Does This Make Me Funny?

Essays

By: Zosia Mamet

Narrated by: Zosia Mamet

From the singular mind of Zosia Mamet, a collection of charmingly witty and achingly vulnerable essays about the challenge and magic of growing up in show business

You may know Zosia Mamet from her role as Shoshanna on Girls, or for being one of Hollywood’s original nepo babies (or as she says, “So if I’m a nepo baby I’m like a B minus one at best and maybe not even a full one. I’m like a nepo baby lite, a nepito baby, if you will”).

What you might not know is that as a toddler she visited theaters where her mom was rehearsing and crawled around on the floor, scrunching herself between seats; that she earnestly believed in Santa Claus for way too long; that she spent years navigating body image issues in hopes of finding elusive self-love; and that she was so overwhelmed and overjoyed when finally meeting her idol David Sedaris that she hid in the bathroom and melted into a “glitter puddle.”

The essays in Does This Make Me Funny? introduce us to Zosia Mamet in all her glory—from her early days growing up in literary and dramatic circles, to her years as a young adult pining for acceptance and love, to her first attempts to make it as an actor, to where she and Shosh are now. A gripping, funny, and earnest look at what it means to be a girl in the world and how to define yourself amid the bustle of show business, Does This Make Me Funny? is a captivating debut from a natural-born storyteller.

Unrelatable

I see what you did there?
Does this make you funny?
No. br />First of all, I've never found you funny
But now I find you fully unrelatable.
Every character you've ever played was just an anorexic Woody Allen neurotic knock-off....
Which I thought was just a shtick
But you went out of your way to point out that any industry person that asked you to stretch yourself to be anything other than your authentic self in any way in your show business career was totally traumatizing for you...despite the fact that your chosen career is actress.
I love that Lena Dunham let you play you against the realness of her own neurosis. Brilliant! But also, did anyone ever zoom out...it's kinda just a scripted version of like, young real housewives
And yeah, white privelege is hilarious, but ultimately, it is ridiculous. These are not real problems. These are first world problems. And you talking incessantly about your first world problems in poetry slam cadence is not a good look my dear.
On the other hand, hypocritically, I'm trying to lose 10lbs without Ozempic and your book is giving me great old school anorexia inspo....I'm telling myself I'm gross and fat..and it's working!!! Thanks for the refresh on old school unassisted anorexia!!!
You called your baby "a parasite" and you coulda made that sound funny but you didn't....you said it seriously
You chose your OB based on the recommendation of the pencil thin models you adored, so what did you expect?
Don't try to gaslight us
I can't even find one picture of you the least bit chubby on the internet at any age. So stop acting like this is anything other than your own faux white girl trauma. As you admit, your dysmorphia...what a privelege to delusion yourself a trauma.

I try to read/listen to books to escape the prevalence of this in reality tv, etc. But ok, I got it in book pages; it's got the same audacious quality and I guess that's entertaining at a mid level.

Loved this!!

I can see why people might roll their eyes at the problems of a successful actress, but Zosia Mamet is very careful, in my opinion, to acknowledge her privilege and dig deep into experiences that are very relatable, even for me who could be her (young) mother. Sharing what she has gone through will help people I know. It’s funny and sad and rips your heart out and then sends a big hug.
Enjoyed it very much.

Disappointing

I have listened to 50 + bio/memoirs this year and this was the only one I almost didn’t finish. I’m telling you some of the others were tedious. ( Kevin Federline, Demi Moore, Drew Barrymore etc) but this took the cake. I have no idea why the word Funny is in the title. It’s not. At all. It’s vignette after vignette of someone wrapped up in being a victim in every avenue of their life. ( Bullied in elementary school, hated by agents, used by every man she’s slept with) with no sense of growth or learning or anything meaningful never mind amusing. And the halting cadence of each line read by the author ended up like nails on a chalkboard. ( not her voice - just the stressing of every word for - I guess- dramatic effect?) I really really wanted to like this book. I really really did not.

Every other sentence is, like, a question?

I’m sorry, I’m a millennial woman, too. But the author narrates her essays as if she’s not sure the reader likes her. I know she’s from California, but plenty of people from LA don’t sound like teenaged valley girls. The essays were almost as vapid and grating as the narration.