- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (April 4 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345412931
- ISBN-13: 978-0345412935
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,200,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
A warning to readers: though Ben Stiller (Flirting with Disaster) and Janeane Garofalo (The Truth About Cats and Dogs) used to be a couple, do not confuse their advice book with Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul. This is more of a cross between James Thurber and E.B. White's satirical Is Sex Necessary? and MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head: Chicken Soup for the Butt.
The ex-couple give us alternating chapters of remarkably rambling, extravagantly ironic, showbiz-insider's philosophical musings, but they do discuss their actual relationship, just to let you know where they stand--right on your funny bone, exerting maximum pressure until you beg for mercy. After their breakup, writes Garofalo, "We agreed that in the future we would only meet for professional purposes, or if we were drunk and felt like having emotionally destructive sex."
This faux tome (also read by the authors on audiocassette) is a meeting of the minds for professional purposes. But again, don't be fooled by what these wily authors say! The intriguing chapters referred to in the opening pages--"Why Can't I Sleep Around and Still Love You?"; "How to Fake an Orgasm to Show Your Love, or The Art of the Squeal"; "Negotiating with God for What You Want--and Getting It!"; "Pros and (Very Few) Cons of a Third Party in the Bedroom"--these chapters do not in fact exist! What does exist is a dog's breakfast of jokes from a pair of clowns. Read it and weep, but heed it at your peril. --Tim Appelo --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Television-bred celebrities as humor authorsAthe likes of Paul Reiser and Drew CareyAhave used spoken audio as a means to help establish their literary audiences. Books on tape offer a natural conduit for such actors' messages, better, often, than the print versions. Stiller and Garofalo, both young, sophisticated and genuinely funny film actors, go a step further, parodying one of audio's nonfiction staples: self-help tapes. They start with dry disclaimers, stating that they are celebrities and so know nothing of psychology, then describe calls from their agents asking them to record "a funny audiobook about relationships." Taking the classic he-said/she-said format, the two trade off with first-person vignettes that tell a modern love story, with all its "mistakes." Stiller tells of going home with Garofalo to meet "her people" in Nutley, N.J. She counters with descriptions of his goofy behavior once there. The humor is deadpan, with a bitingly sarcastic undercurrent. There is good chemistry between the pair, lending to a sense of playfulness and spontaneity often absent from audio programs. Stiller and Garofalo know their audience wellAand just how to play them. Based on the 1999 Ballantine hardcover. Also available on CD. (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I felt this Book,
By
This review is from: Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfac tion (Hardcover)
I felt this book. Not just felt it, like holding it, I mean you have to hold a book to read it, but what I mean is I loved this book. It helped me get in touch with my inner comedian, the guy inside of me who wants to host a radio talk show and make $10,000,000 starring in a motion picture. Every chapter is hysterically funny. Well, not every chapter. The one by Ben Stiller having a guardian angel who looked like Hoss Cartwright is kind of like a bad sketch comedy bit that goes no where, but everything else in the book is right on and cool, to quote hip seventies language.I guess it is kind of wierd to be praising a book five years after it came out and everybody else reviewed it five years ago. Okay, so I'm a little behind, but so what? Maybe this book was ahead of its time, maybe its time is now. Maybe Ben Stiller and Janeane Garafolo, Garofolo, Garofalo's time is now. They seem to be doing pretty well, Janeane is doing that terrific radio talk show and Ben is making a movie every other month, and I see all of them. Well, I didn't see the recent one with Jack Black, but that was in and out of the theater in like two days, but I did see "Meet the Parents" twice in the movies and twice on TV, and I'm waiting for the sequel which I have heard Barbara Streisand is going to be in. Anyways this book has really helped me. It hasn't helped me to sell any of my thirteen screenplays which nobody has bought, but it has helped me to see being pathetic as a source of humor. That's good and amazing. Well, maybe not amazing, but interesting. And believe it or not I finished it in one afternoon, and I never did finish that book by Ellen Degeneris. Maybe, I'll finish that book today and write a review of it.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Just Plain Awful,
By
This review is from: Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction (Paperback)
I've never really been a fan of Ben Stiller, but I picked this one up for Janeane's writing. Unfortunately, neither one of them delivered. While Janeane's writing was a bit better than Ben's, it was still pretty horrific. Between the two of them, they couldn't even get a mild chuckle out of me. Definitely not worth the time or effort.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Feel This Review,
By adead_poet@hotmail.com "adead_poet@hotmail.com" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction (Paperback)
The title, a pun on Abbie Hoffman's book, _Steal This Book_ (Garofalo did play Hoffman's wife in the movie, Steal this Movie). And it goes from there. I honestly expected to really like this book. I find Stiller to be hilarious, and Garofalo is funny as well as an excellent 'social conscience' and I might have grown up with a crush on her. The two make an excellent team, and I figured between their wit, intelligence, and what they have to say, that this would be a great book. Alas, that is not the case. It's in the humor section, and the book tries too hard to be funny (unlike Seinfeld's Seinlanguage, which is Jerry writing, and without effort, being interesting and funny). I was a little worried that Garofalo's politics would get in the way, but I figured Stiller would help keep her under control, keep it from being too preachy. But the book tried too hard to be funny (and you can never quite tell if they are being serious or 'funny'--knowing their beliefs and politics). It starts with a false table of contents, which I missed at first, and after I 'discovered' it, I thought it would annoy me, but it did not. Then there is the tounge in cheek Acknowledgements, followed by a Preface by Stiller and a Foreward by Garofalo. Then the book goes downhill. There is a warning about copies the book, based on the FBI warnings on video tapes. This is one of those cases where you aren't quite sure if this duo is being humorous, serious, or some combination of the two. Then you get rotating chapters written by one or the other. They just tried too hard to be funny, and it comes off forced. And you would have hoped that their appendices would have been a little serious, to get an idea of what books, movies, etc really did influence them. But no. I had worried about it being too preachy, but unfortunately, it wasn't serious enough. There is a fine line between parody and mediocre humor. It's tough to stay on the right side of the line.
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