Comedy is a relative thing. A joke that inspires uncontrollable laughter in one person could end up deeply offending another. With her relentlessly enduring potty mouth, Sarah Silverman is one of those comedians for whom one usually has either deep affection or deep disdain — her crude sense of humor is pretty hard to be neutral about. But in her new memoir, “The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee,” Silverman proves there is more to her than just some foul doody jokes. Behind her off-the-wall brand of comedy is a woman who has worked hard to get where she is and who will never go down without a fight (there’s a joke in there somewhere).
“The Bedwetter” is basically Silverman’s memoirs from her youth up until the present. She explores everything from her early decision to become a vegetarian (watching a turkey have its throat slit open on Thanksgiving will have that effect on a young girl) to her days as part of the “Saturday Night Live” crew. Silverman also unveils a few bits of information most of the general public has not, up until now, been privy to, such as the bedwetting problem she weirdly endured into her teens and her early struggle with depression.
Even though she proclaims fairly early on that, compared to many other celebrities, her life has only been moderately messed up, the girl’s still got some pretty odd stories to tell. And while it would be easy to believe that Silverman does a bit of exaggerating in the retelling of these tales, the photographs that accompany many of these stories lead the reader to believe she is sincere. Either way, there is entertainment to be found with every turn of the page, so exaggeration or not, she delivers a solid piece of fascinating prose.
In “The Bedwetter,” Silverman delivers anecdotes from her past — such as stabbing Al Franken in the head with a pencil — with such charm and nonchalance, it’s hard not to have a newfound respect for her. Here, the comedian defends herself against some of the more explosive media stories she’s been involved in, like a joke that was met with outrage from the Asian-American community, with genuine intelligence and logic.
Silverman’s voice in this book comes across as extremely relatable and likable. Her matter-of-fact narrative shows a new, unexpected, side of the comedic doyenne, and her honesty about everything from her past recreational drug use to her sex life is downright refreshing. It would be easy for a potential reader to assume “The Bedwetter” would be full of filthy jokes about bathrooms and Judaism, but in reality, it is the story of a pretty interesting life of a strong, if not a little quirky, woman. And anyway, the afterword is supposedly written by God, so that’s a pretty good endorsement. Silverman will always be true to herself, and like her or not, she’s made a name for herself the hard way-actually working for it.
Rating: W W W W
| Tweet | Follow @wkdr |
|
|
