Brown Paper Tickets uses cookies to provide the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy

Cookie Settings

Spit Take Saturday: Jim Gaffigan

Comedy >

Dad-is-Fat_photo_medium-311x470Welcome to Spit Take Saturday, courtesy of Brown Paper Tickets’ Comedy Doer Julie Seabaugh and her professional comedy criticism site The Spit Take. Julie’s goal with the site is to “elevate the public perception of stand-up comedy to that of a legitimate art form, and to enable comedy criticism be taken as seriously as that of theater, film, music, food, even video games. No a**-kissing. No bias. No mercy. Just honest, unfiltered, long-form reviews written by professional, knowledgeable comedy critics.” 

Every week Julie will select an entry from the site to be included on our blog and hand-pick some related events happening that week that she feels all you comedy lovers out there will appreciate.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

________________________

The name of Jim Gaffigan’s book on parenting comes from one of his two sons. The author is presumably Jack, the oldest, since Michael would have been little older than one at the time of Gaffigan’s writing. It’s hard to keep track of them all, since Gaffigan has five kids, a fact that surprises and challenges him, and also makes him very sleepy. And if it seems difficult to keep track of them in a book, imagine keeping track of them on the way to the park, walking or riding the subway, or even within a New York City apartment. That’s Gaffigan’s life as a father and the experience he chronicles in Dad Is Fat.


There’s a predictable craziness to Gaffigan’s story. The idea of a comedian who, in his act, professes his love of sleep and hate for books writes a book essentially about giving himself five full-time jobs could be a sitcom plot. He’s the stereotypical dad who doesn’t quite know what’s going on, who defers to his wife, whose children are smarter than he is, who is utterly at odds with the concept of parenting. But that would be an unrecognizable stereotype to Gaffigan. He looks around and sees parents who know what they’re doing, who are—in his estimation—smarter, more patient, and more capable.

Examine Gaffigan’s stage act. He plays up the dumb, lazy guy image for laughs. Dumb, lazy comics don’t write the quality of material Gaffigan does, and they don’t tour and produce specials and CDs like he does. They also don’t take five kids on a tour bus, and neither does a stereotypically aloof parent. Gaffigan may feel overwhelmed, but part of his message is that all parents feel similarly. And every once in a while, when he watches some of those other “perfect” parents, he sees them lose it and scream at their kids, and it makes him feel a little better.

Fat reveals the seams between Gaffigan’s comic persona and his true personality. There’s plenty of material adapted from his act, including much from 2012 special Mr. Universe (“Disney,” “McDonald’s,” “Hotel Pools,” “Shoes,” “Photos,” and it was only “4 Kids” at the time). There’s the aforementioned bewildered dad. And there’s a bevy of bad puns. But there’s also the guy who wouldn’t trade anything for one of his kids’ smiles, and the guy who fawns over his wife even though she feeds them organic junk food.

Gaffigan even gets close to wistful in the final chapter, a fine balance of the battling real Jim and comic Jim, when discussing the phrase “You’re going to miss this.” He understands that the phrase is really “a confession from these parents with older children that may not have taken enough time to appreciate the chaos.” There’s insight and compassion in that observation, and a tacit acknowledgment that however much he might protest, he enjoys the chaos, even if he can’t help but throw in a punchline.

By Nick A. Zaino III

Follow @SpitTakeComedy on Twitter or Like us on Facebook.

________________________

Like literary-minded laughs? Check out some upcoming events featuring fellow comedian-authors:

Wednesday, May 15 Writers Bloc Presents Marc Maron with Judd ApatowBeverly Hills, California  From standup to television to his popular podcast, “WTF with Marc Maron,” Maron is a disarmingly honest and intensely smart comic who finds wisdom in the strangest places. “Attempting Normal” is Maron’s journey through the wilderness of his own mind, a collection of painfully funny stories about hope and hopelessness, failing, flailing, and finding a way.

Saturday, May 25-Sunday, May 26 I Judy GoldProvincetown, Massachusetts  Emmy Award winning actress and comedian, Judy Gold is best known as the star of her two critically acclaimed long-running Off Broadway hit shows.

Saturday, July 13 I Margaret ChoCherry Grove, New York  After last year’s triumphant first full length show on Fire Island, Margaret returns for two shows with special guest diminutive actress/writer/burlesque artist/stand-up comic  Selena Luna.