Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
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July 2019 Challenge
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Koren
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Jun 30, 2019 09:03AM
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Interesting challenge Koren, can't think of any humorous bios at the moment but am sure something will turn up....Although, I'm sure there was one in the childrens section on Dav Pilkey
He of Captain Underpants fame.
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Although, I'm sure there was one in the childrens section on [book:Dav Pilkey|176..."
That would probably work. The book itself doesn't have to be humorous. It could be about a comedian.
Humorous bios:Everything But Money
Bossypants
Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland
Life Among the Savages
Birds, Beasts and Relatives
Life Itself
Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir
What's So Funny?: My Hilarious Life
A Liar's Autobiography: Volume VI
Fishface wrote: "Humorous bios:Everything But Money
Bossypants
Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland
Life Among the Savages
[boo..."
Have read or tried to read Fresh off the Boat, but dont recall it being that funny. Maybe I didnt get all the in-jokes.
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700 Sundays by Billy Crystal
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumar
Robin Williams: A Biographyby Andy Dugan
7 Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin by James Sullivan
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That sounds like a fun book!
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Everything But Money
Bossypants
Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland
[book:Life Among the Sav..."
Selina, the book itself does not have to be funny. It can be a bio, autobio or memoir about someone who is funny.
Mod
5 stars
Bill Marx is the son of Harpo Marx, the silent member of the Marx Brothers, the one that played the Harp. Harpo Marx wrote a book entitledHarpo Speaks!, hence the title of Bill's book Son Of Harpo Speaks. Harpo was my favorite Marx Brother. I love his impishness. I was glad the book portrayed Harpo in a positive light and the love the son has for his father is palpable. Bill has led quite an interesting life himself. He was adopted at a young age and the story of finding his birth mother was very interesting. Bill seems to have inherited his musical talent and his sense of humor from his father, even though they are not biologically related. The story of his (Bill's) trip to the fertility doctor is laugh-out-loud funny!
Favourite part of My Laughable Life with Garfield: The Jon Arbuckle Chronicles when Jon tries it on with Liz the vet.By the way there Doc, what's your name?
Liz
Gee what a pretty name. Is that short for Elizabeth?
No. It's short for Lizard
Mod
4 stars
George Carlin is my all-time favorite comedian, so I was very interested in finding out what he was like as a father. I have to say I was a little disappointed. I would think he would be the most fun dad ever. A laugh a minute. Not so. He was largely an absent parent and when he was home he wasnt always present due to drug and alcohol use by him and his wife. His wife was the bigger drug and alcohol user and her mental issues kept her from being the best parent. But his love for his wife and daughter shine thru and I admired how they both stuck with their mom, which I think helped her conquer her vices. Daughter Kelly is an only child and I do think she often comes across as being a spoiled little rich girl. At times, she dwells on one thing too long. The story of her mother's death and later her father's and dealing with her grief were way too long and keeps the book from being a 5 star book for me, but if you are a fan I think you will enjoy this look behind the scenes. I was hoping this book would be funny and there were moments, and perhaps I shouldn't have expected this, as the author is not a comedian. At times it seemed this was a lot of name dropping (look who I know) but otherwise, I liked that she dealt with issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, spousal abuse, mental illness and grief.
I can't think if I have a favourite comedian...I wonder if I can put Spelling It Like It Is in this category. If I want to read something mindless...there's something funny about a poor little rich girl Tori Spelling trying to cope with 'normal' life on reality tv.
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I wonder if I can put Spelling It Like It Is in this category. If I want to read something mindless...there's something funny about a..."
I would not think Tori Spelling would fall under the category of humor but you do what you think best.
Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "I can't think if I have a favourite comedian...I wonder if I can put Spelling It Like It Is in this category. If I want to read something mindless...there's somethin..."
She's terribly neurotic, which is kinda funny. Her first memoir I found hilarious anyway cos she was poking lots of fun at herself. But otherwise, she's just crazy. Rich people have a different kind of crazy to normal people. They get away with more.
If anybody looking for ideas - From my “previously read” list I wouldn’t recommend the book “growing up laughing” by Marlo Thomas but I can highly recommend “the happiest refugee” by Anh Do.
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Why didnt you like the Marlo Thomas book, Rebecca? I loved watching 'That Girl' in the 60's. Amazon Prime has the old reruns and I still think it is a cute show, although a little lame by todays standards.
Found out Jenni Garth (Kelly Taylor from Beverly Hills 90210) also wrote a memoir. It's called Deep Thoughts From a Hollywood Blonde. I thought Tori Spelling was blonde, but then I remember there was Jenni too. It was Brenda (Shannen Doherty) who was the brunette one that everyone hated. Wonder if she has a sense of humour about that.
I fell down the rabbit hole of 90210 bios.Shannen did write a book. It's a self-help bio. Called Badass: A Hard-Earned Guide to Living Life with Style and (the Right) Attitude.
Oh dear. Not sure if it's meant to be funny.
The whole thing with Beverley Hills 90210 was that it was about rich high school kids taking life way too seriously. They had wrinkles and the world on their shoulders and they were meant to be in their teens.
Mod
5 stars
This is my second book about George Carlin this month. The first was by his daughter and was more subjective and this one is a biography that is more objective. I think the two work nicely together as the second book doesn't get very personal and the book by the daughter deals more with her perception of what her parents were like. There is not very much repetition between the two books although occasionally I would think that I had read about something in the first book but the perception would sometimes be a bit different. This book isn't funny but is written about one of the funniest men alive.
Koren I have no idea who this guy is but I watched this youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdYWQ...Mostly cos its only 6 minutes and I wanted to check him out.
He's not even funny, he's sad and angry about america. I don't know if people are really laughing or is the laugh track.
Also there ARE magazines for homeless people in UK called 'The Big Issue'. They sell it to make some money for themselves so they can eat.
In regards to low cost housing, maybe not golf courses, but in my city the polytech campus has actually sold most of its land for housing. It used to be a mental hospital with grounds. I'm not sure if its going to be 'low income' housing as most new developments are highly unaffordable.
I do know a bowling green that turned one of its unused greens into a community garden.
Every retirement village I've worked in seems to want to have a bowling green but now they are building huge retirement apartments. Only the rich can afford them.
We used to have public housing called Housing NZ but they aren't building any more state houses. Its all mostly privately owned homes now and some get rented out to low incomers but most landlords are quite reluctant to charge below market rate.
How can George Carlin be funny? I'm taking him seriously. How can we laugh at the USA being a warmongering nation? That's no joke. Thousands of people lose their lives and all people do is laugh at the tragedy of it?
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Mostly cos its only 6 minutes and I wanted to check him out.
He's not even funny,..."
Selina, I dont think you found the funniest Carlin video. I love his skits where he plays games with words. Carlin didnt do many political skits. I think he gets us to laugh at ourselves by showing us how ridiculous we are. He also does one making fun of people that say save the planet. He says its not the planet that needs saving, its the people. That one is actually kind of scary more than funny but he gets people to laugh at their own stupidity.
Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "Koren I have no idea who this guy is but I watched this youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdYWQ...Mostly cos its only 6 minutes and I wanted to check him out.
He's ..."
Ok maybe I will search for another vid.
A few nz comedians/humourists for you to check out (would non nzrs get their jokes? )
Lynn of Tawa
Billy T James
MIke King
Rhys Darby
The Topp Twins
Fred Dagg
RAybon Kan
Joe Bennett
My personal favourite was Billy T James.
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Mostly cos its only 6 minutes and I wanted to check h..."
Here is a different Carlin video you might like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00jwu...
Here is the Carlin video about saving the planet. You probably wont think it is funny. Its actually kind of scarey but makes you think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33H...
Baseball vs football - interesting. Baseball is America's cricket?Euphemisms - American political correctness, yep I always found American language confusing.
Where's the saving the planet??
I think he's more of a teacher than a comedian. Those euphemisms are hard to understand. He ought to teach an ESOL class. He would be excellent.
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Euphemisms - American political correctness, yep I always found American language confusing.
Where's the saving the planet??
I t..."
It looks like the second video I posted was the wrong one. I fixed it.
Selina, I would have no idea if baseball is similar to cricket. I have no idea what cricket is.
Baseball and cricket are somewhat similar.Baseball
Cricket
I think the discarded plastic bags will get their revenge by somehow killing everyone who's ever thrown them away.
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Koren wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "If anybody looking for ideas - From my “previously read” list I wouldn’t recommend the book “growing up laughing” by Marlo Thomas but I can highly recommend “the happiest refugee” b..."To answer your question Koren I can say that I too love “That Girl” and own all the episodes on DVD. I like that Marlo is a feminist, and made the first show on TV that had a woman as a main character. (Women in TV up til then had mainly been somebodies wife or daughter, in supporting roles, not the main character) Its a few years since I read her book but my overriding feeling was that her book was more about the people she knew rather than about her.
We have lots of Anh Do books in the library, called Weird Do. They are childrens books. I havent read any yet ...are they funny? Maybe I will read some and his memoir for this challenge.
Selina wrote: "We have lots of Anh Do books in the library, called Weird Do. They are childrens books. I havent read any yet ...are they funny? Maybe I will read some and his memoir for this challenge."
He has written numerous children’s books, but his book “the happiest refugee” is his autobiography - a bestseller in Australia and tells his (and his families) wonderfully interesting story with exactly the right level of humour and seriousness.
Selina, just check Carlin's Brain Droppings out of the library and take a gander. Not all his books are this funny but this one is great.Part of his humor is his crankiness about people's ignorance, but if you focus on the crankiness you miss all the satire.
Selina wrote: "I think the discarded plastic bags will get their revenge by somehow killing everyone who's ever thrown them away."What a great book that would make!!!
Mod
Part of his humor is his crankiness about pe..."
Excellent way to say it.
Mod
Update to my review of Bettyville: I finished this book on July 18. Just found out the author passed away on July 22. His mother must have passed away shortly after he wrote the book about her, as the book was published in 2015 and she died in 2015.
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
Books mentioned in this topic
Bettyville: A Memoir (other topics)Brain Droppings (other topics)
Brain Droppings (other topics)
Bettyville: A Memoir (other topics)
7 Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin (other topics)
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