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A review by tessisreading2
Funny Guy by Emma Barry
3.0
Barry's writing is great, as always, and the hook of this one is fantastic - MMC Sam's ex-girlfriend, a British Taylor Swift analogue, wrote a hit song about their breakup that is everywhere and causing a lot of judgment - but the book on the whole was a flop for me. Two reasons, the first romance-related: Sam is an oxygen-sucking drama fest. He desperately needs therapy. He has a ton of issues which he ignores in favor of jumping from relationship to relationship while maintaining a codependent and frankly pretty exploitative friendship with his BFF, the FMC, Bree. He's charismatic and successful but has low self-esteem and is constantly self-sabotaging, while Bree - who is in love with him and acknowledges it to herself - struggles to help him maintain his interpersonal relationships while providing a never-ending stream of love and emotional support to his constant drama. Barry knows all of this, which is better than books where it's never acknowledged, but she can't make it actually work as a romance. Possibly a longer timeframe - in which Bree - would have been manageable, but this was not that.
Secondly, the book was so, so much Saturday Night Live fanfiction, and I read [b:Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood|62365904|Burn It Down Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood|Maureen Ryan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675644029l/62365904._SY75_.jpg|98193672] way too recently. Instead of Lorne Michaels, the boss is a female head of show who is crusty with a heart of gold; while actors and writers are assholes to newbies, Sam mentors them and the showrunner disapproves of the bullying behavior (but somehow can't stop it?). The cast is diverse and the meanies are less-talented white dudes, who aren't going to get anywhere in their careers. There is a pivotal comedy sketch which isn't actually very funny. I always have issues with books about sketch comedy because sketch comedy is hard to write, and Barry doesn't really do it well, but that in turn means that the focus of the parts of the book about Sam's job is, of necessity, his workplace rather than his work; and the real SNL is (per Ryan) so toxic and problematic that reading a lovey-dovey sanitized version of it wasn't something I found rewarding.
Spoiler
actually left Sam for a considerable period of time and built an independent life for at least a couple months, and Sam put in the necessary work, including therapy and managing his career instead of leaving it in the hands of the boss of his show and his agent ("you can fire me if you want!")Secondly, the book was so, so much Saturday Night Live fanfiction, and I read [b:Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood|62365904|Burn It Down Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood|Maureen Ryan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675644029l/62365904._SY75_.jpg|98193672] way too recently. Instead of Lorne Michaels, the boss is a female head of show who is crusty with a heart of gold; while actors and writers are assholes to newbies, Sam mentors them and the showrunner disapproves of the bullying behavior (but somehow can't stop it?). The cast is diverse and the meanies are less-talented white dudes, who aren't going to get anywhere in their careers. There is a pivotal comedy sketch which isn't actually very funny. I always have issues with books about sketch comedy because sketch comedy is hard to write, and Barry doesn't really do it well, but that in turn means that the focus of the parts of the book about Sam's job is, of necessity, his workplace rather than his work; and the real SNL is (per Ryan) so toxic and problematic that reading a lovey-dovey sanitized version of it wasn't something I found rewarding.