Not Quite a Genius

June 15, 2017
A collection of stories, essays, and sketches from the senior writer of Funny or Die. For a sampling of sketches from this debut collection, see "If I Have to Shit During the 5K Charity Run, I'm Just Going to Do It," "I'm Not an Asshole, I'm Just an Introvert," "How Many Farts Measure a Life?" or "Only Six of My Seven Kids Have Whooping Cough, So I'm Staying Anti-Vax." The author, who, before Funny or Die, was the artistic director of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, stuffs his first book with absurdities and silliness, almost like an anthology of lower-brow "Shouts & Murmurs" segments from the New Yorker. Some of the sketches--e.g., "I Like All Types of Music and My Sense of Humor Is So Random" or "As the Toothbrush You Just Threw Away, I Have Some Questions about the Seven 12-Ounce Mountain Dews in Your Trash"--are genuinely funny. Others are less so, creating an unevenness that is common in such collections. Sometimes the joke is in the title, and the rest of the piece feels like padding. However, the author also includes a scattering of personal essays throughout the book, and for many readers, these will be the most engaging. In "Predator Prey," Dern describes the "joy in being the willing dupe," as when he visited Tunisia after college and was manipulated by a young local man. Unfortunately, Dern doesn't go as deeply into the subject as readers may hope, and that's the overall problem with this collection: he tends to skate along on the surface without digging for more. In the first piece, "Which One Are You?" the author describes his appearance on the reality show Beauty and the Geek and his lifelong quest for attention: "I like attention. I like it too much, so I do dumb things to get it." In his first book, Dern shoots for the easy laughs, some of which he hits; however, he falls short of creating the lasting ones.

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July 1, 2017
Dern is a seasoned comedy writer who rose to success with the Upright Citizens Brigade, in New York City, later penning sketch videos for Funny or Die. His first book is a raucous mash-up of fondly remembered, humiliating anecdotes and fictional tales chronicling the humor and irony of the American digital age. In his first essay, he recounts the decision to compete on the early aughts reality show Beauty and the Geek. An undying thirst for attention and classic nerdy-boy features made him the perfect catch for the wickedly stereotyping matchmaking show. In one fictional piece, he supplies the stream-of-consciousness speech that Walt Whitman might employ had he taught a modern spin class. In another, his recently thrown-out toothbrush writes Dern an angry letter about the number of Mountain Dew cans trashed alongside it. The mix of memoir and fabricated musings creates a fast-paced amusement-park ride through the inner workings of Dern's mind. Funny, imaginative, anthropomorphic, and painfully honest, Dern's stories and essays are impossible to forget.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)