Mr. Funny Pants by Michael Showalter

Mr. Funny Pants by Michael Showalter is a sort of memoir about Michael and how he wrote a book. How interesting can a book about writing a book really be though? Find out if Michael was able to pull it off (or perhaps not).

Book Description
“I was at my wit's end. I'd had enough of this job, this life, and my relationship had broken up. Should I eat chocolate, or go to India, or fall in love? Then I had a revelation: Why not do all three, in that order? And so it was that I embarked on a journey that was segmented into three parts and was then made into a major motion picture. Later, I woke up on an airplane with a hole in my face and a really bad hangover. I was ushered brusquely off the plane by my parents who took me to a rehab where I tested positive for coke, classic coke, special k (the drug), Special K (the cereal), mushrooms, pepperoni, and Restless Leg Syndrome. It was there that I first began painting with my feet.

But rewind...the year was 1914. I was just a young German soldier serving in the trenches while simultaneously trying to destroy an evil ring with some help from an elf, a troll, and a giant sorcerer, all while cooking every recipe out of a Julia Child cookbook. What I'm trying to say is that there was a secret code hidden in a painting and I was looking for it with this girl who had a tattoo of a dragon! Let me clarify, it was the 1930s and a bunch of us were migrating out of Oklahoma, and I was this teenage wizard/CIA operative, okay? And, um then I floated off into the meta-verse as a ball of invisible energy that had no outer edge...

Ugh, okay. None of this is true. I'm just kind of a normal guy from New Jersey who moved to New York, got into comedy, wrote this book about trying to write this book, and then moved to Alaska, became the mayor of a small town, spent $30,000 on underwear, and now I'm going to rule the world!!!” – Mr. Funny Pants


My Thoughts
Mr. Funny Pants is a comedic look at how Michal Showalter writes a book and looks back at his life (among other random things). I was excited to read a funny book about anything really, but sadly, it really didn’t quite live up to my expectations on a “funny book.” It doesn’t have a good flow, is choppy, and to be quite honest I’ve read funnier
Blog posts by more talented writers.

Reading through Mr. Funny Pants is really more like reading an on-going diary by Michael about how he thinks a book that is funny should be and showcasing his procrastination. I didn’t find it very funny and the stories included that were supposed to be funny were really quite pointless.

Unless you are a huge Michael Showalter fan, or know him somehow, this probably wouldn’t be a very good book to pick up and enjoy.


* Thank you to the publisher of Mr. Funny Pants, Grand Central Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.