This Will Be Funny Later

A Memoir

By: Jenny Pentland

Narrated by: Jenny Pentland

A funny, biting, and entertaining memoir of coming of age in the shadow of celebrity and finding your own way in the face of absolute chaos that is both a moving portrait of a complicated family and an exploration of the cost of fame.

Growing up, Jenny Pentland’s life was a literal sitcom. Many of the storylines for her mother’s smash hit series, Roseanne, were drawn from Pentland’s early family life in working-class Denver. But that was only the beginning of the drama. Roseanne Barr’s success as a comedian catapulted the family from the Rockies to star-studded Hollywood—with its toxic culture of money, celebrity, and prying tabloids that was destabilizing for a child in grade school.

By adolescence, Jenny struggled with anxiety and eating issues. Her parents and new stepfather, struggling to help, responded by sending Jenny and her siblings on a grand tour of the self-help movement of the ’80s—from fat camps to brat camps, wilderness survival programs to drug rehab clinics (even though Jenny didn’t take drugs). Becoming an adult, all Jenny wanted was to get married and have kids, despite Roseanne’s admonishments not to limit herself to being just a wife and mother.

In this scathingly funny and moving memoir, Pentland reveals what it’s like to grow up as the daughter of a television star and how she navigated the turmoil, eventually finding her own path. Now happily married and raising five sons on a farm, Pentland has worked tirelessly to create the stable family she never had, while coming to terms at last with her deep-seated anxiety.

This Will Be Funny Later is a darkly funny and frank chronicle of transition, from childhood to adulthood and motherhood—one woman’s journey to define herself and create the life she always wanted.

This is funny now

Great listening for a child of the 80's. I love finding out everyone wacky back then was wacked out on goofballs.

Review

Great story! I never knew the author struggled so much as a teen. Overall interesting listen.

I loved this book, Thank you for Sharing

I grew up watching Rosanne with my Mom, Step dad and Sister in the 90s, I also remember the "Tom Arnold scandal" and watching "She Devil". I had no idea Rosanne used her life and kids as inspiration for the show Rosanne. All I knew was the show was relatable. Their house looked like our house. They seemed like a real family and I appreciated that. I was a few years younger than Rosannes kids (on and off screen) but it still resonated with me. Thank you so much for sharing Jenny. I really appreciated the things you've shared that you may not of shared much or Said out loud before writing this book. (although much of your life was already out there, I know this was so much more intimate) In the last hour of the book you shared recent health changes and feelings you had as you became a different person and needed to lean on your husband more than you had needed to before and how you felt. I have had a very similar experience in the last 2yrs with my own health. I dealt with my Trauma when I was younger and became the one to take care of it all (home, work,bills, Pets instead of kids) and it all came screeching to a stop. Trauma I thought I had dealt with resurfaced and I have felt the exact way you described feeling. Thank you.

LOVE

I laughed, I cried, I was in utter shock. Jenny is such a good writer and I would love to listen to another book soon!

AMAZING

Hilariously raw, truly amazing how she was able to be so vulnerable about her life even after everything she had been through and having to relive the trauma through writing this book. But also do it in a way that has me thinking and laughing out loud.