and pick up any random cat. Now take a deep whiff. Pretty sweet, right? It’s called a tongue bath, and it’s not just for felines anymore. In this fast-paced world, you’d be surprised at how many people are taking advantage of this superior and convenient form of bathing. But from the self-righteous tone of your letter, I can only assume that you aren’t one of them. For shame, Courtney. Why are you so afraid of your own tongue? Amy

[Natalie Pietro · Rating 3 out of 5]

While walking through the library a bright red book with a funny title stopped me in my tracks, "You're a Horrible Person, But I Like You". This title made me wonder. Could I be a horrible person? Nah...Could people I know be horrible? Maybe some good advice would help.
The believer magazine presents one wacky collection of advice from such producers, writers, and actors as Zach Galifanakis, Sarah Silverman, Buck Henry, Michael Cera, and Daniel Handler. From the start I couldn't help but laugh. Laugh at how funny these brainless questions were. Some questions just leaving me puzzle. Like this one….
The word "unicorn" always makes me wonder. Why isn't it "unihorn"? When I hear "unicorn," I think that maybe somebody called it that because they thought the horn looked like a giant corn on the cob and so they just screamed out, "ONE CORN!" which evolved into "unicorn"...which makes me think that maybe unicorns are native to Iowa. Ava - Sioux City, IA
Which Ed Helms would reply "Wow. You are really dumb....
Most replies were funny when other killed the moment. Some celebrities decided to bring politics to this book. NOT FUNNY! There is a time and a place and this book should not have been one of them. Still it gave the book some personality.
By the end of the book I was disappointed to learn there was a glossary in the back listing all the horrible people who wrote each advice column. That would have been good to know from the start. Some celebrities are not very well known and I might have found the letters funnier if I had known more about them. Still it didn't matter. Each piece was entertaining.
I think I might have even gotten a little dumber with each page. Dumb in a good way. A down to earth book that’s lively, pleasurable, and a little nutty.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found about 25% of the jokes in this book (of which the entire book consists of jokes, even the About the Authors section) really, really funny, another 25% of the jokes I found really very unfunny and the remaining 50% of the jokes I just did not get (maybe, at David Cross's suggestion, because I'm not smart enough to "get" The Believer, but I highly doubt it). I found most of the time, the authors were trying really hard to be funny and it just didn't come across that way. Although I will say, when I read Michael Cera's section, I couldn't help but think of him saying those things as I read it.

Amidst all the unfunniness and misunderstandings, there was one that was by far, funnier than the rest (in Jim Gaffigan's section):

Dear Jim:
I had a weird dream last night where I went on a killing spree, murdering all my ex-college roommates (I had a lot of them apparently), and for some reason Elvis Costello was fingered for the crime. I sat in the courtroom and watched him get a life sentence, and then he turned to me and smiled and started singing, "Alison, I know this world is killing you." And the really bizarre part is, my name isn't Alison. What could this dream mean?
Norah
Lancaster, PA

Dear Norah:
Wait-- the "bizarre part" was that your name isn't Alison? Really, THAT was the bizarre part? Not the murder spree or your letting a great musician take the heat? Just your name? Lady, you are a nut bag. Stop watching Law & Order before bed.
Jim

I literally laughed out loud when I read this, which would have been fine, but other people were around me.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear Pete,
I'm thinking of reading this book, but I'm not sure if it's a good use of my time. Also, I have foot pain. What should I do?

-Foot Pain in Brisbane

Dear Foot Pain,

Let's start with the book.

The concept of this book is hilarious and maybe undersold. The idea is that people write in with their Dear-Abby-Esque questions and then receive advice. BUT that advice comes from a linup of comedians and comedy writers, probably the worst people to ask.

Because there are something like 30 different writers, the entries are pretty uneven. Some of the best include Amy Sedaris, Jim Gaffigan, and Marc Maron, who gives a piece of advice to a lady about talking dirty that is just about the funniest one-liner this side of...I don't know, Wayne's World II?

There's not much reason to get too specific about who was shitty, but the more meta the writers got, the less entertaining. A lof of them used the string of letters to create a second-layer comedy scenario, and that generally didn't work for me.

My advice would be to read it for free in the bookstore while nursing a chai so long that there's a milk skin on top.

As far as the foot pain goes, I would say that you should probably stop sleeping around, maybe then your foot wouldn't hurt so bad. Or maybe it wouldn't make any difference. But either way, stopping sleeping around is probably a good choice.

Best,
Pete

[Ollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s easy to see why this is such a polarizing book, and I think it has a lot to do with expectations. Sure, people hate it because they think a lot of the “advice” given in this book is unhelpful and dumb. At the same time, some people found this book hilarious because it just tickled their absurdist mind. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. But, nevertheless, I thought this was an enjoyable book.

For me the reason, ITYAHP (nice title, you fucking hipsters) works because I saw it more as a mental exercise to be creative and witty. It works both for the questions and answers: both are thought provoking and tell a story. The jokes lie in both the questions and the answer and the unique way they are both presented. And, after an interesting setup, it’s equally entertaining to see the punchline and see exactly what part of the setup the author uses for their jokes. Sometimes it’s an isolated event, and sometimes it carries through the rest of the questions each particular author responds to. It’s this aspect of the book I found interesting and that carried me through to the end. If anything, the people collected for the answers should serve as a great indication of who’s who in the comedy world these days. Not an essential read in any way, but worthwhile for fans of comedy.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book for $5 at a used book store in Delaware. The cover art and title were very striking and when I saw all the names of people who contributed to it's writing I just had to have it. My friend who was with me also threatened to spend $5 on it if I were to set it down for a mere second so I felt obligated to keep it close to me and eventually paid the monies to take it with me.

While I was reading it I found some of the entries funny, and some horrendous. I was thinking I should make a list to save others from reading the bad ones but maybe reading the bad chapters makes the craving for laughter so great that mediocre ones are considered good in context and a list I came up with would be filled with those as well as the handful of truly laugh worthy chapters.

I would suggest keeping this in a bathroom near a toilet. I assume it may be good for reading in short stints like that which you find yourself in when pooping, but also just in case you run out of toilet paper you can pull a few pages from this and be sure you're not missing too much even if you've not read the chapter. The pages seem thick enough that your hands will stay clean. Just don't wipe with Bob Odenkirk's chapter without reading it because it was the most genuinely funny chapter in the whole collection.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was somewhat amusing. Although it is by no means hilarious, it is a very quick & easy read, so the effort-to-payoff ratio makes it worthwhile. The format is basically ridiculous questions, parodying what one might inquire of an advice columnist, answered by some of the currently most-celebrated minds in comedy today--Sarah Silverman, Adam McKay, Judd Apatow, Rainn Wilson, Larry Doyle, Amy Sedaris, Aziz Ansari, Janeane Garafolo, Zach Galifianakis, David Cross, Jim Gaffigan, Fred Armisen, Michael Cera, and lots more. As a group, they are very intelligent and very twisted. My only complaint is this: Their pot-shot type "jokes" referencing the hometown/states (implying backwards ways, lack of culture, etc) of those who allegedly wrote in for advice. Although ostensibly intended to be tongue-in-cheek, it was done enough times as to be a theme of sorts running through the book, serving to betray a certain red state-blue state superiority complex on the part of the comedians. Still, it is fun to see what each of them can do creatively when given a set-up and then left to their own devices to craft a funny response.

[Preston Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the names attached to this book I skipped reading all prior reviews and immediately purchased it. Oops.

From the initial introduction by David Cross (actor: Tobias on Arrested Development, etc.) I was straight-faced disapointed. A quick read, but I still regret the commitment. It is clear that many of the contributing comedians put an absolutely minimal amount of effert into their contributions, and more often that not the questions are funnier than than the responses. With a few exceptions (Michael Ian Black/Michael Showalter, Harold Ramis being a few examples), at least half of the guts are barely worthy of a blog post. And that's a stretch, at best.

I think the primary failing is that many of the contributors write for the *screen*. Much of this would work as adapted SNL or Comedy Central sketches, but face-plant when consumed straight from paper.

Conclusion: Horrible value. Stand in the bookstore and read only sections of interest from the names you love. Do not buy.

[karenbee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't have much to say about this one; it's a collection of sarcastic/sometimes funny advice from The Believer's "Sedaratives" column. It does exactly what it says on the tin. There are a lot of comedians I like represented here, a bunch of Daily Show correspondents and people like Sarah Vowell, Aziz Ansari, and Amy Sedaris (of course). There were a few people I didn't recognize and a few I don't really like, but not as many as I expected.

The problem I had with You're a Horrible Person, But I Like You is that it was sort of boring, but not enough for me to put it down. Does that make sense? I read it in a couple of days, but about halfway through I realized that it should probably have been read in short bursts because it was too much of the same thing when read for an hour at a time, but I was already halfway through so I just wanted to finish it.

Not the worst "funny" thing I've ever read but I wouldn't classify it as hilarious, maybe amusing in moderation. It probably works better as a monthly feature.


(two-and-a-half stars)

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was just downright hilarious. And yet, In the same aspect, It was kind of dumb. I change my answer from a 5 star to a 3 star now, because after really thinking about it, I was pretty back and forth throughout the entire book. I do think I even skimmed over some of the questions and just read them without really taking in anything because I didn't really like/know the person who was answering them, or I just didn't seem to think they were funny. However, WHY is it that some of the stupidest questions came from people in Michigan? (I live in MI) I just felt like the state got dumber with each question. ANYWAY. This book is just....You have to read it. bottom line, You have to read it. If you like comedy in any way. Micheal Cera does a chapter, Sarah Sliverman, Rainn Wilson, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Micheal Ian Black...there's just so much comedy in this. I swear half the questions had to have been pranks just to see the answers. I definitely want to read the next one.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fail, book. I didn't strictly read every page or..."letter" (This book is just a bunch of fake advice letters with fake advice answers), but I did read/skim a lot. Also, I'm telling goodreads I read this last year so it wont count toward my 50 book goal of this year, b/c it doesn't deserve a spot. Okay? Okay.

It's just...not funny. There are a lot of funny people who contributed to this book, but...it's just the setup. Set them all up for unfunny failure. Judd Apatow's section was just him going like "Are these real letters? Should I be funny or sincere? I'm confused". Even that self awareness and meta-humor didn't make it funny. None of it was funny. I did not lol a single lol or even crack a smile. I guess that's the worst thing you can say about a book that's only goal is to be amusing. Not funny. 0/5 lulz do not recommend. Shut it down.

[Steven Pattison · Rating 2 out of 5]

The believer magazine has an advice column called "Sedaratives" - where everyday people write in for advice on literally anything and advice is dispensed by famous comedians, actors, directors and writers such as Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifankas, Judd Apatow - a collection of them from the magazine have been republished in this book.

I had such high hopes for this book but I found most of the questions to be more interesting and frankly funnier then the advice given by the "professionals". A few responses stood out, Paul Feig as well as the advice by Jim Gaffifgan and Bob Odenkirk were all extremely funny, but other than that I was hoping for much more from some of the talent featured in this book.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The format of this book is somewhat limiting - a collection of advice columns where a humorist answers a set of usually-inane questions - but the list of comedians they collected to do this is just staggering. There's an amazing slate of The State players, current and former Daily Show correspondents/writers, a surprisingly large number of movie directors, and a handful of my favorite stand-up comedians. While some of the columnists don't seem to do well with the format and some only have a limited number of ideas, the articles are fairly short and it's not long before you're reading another author's take on the idea. So, overall, it was (predictably) uneven and inconsistent, but there are some passages that are quite funny and memorable.