Dad Is Fat

Jim Gaffigan

2013 • 290 pages

Ratings54

Average rating3.8

Jim Gaffigan never imagined he would have his own kids. Though he grew up in a large Irish-Catholic family, Jim was satisfied with the nomadic, nocturnal life of a standup comedian, and was content to be "that weird uncle who lives in an apartment by himself in New York that everyone in the family speculates about." But all that changed when he married and found out his wife, Jeannie "is someone who gets pregnant looking at babies." Five kids later, the comedian whose riffs on everything from Hot Pockets to Jesus have scored millions of hits on YouTube, started to tweet about the mistakes and victories of his life as a dad. Those tweets struck such a chord that he soon passed the million followers mark. But it turns out 140 characters are not enough to express all the joys and horrors of life with five kids, so he's now sharing it all in Dad Is Fat. From new parents to empty nesters to Jim's twenty-something fans, everyone will recognize their own families in these hilarious takes on everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to growing up in a big family ("I always assumed my father had six children so he could have a sufficient lawn crew") to changing diapers in the middle of the night ("like The Hurt Locker but much more dangerous") to bedtime (aka "Negotiating with Terrorists"). Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.

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hc.newton

It's been years – almost decades since I last read a book by a stand-up comedian. I used to love them – you get their act, usually expanded – if not, at least more of it then you got to see on TV in Idaho. If you were familiar enough with the comedian, it was almost automatic to hear their voice in your head as you read. Always liked them, just ran out of time/money.

But I've been feeling the pull towards Jim Gaffigan's Dad is Fat for awhile now, so when Blogging for Books offered me a copy, I jumped on it. Which was a good move on my part – this is a funny book.

Not a a surprise, I realize. Still, it is good to see that he can transfer his humor to the page (you can never be sure). A good deal of the material – but not all – is adapted from his stand-up, and that's funny enough. But the rest is just as good – if not better, because it's fresher and in a different medium, so he can do other kinds of humor. I laughed out loud more than a few times, and had to resist reading the entire thing to whoever happened to be near-by.

But frequently, Gaffigan sets the jokes aside to talk about being a parent, the choices that women and men make to do that – how so many don't understand why people do that. He defends the choices his faily made to have kids, to have as many as they have, and to have home births. He doesn't stop joking as he does this, but they do take a back seat to what he's talking about though (while serving as the proverbial spoonful of sugar to help). These points are where the book is the strongest, he doesn't attack those who disagree, rather he says this is what they've decided to do, let them follow their own convictions and stay out of their way. Which doesn't seem so much to ask, but we all know better. He takes a simple, commonsense approach to this stuff – he doesn't get too esoteric or philosophical, just a simple, pragmatic “this is what we did, and it works for us.” My esteem for he and his wife/writing partner increased after reading this book.

They're short essays, and I wouldn't recommended reading too many of them in one sitting – just a few at a time to keep it fresh and funny.

If anyone in the world actually remembered the book, I'd compare this to Paul Reiser's [b:Babyhood|232335|Babyhood|Paul Reiser|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385179797s/232335.jpg|2551993] but from a different angle. It has a similar mix of humor and sentiment on the same topic. Dad is Fat has a lot of laughs, some warming of the heart, and so many lines that I want to quote, I'd cross into copyright infringement if I tried. Give it a whirl, even if you don't have kids, you'll probably enjoy this.

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Note:I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. Which was generous and cool of them, but didn't impact what I said about the book.