Ah, to be young and funny again. I am one of those old curmudgeons who looks around the multiplex nowadays and whines, “Where are all the comedies anymore?” Just kidding, there is almost zero chance I go to the movies anymore. I always end up next to someone on their phone, talking to their date, or, heaven help me, a seemingly unsupervised child.
However, the golden age of comedies came flooding back to me as I read Funny Business by Matt Singer. In summary, Ben Stiller is the reason for it. No, not entirely, but way more than you would think. Singer walks through how a few key players were responsible for the beloved comedies like Wedding Crashers, Anchorman, and Zoolander. For the young readers, yes, these are classics.
There is a fair bit of insight into each actor and the movies. However, I think this book has a very specific target demographic. It won’t appeal to older audiences since they don’t have the emotional connection to these movies. For younger audiences, they have their own classics. Even for the perfect customer (read: me), there is quite a bit you will have heard elsewhere. I think Singer does a good job with what he has. For this to be a must-read for everyone, he probably needed to dig up some deeper dirt while also finding a more universal “so what?” that he could answer. Either way, if this looks like something you want to read, then I am pretty sure you should.
(This book was provided as an advanced reader copy by NetGalley.)
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.